Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i Home New Zealand

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…

HOME’s signature event comes to Christchurch in mid-September, with a fresh new format led by HOME editor Simon Farrell-Green. Over the course of Friday afternoon, we’ll visit five of the most experienced heads in the design business to hear what’s exciting them right now, and catch up on the latest from the Milan Furniture Fair. The day starts at midday, finishes at 5pm, and includes transport and refreshments along the way – including a well-deserved glass of wine at the end of the day. Please join us on this fabulous event: a must for anyone interested in design and furniture. For tickets, please visit eventopia.co/stylesafarichch2017 . Tickets are $50 and include transport for the day and lunch. For more information, please contact homenewzealand@bauermedia.co.nz Mike Thorburn…

College house: ‘a residence for 120 gentlemen’. That was the total brief to the architect. And that’s what was built. Beautifully. (Finding 120 gentlemen in the mid 60s wasn’t quite so simple.) Designed by Sir Miles Warren, College House is a collection of buildings forming one of our great mid-20th century architectural works. Sitting in an elbow of the Avon and looking fresh after 50 years of hard labour and earthquakes, these buildings are magical. Raw, clear and, as is the nature of excellent things, simple in concept. But so right. College House changed my life. It converted me from a wide-eyed provincial youth set for a career in chemistry and astrophysics to an architect. I was a resident for two years and ‘C H’ showed me how architecture works;…

“When you get a six-metre cube and divide it up, you get three-by-three-metre blocks to work with. This happens to be a really nice shape for any room.” Nestled in a dense nikau forest on the dramatic Punakaiki coast, Simon and Su Hoskin’s compact cabin is almost invisible: a timber box floating in the bush. Su, a biodynamics consultant and Simon, a plasterer, spent years camping out on the forest site, slowly clearing and landscaping. A key part of the brief for architect James Warren of Upoko Architects was to work within the clearings they had created. After nearly a decade of getting to know the land, the Hoskins weren’t in a rush when it came to designing a house. “I think people are in such a hurry when they…

What is it that you enjoy most about the home? I think Will Rogers summarised it perfectly almost a century ago when he said, “too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like”. This house, as modest as it is, is for us. It fits our current lifestyle perfectly. It’s warm, comfortable and it’s all we need. Now that you’ve lived in the house for a while, how does the plan work for you as a family? Good storage is so valuable. We put a lot of thought into the storage and joinery design in each room, which has really taken the pressure off the usable floor space. Also, the separation the entry creates between the living and bedroom…

Sharp angles against the sky, tiny square windows, rusted steel and rivets: from the street, Mitchell Coll and Amy Douglas’ two-bedroom house looks impenetrable, like a tank that’s been left in the rain. Nestled between two 1990s dwellings – concrete on the left and stucco on the right, and situated across the road from a building-supplies warehouse, their two-storey inner-city home both blends in and stands out. “It has its own contemporary style but it’s designed to fit within the context of the surrounding buildings,” says Coll. Coll – of Coll Architecture – never thought he’d get to build one of his own creations, let alone live in it. Instead, he ended up building two. He could have designed one house for the site, but as someone who spends a…

Why did Beaven close his Christchurch practice and take off to London? I met Peter several times just after I graduated: friends from Auckland had just started working in his office, which was located up in the rafters of Benjamin Mountfort’s Provincial Council offices. We would get together of an evening, with Peter holding court. His set up was small, but my strong sense was he couldn’t be happier than when crouched over the drawing board. In a large office, by contrast, the distractions multiply – administration, staffing and the treadmill of bringing in big jobs to keep the wheels spinning. I suspect this played a part in Beaven closing his office after the success of the Commonwealth Games stadium (1974). He was a key part of the Christchurch School…

The owners of this cabin near Punakaiki on the West Coast of the South Island spent years on the property before they asked architect James Warren, of Upoko Architects, to design them a small but sharp cabin in a nikau forest. “When they bought and inhabited the site, they carved rooms out of it, so the 'walls' were already there,” says Warren. “They had a clearing for living, a clearing for bathing and one for cooking, so it was kind of a room in the forest.” Warren’s design had to fit into one of those small rooms: a six-by-six metre cabin, with a solid top for sleeping and an almost transparent bottom level; the top floor looks very much like it’s floating in the bush. “We didn’t want to make…

Architect . . . . . . Ben Lloyd,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lloyd Hartley Architects Photography. . David Straight Location . . . . . . . Central Auckland Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . To maximise space with a seamless design sympathetic to a 1929 heritage-listed apartment. Did the heritage listing complicate the project? Alterations required consent from Heritage New Zealand – a relatively painless process and a necessary one to ensure our built history isn’t destroyed. How did you make the renovation sympathetic? By reducing visual clutter and trying not to compete with everything around it. With limited space and an established architectural language, we designed the kitchen to be as…

