Designed and built using discarded construction materials and building waste, this transportable studio is more than just a small space-it’s a celebration of reuse, reinvention, and generosity. Upon completion, it was listed on TradeMe, with 100% of proceeds donated to charity.

It may look right at home here-resting on soft grass between a proud eucalyptus, native flaxes, and the lake’s glimmering edge-but this idyllic backdrop is only a momentary pause in its journey. Its usual home is far more urban: snugly slotted in front of my house, pressed between a first-floor deck, a driveway, and a row of determined griselinias-where the team at Nine Thirty Architecture spent one day a week over 17 months designing and constructing the studio. But for one sunny afternoon, it took a field trip to a local park for a photoshoot, with charity as its muse.

As you approach across the soft grass and the crunch of eucalyptus leaves, the studio’s recycled story gradually reveals itself. A striking green vertical frame envelops the form like a hand cradling an apple. This supporting structure is assembled from reclaimed fence palings and old decking joists, while sun-shielding cedar cavity battens-once unwanted-now provide practical shading beneath.

Then there’s the corrugated iron cladding, rich with character. Dented, rusted, and perforated with history, its patchwork of old paint and screw holes tells stories of a past life spent sheltering farm equipment and livestock from the elements. It’s perfectly imperfect.