HOME NZ August/September 2015 by HOME Magazine

D E S I G N P O R T R A I T.

Charles, seat system designed by Antonio Citterio. www.bebitalia.com

where design becomes art

Auckland - 99 The Strand, Parnell +64 9 302 2284 Christchurch - +64 3 366 0623 design@matisse.co.nz www.matisse.co.nz

www.nespresso.com/pixie

Pixie Clips panels are designed exclusively for the Nespresso Pixie Clips machine. Panels are available in Nespresso boutiques or on Nespresso.com

NEW

ST Y L E I T YO U R WAY

Express your personality and give your Pixie Clips machine a new look. Choose different colours and textures from an extensive range of clip-on side panels: Your style in one clip.

Introducing King Living New and exciting Showroom NOW OPEN! Visit us today and view our award-winning furniture.

JASPER the multi award-winning sofa that can change with you. Built on King Living’s superior steel frame, backed by a 25-year warranty, the secret to Jasper’s success is its incredible versatility. Floating platforms and flexible shelving mean you can rearrange this sumptuous sofa into any number of stylish configurations in seconds – even a guest bed for two.

OPEN 7 DAYS | (09) 309-3766 | KINGLIVING.COM 535 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland 1052

STIFF COMPETITION. The new XE’s aluminium construction not only makes it light, but also immensely strong and safe. This solid monocoque platform combined with integral link rear suspension and double wishbone front suspension, derived from the F-TYPE, ensures the XE delivers class-leading handling and advanced driving dynamics while retaining a reﬁned, luxurious ride. From only $74,900 + ORC, new XE is a new breed of sports sedan. JAGUAR.CO.NZ

Jaguar New Zealand

THE ART OF PERFORMANCE

contents THE SMALL HOMES ISSUE

94.

106.

118.

130.

142.

SMALL PLEASURES

JUST ENOUGH

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

SUBURBAN PROGNOSIS

A LITTLE MEANS A LOT

At home and work with designer Phil Cuttance in London

Henri Sayes’ fresh, optimistic take on life in the burbs

Helmut Einhorn’s mid-century Wellington classic

Ben Daly’s handcrafted Wellington apartment

Architect Domenic Alvaro designs a cottage of pure Queenstown bliss

142

118

130

106

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 09

ART & DESIGN 21. OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Covetable design finds 26. NEW COLLECTIONS

Moooi at ECC and Marcel Wanders at Studio Italia 28. CAPITAL GAINS

Precinct 35, a new design store in Wellington 66

30. SOFA SO GOOD

Australian furniture brands new to NZ 32. STACKING UP

Why apartment living is becoming desirable 34. CLOSE SHAVES

A hipster barbershop charms New Plymouth 36. HOME GROWN

Working Style honours the Athfield House 39. DESIGN ORIGINALS 86

44. NEWS FROM NEW YORK

Fresh design offerings 50. SIZE MATTERS

A theory on why our kitchens became so big 52. BIKES, SHEEPSKINS AND (CRAFT) BEER

Queenstown’s quirky Sherwood lodge and eatery 56. TINY RUINS

A modernist Marseille masterpiece by Le Corbusier 62. ZIZZ AND ZING

The dynamic new Len Lye centre 71. DESIGN AWARDS

Our winner and seven finalists revealed 81. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

Six modest homes and their smart floor plans

For less than $1500

EXTRAS 153. DESIGN FINDS

Reporting back from our Auckland tour 156. STYLE SAFARI

All the details of HOME’s upcoming Christchurch design tour 158. SUBSCRIBE

10 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Subscribe to HOME and be in to win Fisher & Paykel appliances worth $7500

162. MY FAVOURITE BUILDING

Architect Roger Walker on his small-house project

MIT3533_L

INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGY. THE BEST VALUE.