“I think Grandma and Grandpa’s house (Ken Crosson’s Titirangi ‘Red House’, which featured in our April/ May 2015 Home of the Year issue) is the perfect house. I wouldn’t change anything about it. It stands out, but lets you see all the trees around it. I like how it’s small but it feels big. It’s a really fun house to play in. I really like the roof deck, because I can make forts up there. It also has lots of little quiet spaces where you can work. The most important thing to Grandma is family. And not wasting things. Auntie Mardie built a house beside Grandma’s. Auntie Mardie is disabled, so she can’t go up the stairs. But she has a lift in her bit and can just wheel across…

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…

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…

Hugo’s is the fourth Auckland restaurant of husband-and-wife owners Clare and Joost Van Den Berg. They started with the celebrated café Zus & Zo in Herne Bay, then moved on to Takapuna with Zomer, before opening Odettes three years ago, which happens to be right next door to the HOME office and functions a little like our meeting room, only with really good food (and better cushions). Now, with Hugo’s, they’ve built another living room for the city. It’s a long, thin space on Shortland Street, handy to the towers across the road and the shopping precincts around High Street. “We wanted that European everyday bistro feel,” says Clare. The refit took close to a year and involved gutting the space and replacing all the services, right through to the…

What kind of compromises had to be made to deliver the house with such a small footprint? While the brief aimed for a small footprint, it didn’t limit the actual floor area. The challenge was to make the footprint as small as possible while working well, and so there really were no immediate compromises. Designing something at its most concentrated tends to offer a lot of value. But making sure the house had a generous sense of space was important. The building is positioned in a clearing the client had made. The bush is quite thick, so the vegetation acts like a wall. We used a lot of glass on the ground floor, which visually extends the internal space out toward the forest edges. Did the coastal forest present any…

“We liked the thoughtful planning of the block and the Park as a whole – and the fact that it still contains social housing units...” There was something about the 72-square-metre apartment that, when he moved in two years ago, was making Jeremy Hansen claustrophobic. The former editor of this magazine and current editor of the Auckland weekly, Paperboy, had bought an apartment in one of Freemans Bay’s ‘Star Flats’ – so named for the buildings’ star-shaped plans – with his husband, lawyer Cameron Law. The couple was used to apartment living, having spent the previous 10 years renting in Courtville, a European-style apartment block built in 1915 in central Auckland. They were also used to small spaces, having lived in a 50-square-metre apartment before upsizing to 65 square metres.…

As a champion of sustainable design, what aspect of the home are you most proud of and why? I believe building small trumps all other sustainable features. I don’t believe adding anything extra to a building can be called sustainable, even if it’s a sustainably sourced product. The most sustainable thing we can do is not build at all. We then need to work our way up from doing nothing to a point where we feel comfortable to live. This house has everything we need in terms of space; it’s also easy to heat, clean, and maintain. I will concede that we could have reduced materials further to have less impact on the environment, but comfort and aesthetics play an important part in extending the life of a building. Does…

“We took the approach that we’d keep the envelope quite simple; have one roof plane and park everything underneath.” “This is 95 square metres and three stories,” says Tim Gittos, gesturing at the view out over Wellington. “That’s north, west is out there and east is there. And you get to look out at the hills and view. On a clear day, you can see the South Island.” Gittos and partner Caro Robertson – who run Space Craft Architects – returned to Wellington in January 2013 after time in Whangarei and Whanganui, where with friends they’d built a house known as ‘Dogbox’ (a finalist in Home of the Year 2013) . Shocked at the cost of renting a tiny two-bedroom flat to house themselves and their son – and with…

Architect . . . . . . Christopher Beer Text . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzanne Dale Photography . . Patrick Reynolds Location . . . . . . . Cambridge, Waikato Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . Functionality foremost, and a kitchen that sits within the home as a crafted, considered object. The clients didn’t want a separate pantry – the galley layout provides shelving above a countertop with drawers below and fridge to the side, with washing and cooking opposite. Marble floor tiles as a countertop provide a stylish, affordable solution. Would you use them again? They’ve been a great choice. In terms of installation, they aligned with the cabinetry module and required little…

Architect . . . . . . Guy Tarrant Text . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzanne Dale Photography. . Patrick Reynolds Location . . . . . . . Pt Chevalier, Auckland Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . A kitchen as a backdrop to the main living area; a piece of furniture within the space. The kitchen is detailed yet restrained. What pleases you most about it? We love the combination of oak, marble and granite with the brick wall. You’ve used clerestory windows throughout. Why do they work so well here? They create an ever-changing play of light and frame views of the sky and surrounding trees. The mood of the kitchen changes dramatically from…

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“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…

Stopped Short by Wonder – a fabulous collection of Len Lye’s major sculptural works, films, drawings and paintings – heads south to Christchurch Art Gallery this month, on loan from New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre. Though his collected works reside in the purpose-built New Plymouth gallery, it was as a small boy in Christchurch that Lye discovered his love of sound, movement and light. As the story goes, a very young Lye was kicking a kerosene can around the back yard on a sunny day, when he was delighted by the ‘thunderclap’ bang from the empty can, and the flash of light from the sun on the side. It was a moment that continued to inspire him, as he constantly sought to bring movement to art.…

