It started with a request for a window seat, and turned into a tower. Nick Jensen and Andrea Miller had lived in their beloved Eastbourne bungalow, high on the hill and backing into the East Harbour Regional Park, for 12 years when they felt like they needed more room.

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Initially, they approached Sam Brown of Arête Architects to work on a window seat – but the conversation quickly evolved into how to add much-needed extra room. “It became evident that they were going to need more than that,” he says.

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The bungalow is small, with living areas upstairs: the family of four was sharing two bedrooms downstairs. There were other issues too. Entry into the place is up a long, steep flight of stairs through the bush, and straight into the kitchen. The house had no front porch – no liminal space in which to pause and take cover from the elements.

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With almost no buildable land, Brown’s solution to all of this was a new tower, with a three-by-three-metre footprint, attached to the house via a lockable, but not completely enclosed, entry area built from timber and polycarbonate. On the ground floor: a new bedroom for one of the children. On the next floor, a studio for Miller. And on the top, a roof deck to provide a viewing platform.

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The next challenge? How to get it to site. The street below is narrow, with limited parking; the house is reached up a shared path. Standard construction would not only be disruptive for the entire neighbourhood, but time-consuming and therefore expensive, not to mention potentially damaging to the bush.

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Eventually, Brown resolved to prefabricate the building, and bring it in by helicopter – something he’d seen in Aoraki Mount Cook at the recently installed Beetham Hut. “As designers, it changed our approach from the outset,” he says. “Everything had to be so carefully considered.” He turned to Makers Fabrication, who built the tower in three pieces in their factory, including a waterproof membrane. This allowed them to limit waste and visits to site, and build it under cover.

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To reduce costs, Jensen – along with family and friends – spent a summer digging out a platform and establishing foundations for the tower by hand, while the structure was built off site. The day dawned calm and clear; the neighbourhood was warned, and this little family watched from a couple of streets away as their new tower was picked up and dropped onto its foundation. The house was watertight inside a day, with a timber rainscreen being added after.

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Now, you come up those stairs and into the covered area. Daughter Holly’s room is straight ahead. Originally, the room was meant for her older sister Tui. In the end, Holly moved out there as soon as she was able – before her bunk bed was even in position. Then aged seven, she was completely unfazed by the fact you go outside to get to her room.

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You can see why. Inside, there’s exposed framing and plywood lining. The views are through trees to the harbour. “I love the sense of nostalgia it invokes,” says Brown. “It feels like a childhood treehouse – I just love how comforting it is.”

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The Miller-Jensen whānau is delighted with the extra room, and the novelty of a tower in the bush. “We’re just so lucky,” says Miller. “Some people think we’re mad living up here, but we just think it’s really special.” Even more so now.