NEW ASX AWD XLS DIESEL

EFFICIENT 2.2L DIESEL ENGINE | 6.0L/100KM ECONOMY | 112KW OF POWER | 18” ALLOYS ADVANCED AWD | DAYTIME RUNNING LEDS | REVERSING CAMERA | 5 STAR SAFETY With a long list of smart new features, New Zealand’s best new vehicle warranty and the sharpest price ever, new ASX is the best value all-wheel drive Diesel. Visit mmnz.co.nz or call 0800 54 53 52 to contact your Mitsubishi Motors dealer now. *Price listed is for ASX AWD XLS Diesel. Price excludes On Road Costs of up to $600 which includes WoF, Registration, 1,000km Road User charges and a full tank of fuel. See www.mmnz.co.nz for Diamond Advantage terms and conditions.

MIT3533_R

TIMELESS

TAILORING Embracing courageous at the iconic Athfield House, Welllington

S/S

2015/16

Strong lines, a bold outlook, and meticulous attention to detail. As with the best menswear, the best architecture combines all these qualities - and more - to produce something greater.

Since 1987 we’ve aspired to this attitude when we design the Working Style Collection; every single aspect is critical for achieving the right look. The weight of the cloth, the perfect lapel, the collar just so.

Ian Athfield’s house in Wellington is a unique achievement. Described by some as “part family home, part office, almost a village”,it exudes a timeless confidence that is as fresh today as when it first graced its towering Khandallah hilltop in 1965.

And each choice balances the classic with the contemporary, enabling you to express yourself, imprint your own inimitable style on your wardrobe. And create exactly the right impression with clothes destined to become lifelong friends.

Heritage Series 02

Spring - Summer 2015/16

Get the latest online homemagazine.co.nz @homenewzealand @_jeremyhansen facebook.com/homenewzealand instagram.com/homenewzealand

Photography / Simon Devitt

EDITOR’S LETTER

Top That’s me at New Plymouth’s magnificent new Len Lye Centre at the GovettBrewster, photographed by Simon Devitt. For more, see p.62. Upper left The ‘Torchon’ pendant by Cheshire Architects, photographed by Toaki Okano. For more, see p.71. Upper right Designer Phil Cuttance’s London flat, photographed by Emily Andrews. For more, see p.118. Lower left Ben and Dulia Daly’s Wellington apartment, photographed by Samuel Hartnett. For more, see p.94. Lower right A cottage near Queenstown by Domenic Alvaro, photographed by Patrick Reynolds. For more, see p.106.

In the past 50 years New Zealand house sizes, like those in Australia and the U.S., have ballooned. In the 1960s, the average New Zealand house size was 128 square metres. More recently, that figure has jumped to over 205 square metres. At the same time, everyone is complaining about how expensive it is to build these days. Does anyone see a correlation here? I realise, of course, there are many factors behind the increasing costs of building or renovating. But it is important to remember that we pay for every square metre that we build, so one of the best ways to spend less is to build less. (You’re probably all aware of the additional environmental benefits of using fewer resources to build a home, and how smaller homes are more economical to run). The problem is our misguided expectations of how much living space we need. When I hear of people choosing poor-quality materials for their homes in order to build bigger, my heart sinks. Shouldn’t we already know that these shortcuts are bound to haunt us later? So take the homes in this, our special Small Homes Issue, as a gentle reminder of the benefits of making do with less. None of them are extreme: the smallest, by Ken Crosson (p.86), is 40 square metres, and the largest, by Marc Lithgow, is 125 square metres (p.88) and is occupied by a family of four, which would have been considered perfectly normal in the 1960s. What all the homes in this issue share is the thoughtfulness of their design and occupation. The key to a successful small home is rigour, of paring everything back to the bare essentials and testing ideas of what you can and can’t live without. All the people in this issue have found a sense of lib eration in living in a smaller place, further evidence of the comfort in needing less. It’s enough to make you hope that, just maybe, our average house sizes may soon stop ballooning. More quality, less quantity. Surely we can all live with that? Jeremy Hansen

Every year we search for the best new New Zealand furniture and lighting in our annual Design Awards, and every year we’re delighted by what we find. This year, with our award sponsors Fisher & Paykel, we’re delighted to present eight refined examples of where New Zealand design is at these days. Some themes: lighting is big, as designers continue to explore the potential of LED technology. So is flat-packing, as almost all the designs are created with an eye on the export market. This means it’s also increasingly simple to purchase and ship the wonderful furniture and objects in our awards to wherever in the country (or the world) you might live. Consider our portfolio, styled by Sam Smith and Catherine Wilkinson and photographed by Toaki Okano, an invitation to do just that.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 15

A guest cottage in Queenstown designed by Domenic Alvaro and photographed by Patrick Reynolds. For more, see p.106.

