Keargn Tito

Designing for Continuity, Care and Change.

My project explored how architecture can not only hold life, but care for it too. The brief was to reimagine my grandparents' house in Kaiaua, New Zealand, a place built by my great-grandfather that has held generations of our family. I aimed to extend the house’s capacity for togetherness, while making space for growth, privacy, and accessibility, without stripping the traces of what always made it home.

I considered the house as a living document of lineage and care. Each space was designed around a leading memory: the dining room as a place of ritual and conversation, the kitchen for learning and collaboration, and the living room for togetherness. I crafted furniture and artefacts inspired by personal memories, fish hooks recalling our childhood life jacket pins, an orange pendant referencing the big backyard orange tree, and a shoe rack that restores order without erasing the chaos, and the bedside unit to display treasures of our family.

Throughout the design process, I worked through memory, material, and making, guided by manaakitanga (the act of care and belonging). This is not a preservation project, it is not a restoration, it is an act of continuation. It shelters not only our bodies, but our stories too. Every fallen orange from the tree, every go cart path on the grass, every fleck of paint stained on the driveway, every faded towel in the cupboards, and every colourful plate on the shelves. This project honours the past, adapts for the present, and allows space for what is still to come.