Turning houses into homes for Hohepa Hawkes Bay

Tobias and Whetū were both built by Platinum Homes for children in Hohepa’s residential care. Hohepa supports children and adults with intellectual disabilities – providing schooling, day programmes and residential care throughout the country.

Platinum Homes was approached to build the two new children’s homes and we worked closely with Hohepa to customise the design to ensure the homes have everything the children need.

Finding the right balance between practicality and comfort was an important challenge for the build. Care facilities can feel cold and clinical, so it was important to ensure the buildings feel warm and homely.

Some of the children struggle with sensory processing, making some spaces challenging; while others can be hypersensitive to different lights, colours and sounds – making colour choices and spatial design a crucial part of designing and building the homes.

We needed to create areas for children to have some time out to calm down and be alone for a while. We achieved this with oversized sliding doors – effectively moving walls – to create breakaway spaces within rooms.

Each child has different colours that help them feel at ease in their space, which is why their bedroom is painted specially for them in the colour of their choice – from pastel purple, to sea green.

Each home has an office, a medical room, solar power and underfloor heating.

We’re committed to ensuring these homes meet all the requirements of Hohepa and the people they support. To make sure that happens we’ll be providing any maintenance support for the new buildings for the next year.

Tobias and Whetū were officially opened by Minister for Children Tracey Martin and Napier MP Stuart Nash – watched by an enthusiastic gathering of Hohepa families.

“It’s always a great day when a family moves into their new home, but it was even better to see so many happy faces at the opening of these two new homes,” says Platinum Homes Chief Executive Dave Andrew.

“We’re excited to be building a further three Hohepa homes in the Hawkes Bay. These homes will also be customised for their adult residents and achieving that goal presents some new exciting challenges for our team. Each home will be completely wheelchair accessible – right down to lower kitchen benchtops.

“Platinum Homes is proud to create more than just buildings for the Hohepa community – we’re creating homes that we hope they enjoy for years to come.”