The Martin House and Kamaka Pottery are located close to the settlement of Bridge Pa, 10 kilometres east of Hastings on the Heretaunga Plain. Maori knew the pa as Korongata and before the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake it was sited on the banks of Te Awa Ateaatua stream. In the nineteenth century Pakeha settlers bridged the creek and used it as a resting point and watering hole for stock travelling to market in Hastings. Unable (or unwilling) to pronounce Korongata, they renamed the settlement Bridge Pa. After the quake the stream dried up and the bridge was demolished. By then pastoralism dominated the district - sheep and beef cattle - but the high pumice content of the soils meant stocking ratios were lower than in more fertile parts of the region. From the 1960s this led some farmers to subdivide their land for other uses, including winegrowing, which is now well established. Among those seeking property were Bruce and Estelle Martin. Bruce was born in Levin in 1925 and Estelle in Southland in 1930. They married in 1950 at Hastings where Bruce worked as radiographer; Estelle was employed in an accountancy firm. They lived in a house in Pakowhai Road, raising three sons: Brett, Dean and Craig. In 1957 Estelle joined an Ikebana class given by Louis Theakstone from Napier. The ceramic Japanese vases enchanted Estelle and, encouraged by Bruce, she decided to make her own. She enrolled in night classes in clay modelling and from books and notes taught herself to use a potter's wheel, working with earthernware before specializing in stoneware. Bruce built a small kiln at the back of their house and decided to contribute to the first firing, using slab building techniques to create his pots. In 1965 Bruce and Estelle established a partnership called Kamaka (stone) and became full-time potters making glazed domesticware. By 1969, a lack of space led the Martins to move to the country where they could easily combine their living and working arrangements. However, their proposal to build a pottery workshop and kiln shed on their Bridge Pa property caused consternation among Hawke's Bay County officials. It was classified as a non-rural activity, requiring a specified departure County Council's planning scheme. This was eventually granted on condition that the rural character of the property was retained and no flags or bunting were flown at the front gate! After seeing a friend's house designed by Len Hoogerburg, Bruce and Estelle decided to commission an architect for their new home and pottery. Not wanting to be 'copy cats' they approached Hoogerburg's colleague John Scott. They had no fixed ideas about the design other than what they didn't want: carpets, venetian blinds and wallpaper. Importantly, they felt as artists themselves they should allow another artist to have free creative reign. This was music to Scott's ears. He accepted the commission and began visiting the Martins at their Pakowhai Road home to see how they lived, discussing plans and ideas. As Bruce recalls, John 'educated us really, so we stopped thinking of a house as a kind of box-like thing and came to understand open planning.' Through these visits the design evolved. By this time the Martin's children were teenagers with a passion for loud music and their own space. Scott overcame this issue by creating a separate wing for the boys, containing their bedrooms and a separate living area. This was then linked to the main house by a covered walkway. The main house was not large, but had sufficient space for Bruce and Estelle. As Bruce explained, he and Estelle were relatively private people and did not require large areas for entertaining or show. Scott initially sited the pottery and kiln in a basin just below the house, believing it created a stronger composition. However, Bruce and Estelle wanted greater physical distance between their home and work, private and public spaces. Consequently, the workshop and kiln was sited further north, about 50 metres from the house. Originally the house and workshop were to be clad in clinker brick, but the high cost of this material saw a change to concrete blocks. Building began in June 1970 and was completed by December. Bruce doesn't remember any major hiccups, but does recall the high standard of workmanship. When John presented the details of the fireplace wall to the block layer he was very unsure of the design and decided to lay the blocks dry to verify the layout and the block sizes. When he was about seven rows high he realized that John had everything correct and proceeded to rebuild the wall with morter. The Martins were thrilled to move into their new home and pottery. They quickly established a rhythm of working, leaving the house in the morning and sitting at their potter's wheels or standing at their benches in the workshop until late afternoon. Large windows provided ample light into the workspaces, which looked out onto a developing garden of trees and shrubs, 'randomly' planted by the family. In 1978, they employed Scott to extend the workshop to create another workroom, but when it was completed they decided it was too good to work in and made it a display space instead. In the same year they also visited Japan, a trip that proved a career watershed. They met Fujii Yukio, who used anagama kilns to “produce wholly unglazed pottery, with soft, subtle colours and textures...produced solely by the action of flames and the fall of ash on clay surfaces.' They were so taken by the work that they resolved to build an anagama kiln at Kamaka. It was first fired in 1982 and while not wholly successful, the results led to the potter Fujii-sensei coming from Japan to work with the Martins and improve their skill base. The next firing was a great success (each firing lasts about 10 days and is a 24 hour operation) and 'immediately propelled them to the forefront of New Zealand potters.' Since then, Bruce and Estelle have collected numerous art and ceramic awards. The large kiln was fired for the last time in 1990. However, Bruce and Estelle 'suffered withdrawal symptoms' so Bruce built a smaller kiln next to the existing one, which was used until April 2001. Estelle died in 2001. Bruce continues to live in the house.

