Acknowledging prevailing winds and orientation by siting the long slender plan just below the hilltop is very obviously a successful decision, and the proposed home garden planting is now under way. I am optimistic that this house will cause locals and new settlers to reconsider their altogether redundant top of the ridge siting traditions. Stock flies were not evident during our visit admittedly there was a stiff breeze so maybe siting just below the ridge will work as a general limitation for the whole community. Do not be surprised, then, if Ocean View one day is cited not as some recollection of a national archetype but as one of a very few late 20th century rural buildings that looked to the future with a sure sense of architectural purpose. The elongated plan is carefully balanced, a pleasure to experience.
Architectural space is used so sparingly, despite the apparently unlimited site dimensions.
Ocean View , however, is a building that will require, because of much fine section and exposed timber detailing, careful and regular maintenance. Weathering will need to be anticipated, just like it is for its recognisably Scandinavian and Japanese predecessors. I suppose demonstrable maintenance is consistent with the country house as a rural retreat owners will want to lavish the days on regular upkeep that their first-generation neighbours never could spare. This is a very successful quality for such an isolated building. Likewise the spare elegance of leadlight glazing to the dining alcove at Ocean View perfectly complements its spatial importance without killing off the adjoining more prosaic materials, which are used throughout with much ingenuity and respect for their various characteristics.