CONTRIBUTORS MARY GAUDIN

The photographer visited a Le Corbusier masterpiece (p.56) for our small-homes focus.

This issue focuses on small homes, and your story describes what it was like to stay in one of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation apartments in Marseille for a long weekend. How did you enjoy your stay? I took the train down to Marseille specifically to see the Cité Radieuse. I stayed in the hotel in the building. My partner knew how much I loved the building and planned a surprise birthday stay, complete with a surprise party on the Saturday night – so, needless to say, I had a pretty terrific time. Lots of modernist housing blocks get a bad rap. Do you think the building succeeded in delivering on its utopian ideals? Unfortunately, now it has become very expensive to buy an apartment in the building. The charges are also pretty steep. The building is now mainly inhabited by “bobo’s” (bourgeois bohemians) with a few original owners. So, in this respect, it has moved away from its egalitarian utopian ideals. You live in France and are accustomed to compact spaces. But if you could, would you build bigger? I know my partner would really love to have a larger house with a pool. But, other than a larger terrace for a garden, I’m more than happy living in our 65-square-metre space.

SIMON DEVITT

The photographer shot New Plymouth’s brand-new Len Lye Centre (p.62).

SIMON FARRELLGREEN

The writer and foodie went south to the Sherwood (p.52).

You’ve photographed many of Andrew Patterson of Patterson Associates’ buildings. Did this prepare you for the surprise of the Len Lye Centre? On every assignment I’ve photographed for Andrew there are always surprises. His firm’s buildings are landmarks. No two are alike in any way, but they are still recognisably Patterson buildings. This is a testament to his relationship with the client and the site and the narrative that is produced as a result.

You visited Queenstown’s Sherwood for this issue. It’s an intriguing place. How would you describe it? It’s kind of a hipster motel. The owners took a 1980s mock-Tudor disaster and rehabbed it, keeping some of the pink Formica vanity units and adding a huge vegetable garden and a woodsy restaurant. It’s a bit punk and a bit Twin Peaks and more than a little hippie.

How did you decide to photograph the Centre? The scale of the building is deceptive, so I found including people in the shots was necessary to offer a sense of proportion, which is key to the reading of the form and its ribbon-like, stainless steel-clad wall. The shoot happened two weeks prior to the official opening of the building, and a day after the fencing came down, so there were very few people to utilise in the pictures I wanted to make. For me, it’s not enough to just have people in the pictures: I want to capture moments that connect the people with the building in some way. So, it was challenging but I am really happy with the resulting images I made.

You’re a food guy. What’s the grub like there? It’s really good. There’s a kind of 1970s wholefoods vibe – the menu is organised by a star chart. Chef Ainsley Thompson has largely cut sugar and dairy from her diet so the menu does that a bit, too. More particularly, they grill their meat over a Big Green Egg, the ultimate charcoal barbecue. As well as being a food guy, I’m a charcoal guy, so this pleases me enormously.

What did you like best about the building? I love the way the morning sun plays on the exterior’s stainless steel form. It’s a very immersive experience, almost like being under water. I can imagine Len Lye would love this building very much.

In other matters, you’re also a new father. How’s junior? Ira’s great. He’s nearly six weeks old and just starting to sleep decently, so we’re starting to feel a bit more human again. I could go on but it’s probably only interesting to me.

Editor Jeremy Hansen Art Director Arch MacDonnell Inhouse Design Senior Designer Sarah Gladwell Inhouse Design Senior Designer Oliver Worsfold Inhouse Design Senior Stylist/Designer Sam Smith Stylist/Designer Catherine Wilkinson On our cover, a photograph by Samuel Hartnett of Ben and Dulia Daly at their Wellington apartment, where Ben redesigned and built the interior. For more, see p.94.

