Home New Zealand August 2017

To all the architects and homeowners featured in this issue: how did you do it? We are into week eight of our renovation: the scaffolding is still up and there are holes in walls all over the house. The 1970s Pizza Hut parapet came off in a day and revealed, at long last, the original butterfly roofline of the house that I always knew was there. Then the weatherboards came off, too, because they were shot and, well, if you’re in for a penny, et cetera. By the time we’re done we will have left the pegboard ceiling (original 1950s feature!), the floor, a couple of Gib walls and three windows, which probably should have gone, too. Each day, I talk to the architect, talk to the builder, talk to…

Suzanne Dale Writing about food, reonvating kitchens and cooking in her own, the writer lends many skills to our kitchen pages (p.146). You’ve written your first kitchen pages for us this issue. Was there something that tied them all together? Yes, good planning! Because they are all new kitchens, each has been tailor-made to meet the lifestyles of the current homeowners. Also, texture and natural materials have been carefully used in rooms, which were designed to read almost as pieces of furniture – something a couple of the architects themselves noted. There is lots of timber, marble and brick, for instance, providing interest, warmth and detail in otherwise clean spaces. Tell us about your own kitchen. We live in a 1915 terrace house and our kitchen is one that has…

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A day out from the opening of Objectspace’s new gallery and the New Zealand debut of Future Islands – the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale – and the site is swarming with men in high-vis gear. The building is running late, timelines have been stretched. The show’s ‘islands’, carbon fibre platforms on which models of New Zealand architectural projects sit, float in space, while painters touch up the walls around them. And yet, suddenly, a prosaic 1980s industrial unit on a back street in Ponsonby, Auckland, is a gallery, thanks to a crisp façade of white aluminium panels, sliced through with lights, designed by Richard Naish of RTA Studio – built on the slimmest of budgets. Late last year, Objectspace announced it was…

Echoing the best of the past with a glimpse into the future, structural elements in Città’s latest design collection, ‘Paradise Found’, create timeless pieces that are as at home now as they were in the 50s. The image of a vintage ski jump prompted Città furniture and product designer David Moreland in his design for the ‘Aspen’ chair. Moreland describes it as a “50s baby”, with clean lines and balanced proportions. It was conceived from an era when Charles and Ray Eames were in full swing with their plywood revolution, pushing the boundaries of what a conventionally flat material could do with the application of new technology. “The ‘Aspen’ chair explores the relationship between hard structural angles and the smooth, curved lines of a vintage ski jump,” says Moreland. “The…

“I never set out to be a designer as such,” says Bec Dowie, one half of father-daughter business Douglas & Bec. “I just loved making beautiful things with my father.” Ten years on – “We strive for excellence, but we still have a lot to achieve” – Dowie and Snelling have released a new range, ‘Arch’, which draws on the curvilinear shapes of the 1920s and 1930s. There’s a personal history in the collection, with references to your grandparents and great aunt. How did that transpire? There’s always a personal narrative in my work. I was lucky to grow up surrounded by art and beauty. It wasn’t necessarily luxurious, since we lived on a modest farm, but there was understated style – and everything had a functional purpose. Why did…