Pottery Trees now shroud the buildings from Valentine Road, so it is only after coming up the drive that they come into view. The first to be reached is the pottery. This comprises three lean-to elements and two horizontal constituents. The first two lean-tos are workrooms and are sited front to back so they resemble (not inappropriately) a traditional factory roofline. A flat roofed porch signals the entrance to the workshop. This leads into a small vestibule and display area, fronted by a plate glass window and door. To the right is the first workroom, where Estelle and Bruce had their potter wheels - the Matai floor is marked by dozens of pot bases. The room is south facing, but a large ceiling height window fills it with light. (Bruce recalls the space getting cold in winter, necessitating the use of an oil heater). A double-sized entrance leads to the second workroom, largely lit by clerestory windows. This had the glaze table and the slab-building bench, the focus of Bruce's work. To the left double doors lead to an extensive storeroom. This is the major horizontal element in the pottery and runs the full length of the western side. Pots were stored here before and after firing in the original oil-fired kiln; located outside at the northern end, under a roof that extends the horizontal planes of storeroom. The third lean-to is rotated at a 90-degree angle to the other two and is located east of the vestibule. This was added to the workshop in 1978. Designed by Scott, it was built as another workroom - with a heated concrete floor - but when completed the Martins thought it too attractive for this purpose and made it another display area. The main feature of the room is a band of windows cantilevered from the eastern wall, providing a long bench for the display of artworks. Clerestory windows puncture the western wall. House: Exterior The Martin House is situated behind the Pottery on a small terrace. From this frontal (northern) perspective the two wings of the dwelling are immediately apparent, with the main house on the western side of the site and the boy's wing to the east, elegantly linked by a flat-roofed, screened porch or walkway. Bruce says Scott wanted a narrower distance between the two wings, but he and Estelle insisted they were kept well apart to ensure (particularly aural) privacy. The main wing comprises three lean-tos, arranged along a low, horizontal axis in a zig-zag pattern. Moving to the western side of the house, the main feature is the chimney, which rises ziggurat-like up the side of the middle lean-to. At the southern end is a small porch, the back entrance to the house. From this side most of the walkway is clad in fibrolite, providing protection from biting southerly winds. The eastern wing has one lean-to, which faces the northern lean-to of the main house, their rooflines creating an imaginary apex above the walkway. At the base of this lean-to is another horizontal structure. It runs perpendicular to the walkway element, both meeting at the southeast corner. There is a high degree of symmetry between the two wings, a feature reinforced by the two roofed porches that project from the northern facade. The house has a series of casement, double hung and bay windows. The long and narrow casement windows are used in the utility and bathrooms; the double hung windows in the east wing bedrooms and dining room; and the bay windows in the living spaces. A highlight is a round window in the southern lean-to of the main house - similar to Scott's Visitors' Centre at Lake Waikeremoana - but which has a patterned screen designed by Keith Reynolds who was working with John at that time. Other decorative details are the koru-shaped barge covers and the colour scheme, where the dominant white is countered by the use of strong primary colours: red for flashings and window sills, yellow for vents, and purple for gutters and downpipes. House: Interior The walkway signals the entrance to both wings. The main house is entered through a vestibule off the dining room. This features a small window opening to the living room. The hole was made, says Bruce, so the children could see the fire burning from the other wing, an incentive for them to come over. The dining room and kitchen is housed within the southern lean-to. The eastern wall has a near-floor to ceiling double hung window, now partly shaded by an exterior screen. The room is open plan, with a dividing (matai) ply and chipboard storage unit separating the two spaces; the unit also accommodates a large stainless steel sink and bench. Behind this is a pantry and further storage. On the southern side, a door leads to the laundry and back entrance. On the western side the space flows through to the living room, the middle lean-to. To the right, French doors open to a small porch. Opposite this are the ziggurat fireplace and two symmetrical bay windows. A small alcove on the southern side of the room provides a storage area. The northern wall has an opaque, green glass window, dividing the living room from the main bedroom, accommodated in the northern lean-to. Its main element is an off-centre, vertical window in the eastern wall, through which pass shafts of filtered light. Built-in wardrobes line the southern and western walls and a glass door opens to the northern patio. Next to this is an en-suite. Painted burnt orange, it features abstract tiles by the English (ex New Zealand) ceramic artist Kenneth Clark. The room also opens to the northern porch. A small hall leads into the eastern wing. Lining the southern side is a bathroom, which also has tiles by Clark. The hall flows into the common room, designed as a place for the Martin boys to relax and entertain. It faces north, with a bay window and door opening to a porch. On the eastern side of the room are three bedrooms, two single and one double. Kilns The two anagama kilns are sited to the south of the house and located under an open iron-roofed shed. This protects the kiln and provides space for the storage of firing wood. The kilns are semi-buried in pits and constructed of brick and concrete blocks. The arched roofs are at ground level and covered in Havelock clay. Flues rise behind the kiln to outside brick chimneys. Inside, the vaults have silicon carbide shelving. The larger kiln can accommodate 1,000 pots, the smaller one just 80.