Editorial Assistant Fiona Williams

Editorial Office Bauer Media Group Shed 12, City Works Depot 90 Wellesley St Auckland New Zealand homenewzealand@ bauermedia.co.nz +64 9 308 2739 Postal address HOME New Zealand Bauer Media Group Private Bag 92512 Wellesley Street Auckland 1141 New Zealand

18 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Contributors Jo Bates Sam Eichblatt Mark Elmore Simon Farrell-Green Mary Gaudin Amelia Holmes Douglas Lloyd Jenkins Alistair Luke Henry Oliver Photographers Emily Andrews Simon Devitt Guy Frederick Samuel Hartnett Russell Kleyn Paul McCredie Jackie Meiring Florence Noble Toaki Okano Patrick Reynolds Mark Smith David Straight

Chief Executive Officer Paul Dykzeul

Printer Webstar

Publisher Brendon Hill

Distributor Netlink Distribution Company

Commercial Director Paul Gardiner Marketing Manager Martine Skinner Commercial Sales Manager Liezl Hipkins-Stear lhipkins@bauermedia.co.nz +64 9 308 2873 Classified Advertising Kim Chapman classifieds@xtra.co.nz +64 7 578 3646 Advertising Account Manager Nicola Saunders nsaunders@bauermedia.co.nz +64 9 366 5345 Financial Business Analyst Ferozza Patel Group Production Manager Lisa Sloane Production Co-ordinator Clare Pike Advertising Auckland Liezl Hipkins-Stear lhipkins@bauermedia.co.nz +64 9 308 2873 Sydney Rachel McLean rmclean@bauermedia.co.nz +64 9 308 2760

HOME is subject to copyright in its entirety and the contents may not be reproduced in any form, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved in material accepted for publication, unless initially specified otherwise. All letters and other material forwarded to the magazine will be assumed intended for publication unless clearly labelled â&#x20AC;&#x153;not for publicationâ&#x20AC;?. We welcome submissions of homes that architects or owners would like to be considered for publication. Opinions expressed in HOME New Zealand are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of Bauer Media Group. No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material. ABC average net circulation, April 2014 to March 2015: 10,795 copies. ISSN 1178-4148

Subscription Enquiries magshop.co.nz/home 0800 MAGSHOP or 0800 624 746 magshop@magshop.co.nz +64 9 308 2721 (tel) +64 9 308 2769 (fax) Bulk/Corporate Subscriptions corporates@magshop.co.nz +64 9 308 2700

SEE MORE ONLINE THERE ARE A WHOLE LOT MORE INGENIOUS SMALL HOMES ON HOMEMAGAZINE.CO.NZ.

O N

WATCH: The making of a Design Awards winner.

homemagazine.co.nz Twitter @homenewzealand Instagram @homenewzealand Facebook facebook.com/homenewzealand

Check out these small homes and more on homemagazine.co.nz 01 David Melling’s petite urban retreat in central Wellington, photographed by Paul McCredie. 02 Patch Work Architecture’s magnificently thrifty Whanganui ‘Dog Box’, photographed by Paul McCredie. 03 Bonnifait + Giesen’s Hawke’s Bay house for a musician, photographed by Paul McCredie.

See life unfold It’s beautiful outside, so bring the best of it in. Our windows and doors are made to open your home up to the beauty that surrounds it. Whether it’s green grass or grass stains, you’ll see life as it happens. Bring your home to life with Fairview. fairviewwindows.co.nz

D:01 03

NATURAL SELECTION HAND-HEWN, HIGHLY CRAFTED DESIGN FINDS. 04

01—‘Red Sunday’ hand-knitted jumper by Harry Were, $470 from shop.harrywere.com 02—‘Spring’ soy candle by Markantonia, $49 from Fabric, thisisfabric.com 03—Hand-woven scarf by Sherie Muijs and Marta Buda, $330 from Sherie Muijs, sheriemuijs.com 04—‘Tarn’ cuff by Miansai, $325 from Fabric, thisisfabric.com 05—Cleaver by

Blakebrough + King, $375 from Muck Floral & General store, muck.co.nz 06—‘Box’ card holder by Il Bussetto, $125 from Gubb & Mackie, gubbandmackie.com 07—‘Notch’ light by Michael Anastassiades for Flos from ECC, ecc.co.nz 08—Hemp basket by Nkuku, $235 from Father Rabbit, fatherrabbit.com 09—Hand-knitted wool booties, $32 from Widdess, widdess.co.nz 10—‘OG’ stool table by Sam Orme-Gee, $340 from Capital Finds, capitalfinds.com. Edited by Amelia Holmes.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 21