Your first Goodness Gracious cafe, which is in Eden Terrace, Auckland, is a slip of a thing and this isn’t much bigger. Coincidence or planning? This is planned – a small space is easier to manage, and the design has to be so much more considered. For me, it helps a lot when considering the overall aesthetic. Tell us a bit about the building and the area. We’re in Auckland’s oldest suburb, in what I understand to be an old paper mill. It’s a character redevelopment by Krukziener Properties with architect John Wardle. The original drawings date the building as old as 1865. You worked with Powersurge on this fitout and you’ve collaborated with them before. We met when I was looking into stools for the first cafe so it…

Auckland’s K Road has had its ups and downs. What was once the grandest strip in Auckland, on the city’s highest ridge, spent much of the 20th century in decline, with fine old buildings settling into a not-so-elegant dissolution. For the past 20 years, the street has very slowly gentrified, as art galleries and boutiques, cafes and bistros have opened up. But one small block never seemed to change – until recently, when a handful of businesses moved in, attracted by reasonable rents, high ceilings and a sense of community. On the block east of Edinburgh St, sex shops and booze shops and a monogram company that made patches for gangs have been replaced by a cake shop, a hairdresser, a cafe and a couple of art galleries. “I just…

How can good design minimise the impact of Wellington’s notorious winds? Shelter is the key. The idea is that there will always be a covered outdoor space to escape to. In a storm, the indoor spaces are designed to feel connected to the surrounding landscape. Sliding doors are good for sites with high winds since they don’t slam, and the amount of opening can be finely controlled. Hunkering bedrooms into more sheltered, well-insulated, quiet areas ensures a peaceful sleep even in a strong storm. What was your best design decision with this house? The asymmetric angled roof and ceiling. It’s simple, sculptural and playful and follows the angle of the hill on which it’s sited. How does good design complement rather than distract from the spectacular view? A space is…

“We wanted to really strip back the detail. Bringing the scale back from a square plan made those shapes far more elegant.”  So many open homes, so many sketches. The idea of designing a house before you buy the land is something of anathema in New Zealand: every house is site specific, right? But in Christchurch, Tobin Smith had been noodling around for years with the idea of a modern cottage, based on the small, charming 19th-century designs in the side streets beside Bealey Avenue, just east of the city’s CBD. “They were quite charming and were close to people’s work,” he says. “And I kept wondering why we weren’t building houses like this for professional couples now. So we thought we’d make a modern interpretation.” Smith began to…

Why was it important to you to take on this project? NAT CHESHIRE Jeremy and Cameron’s apartment is the latest in a string of very small projects we’ve built in the last few years, clients who have all been so brave and are very precious to us. We’re as proud of a strange and beautiful washroom as we are a thriving city block. The tiny scale of this work affords us an opportunity to atmospherically tune space to very fine increments. In little rooms like these, clarity and subtlety of composition, material and detail become enormously powerful tools. They also create a discipline in our practice that echoes into our larger work. It’s a vital part of who we are, and who we want to be: the designers of whole…

“We worked long hours building models and impressive portfolios from which Tile Kiln Lane arose.” Heading down the Archway Road in London’s Highgate, just before the Hornsey Lane Bridge, you glimpse a white jagged-edged building. To a New Zealander’s eye, its forms are vaguely familiar. Named Tile Kiln Studios, it dates from 1982 and was designed by Peter Beaven (1925-2012). It comprises five one-bedroom studios and one three-bedroom apartment – ranging in size from 44 to 125 square metres. They are accessed from Tile Kiln Lane, a narrow pedestrian way that runs from a reservoir at the top of the hill down to Winchester Road at the bottom. It is one of only two works Beaven built during his London years; the other is a housing development in Wedderburn Road,…

Five lessons learnt on designing and building on a subdivided section. Benefits big and small There are many large and small benefits of a collective project like this. Sharing the costs of servicing, resource consent fees and materials makes for good savings throughout the build. The moral support of being in it together is invaluable. Now that the project is complete, this continues. We have one drop-saw, one lawnmower, one axe, one dumpling steamer, etcetera. We share transport to kindy and school, child-minding, cooking duties and beer runs (to name a few). Putting in the time It all takes time. The subdivision process takes longer than you think: in our case this was just short of a year. Many months were spent dealing with council and then servicing the sites,…

Architect . . . . . . Belinda George Text . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzanne Dale Photography. . Simon Devitt Location . . . . . . . Mahurangi Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . A kitchen at the centre of family life, placed in the living room and requiring the same aesthetic. Tell us about the use of reclaimed timber. The kitchen is made from solid river rimu. It was recovered from the rivers between Dargaville and Whangarei, cut down more than a century ago and lost to the bottom during transportation to the mill. It’s a sustainable source of native timber and we love it. We first saw it in its raw form…