Allan ClaytonM.Arch (Professional)
All projects
Aerial architectural rendering of Sky Frame House, a timber-clad tower with an open roof structure and a glazed wing extending into dense bush.

Architectural design

Sky Frame House

An unbuilt house for a steep Ngaio hillside, lifting its living spaces toward the sky and bridging back into the surrounding native bush.

Sky Frame House from above

Project record

Date
2025
Context
Self-directed architectural design project
Role
Sole designer — design, planning response, CAD documentation and visualisation
Recognition
Selected for Paparahi, Victoria University of Wellington School of Architecture 50th-anniversary exhibition, 2025.

Project

The house sits on a steep Ngaio hillside and takes its cue from an unlikely precedent: a 1911 belltower by the Wellington architect Frederick de Jersey Clere. What it borrows is the campanile type, a solid earthbound base carrying a light open-air belvedere at the top. Four floors rise to that lookout, and the main living spaces extrude rearward as a bridge into the native reserve behind.

The site is steep and tightly controlled: maximum height, height in relation to boundary, site coverage and subdivision were all binding at once. The tower is the form that fits inside the envelope they leave. Vertical shiplap timber, exposed rafters and galvanised steel give the house a direct, enduring construction language.

I set the project for myself and took it through on my own: planning response, design, CAD documentation, and the visualisations on this page. It is unbuilt.

Front architectural rendering of Sky Frame House on a steep bush-covered hillside, with an exterior stair and glazed living wing extending behind the tower.
The tower and bridge into the bush
Interior rendering of the top-floor dining space, showing exposed rafters, suspended shelving and warm timber finishes.
Top-floor living space beneath the open roof structure
Daylight interior rendering of Sky Frame House, looking across the dining space toward suspended timber shelving, full-height glazing and the open roof structure.
Daylight across the top-floor living space