D:02

A TOUCH OF WHIMSY

DESIGN DISCOVERIES FROM THE HUMBLE TO THE HIGH-END. 04

01—Japanese KonKon slippers, $99 from Everyday Needs, everyday-needs.com 02—Jessilla Rogers vase, $200 from Muck Floral & General, muck.co.nz 03—Hand-knitted beanie by Nido, $85 from Everyday Needs, everydayneeds.com 04— Floral piece, $20 from Muck Floral & General, muck.co.nz 05—‘Wundaire’ pit-fired vase

by Felicity Lydia Donaldson, $60 from Tür, turstudio.com 06—‘Hexagon’ stand by Ferm Living, $80 from Let Liv, letliv.co.nz 07—‘Copycat’ table lamp by Michael Anastassiades for Flos, $1505 from ECC, ecc.co.nz 08— Wall hanging, $180 from Tür, turstudio.com 09—’Mollo’ seat by Philippe Malouin for Established & Sons, $8858 from Simon James, simonjamesdesign.com. Edited by Amelia Holmes.

22 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

I was excited by the announcement this year that Piet Boon has joined forces with Linteloo for the marketing of their products. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a perfect fit for us as we distribute both brands. Piet Boon, the architect, has designed and decorated many beautiful houses around the world including this elegant apartment in New York.

Studio Piet Boon has a very sophisticated look with a particular eye for detail, while maximising comfort. There is a love for natural materials such as stone, marble, suede and leather, and special textures in the collection. Call into ECC to view the collection. Mike Thorburn Managing Director, ECC

www.ecc.co.nz Since 1909

Auckland Wellington Christchurch Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Milano

Authentic Design Style

D:03

TO HAVE, TO HOLD

DESIGN ITEMS WITH THE RIGHT TOUCH POINTS. 07

01—Hand-knitted throw by Little Dandelion, $1300 from Muck Floral & General, muck.co.nz 02—Hand-knitted cotton linen bag, $49 from Widdess, widdess.co.nz 03—‘Sade’ leather slides by Penny Sage, $390 from Penny Sage, pennysage.com 04—Ceramic incense holder by Frank Woodward, $35 from Everyday Needs,

everyday-needs.com 05—Leather gloves, $175 from Gubb & Mackie, gubbandmackie.com 06—‘Pion’ lamp by Bertjan Pot for Wrong for Hay, $543 from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz 07—‘Amoeba’ vase by Jessica Hans, $290 from Douglas and Bec, shop.douglasandbec.com 08—‘Clerici’ bench by Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi, $3061 from Simon James, simonjamesdesign.com 09—Alpaca weaving, $380 from Tür, turstudio.com. Edited by Amelia Holmes.

24 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

LENNON sofa by Cameron Foggo Auckland: 19 Earle St, Parnell | 09 309 0500 | auckland@backhousenz.com Wellington: 12 Kaiwharawhara Rd | 04 499 8847 | wellington@backhousenz.com

backhousenz.com

D:04

LOOKING DOWN MOOOI’S NEW RUGS BRING PHOTO-REALISM TO FLOORS.

It often seems as if interior decoration, in its embrace of hand-crafted this and limited-edition that, is deliberately resistant to technological advances. This isn’t true of the Dutch design house Moooi, which has developed high-resolution printing techniques and harnessed the talents of a clutch of leading designers to create an exceptionally vivid new range of carpets. The photo-realistic designs by Marcel Wanders (top left and bottom left), Edward van Vliet (centre and far left), Neri & Hu, Christian Lacroix and others are created using a Chromojet printer that works deep within the pile to generate high-definition images. The customisable range of rugs (and wall-to-wall carpets for large spaces), also offers the option of creating your own unique designs. ECC Branches in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch ecc.co.nz

D:05

MAD MONARCHS MARCEL WANDERS TAMES HIS WILDER INSTINCTS IN A REGAL NEW COLLECTION.

We’ve become accustomed to overthe-top irreverence from Dutch designer Marcel Wanders, but something about working for the Italian furniture masters Poliform must have tamed him, in the best possible way. Sure, there’s still a hint of cheekiness in the curves and quilting of the expanded ‘Mad’ collection for Poliform that was unveiled in Milan earlier this year, but there’s a deep sense of elegance, too. The collection features high and low armchairs (the suitably regal ‘Mad King’ and ‘Mad Queen’), chaise longues, chairs, tables and occasional tables. All of them share large, soft, just-slightly cartoonish dimensions that feel simultaneously contemporary and welcoming. STUDIO ITALIA 25 Nugent Street, Grafton Auckland studioitalia.co.nz

26 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

SIT BOY Design your own

Mix and match the colours and materials of the Baker Stoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seat, legs and foot ring to create your perfect perch.

www.imo.co.nz

D:06

CRAFT WORK A NEW WELLINGTON DESIGN STORE FORMS A CREATIVE HUB.

Prak Sritharan is filling the shelves of Precinct 35 with beautifully crafted objects. His Wellington store shares space with the Milk Crate café, allowing coffee drinkers to wander in and browse wares from near and far: objects by Japanese design houses Koizumi Studio, Saito Wood, Lemnos and Hasami Porcelain sit alongside New Zealand’s Goldsworthy Studio and Nodi Handmade. “Japanese designers usually begin with traditions, family-owned businesses and brands with stories that really resonate with me,” Sritharan says. The store is arranged around a poured-concrete table, with plywood panelling adding warmth. Industrial features – concrete beams, a steel-lined ceiling, and earthquake bracing – are left exposed. Sritharan hopes the store is a natural fit for its city. “We have such a strong culture and appreciation of design in Wellington, and I wanted to reflect that in a retail space for well-designed goods,” he says. “In a way it’s almost trying to resemble what Wellington does so well in restaurants and cafes, applying the same level of integrity and focus.”

PRECINCT 35 35 Ghuznee Street, Wellington precinct35.co.nz 01—Ceramic and wood designs at Precinct 35. 02— Owner Prak Sritharan. 03—Pieces by Saito, Hasami Porcelain and Fog Linen on the shelves. 04— Wood utensils next to ‘Kimono’ stools by Nathan Goldsworthy and a ‘Navajo’ blanket by Pendleton.

28 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Photography by Russell Kleyn.

Loom Chairs by Adam Goodrum now available From twentieth century design classics to the icons of tomorrow. Auckland | Sydney | Melbourne | Brisbane www.cultdesign.co.nz info@cultdesign.co.nz 0800 773 305

D:07

HAIL THE KING A BIG AUSTRALIAN RETAILER ESTABLISHES A NEW ZEALAND OUTPOST.

Australia’s King Living has had a big presence across the Tasman for 35 years, and is now bringing its furniture to the New Zealand market. The firm is probably best-known for its high-quality sectional sofas (they come with a 25-year warranty on their steel frames), but also produces a full range of indoor and outdoor furniture for the home. An in-house design team in Sydney dreams up their ranges, which are manufactured at the company’s own facilities in China. King Living’s first New Zealand showroom will be based in Auckland’s Parnell Road and is opening in August.

KING LIVING 535 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland kingliving.co.nz

D:08

SUMMER BREEZE ANOTHER TRANS-TASMAN MIGRANT ARRIVES IN AUCKLAND.

Yes, they speak of Sydney, but that’s no bad thing: new Auckland showroom St Clements’ range of easy, breezy furniture pieces in linen covers evoke warm, sunny evenings in homes on Sydney’s eastern beaches. The furniture is from Australian label MCM House, designed by Charles Hinckfuss, and it all shares a relaxed sensibility and a generous scale. The range’s loose linen covers in pleasantly muted shades can be laundered if they get mussed up, and can be paired with tables made from recycled elm with an open grain that can easily be brought back to its original finish if damaged.

ST CLEMENTS 68 France Street South, Eden Terrace, Auckland stclements.co.nz

30 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

4IPXSPPNT 3PTFCBOL 3PBE "WPOEBMF "VDLMBOE QI %BM[JFM 1MBDF 8PPMTUPO $ISJTUDIVSDI QI JOGP O[!CMVN DPN

1FSGFDUJOH NPUJPO NBEF JO "VTUSJB #MVNß T QSBDUJDBM 41"$& 508&3 QBOUSZ VOJU DBO CF NBOVGBDUVSFE JO EJGGFSFOU IFJHIUT XJEUIT PS EFQUIT (JWJOH ZPV UIF GMFYJCJMJUZ UP UBJMPS ZPVS TUPSBHF UP ZPVS FYBDU SFRVJSFNFOUT 8IFUIFS B DPNQBDU BQBSUNFOU PS B MBSHF GBNJMZ IPNF UIF PQUJPOT BSF JOGJOJUF &BDI PG UIF 41"$& 508&3ß T QVMM PVUT PQFO JOEJWJEVBMMZ TUPSJOH VQ UP LH PG XFJHIU FBDI 4UPSFE JUFNT BSF FBTZ UP MPDBUF BOE DBO CF BDDFTTFE GSPN BCPWF UIF GSPOU PS FJUIFS TJEF ß&#x161; OPX UIBUß T QSBDUJDBM XXX CMVN DPN JEFBT

D:09

VERTICAL LIVING WHY IS APARTMENT LIVING SUDDENLY SO DESIRABLE?

Not long ago in New Zealand’s biggest city, apartment living wasn’t considered appealing. Most of the apartments in it were thought suitable only for students. The blocks that sprouted on Auckland’s Hobson and Nelson Streets were almost universally decried. All anyone wanted, it seemed, was to live in a villa. It feels like all of that has suddenly changed, with leading architects designing seriously desirable apartments (not all of them ridiculously priced). SKHY, a rehab of a 1970s office tower into 37 apartments by Cheshire Architects quickly sold out. Wynyard Central, a bigger development by Architectus, is almost half sold. Home of the Year 2015 winner Richard Naish’s RTA Studio is designing an apartment complex at Alexandra Park. And Fearon Hay is overseeing the masterplan of Union Green terrace homes and apartments by Peddle Thorp. Some activity is fuelled by property prices. With stand-alone homes becoming so unaffordable, apartments are seen as an increasingly sensible option. “Apartments were seen as desperation housing,” says architect Pip Cheshire. “Now we’re seeing a confluence of younger generations reaching home ownership level and not having much interest in mowing lawns and weeding gardens, a return of people from overseas and a revving up of the city’s food and beverage options.”

In Christchurch, post-quake central city living is finally getting a boost with the government’s announcement that Fletcher Living will develop nearly 1000 apartments and townhouses over the next eight or nine years. Good design is at the heart of most of these developments – mini-communities where attention has been paid to connectedness. This doesn’t mean the affordability issue has gone away. But the desire for a more compact, city-based form of living is surely a good start.

01—Wynyard Central, a development of apartments and townhouses in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, is designed by Architectus. 02—Fearon Hay is overseeing the development of Union Green, a mix of terrace homes and an apartment tower by Peddle Thorp. 03-04—SKHY is the redevelopment by Cheshire Architects of a 1970s office tower.

32 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

M MDZ MDZ3 166_Home_FP

The New-Generation

M{zd{ CX-5 is here

New Zealand’s award-winning SUV just got even better. With refinements to the striking KODO design delivering increased elegance inside and out, and MZD Connect keeping you entertained and in-touch, the New-Generation Mazda CX-5 places you at the heart of the action. Plus, with our ground-breaking SKYACTIV Technology that delivers sports performance and exceptional fuel efficiency from just 5.7L/100km* together with the added confidence of i-ACTIVSENSE Safety, the New-Generation Mazda CX-5 is not just an SUV – it’s a whole new way of seeing the SUV.

mazdacx5.co.nz

*ADR 81/02 Combined fuel consumption for the SKYACTIV-D diesel engine.

D:10

CLOSE SHAVES TWO FORMER SYDNEYSIDERS RETURN TO GROOM THEIR HOME TOWN, NEW PLYMOUTH.

New Plymouth’s arresting Len Lye Centre (see more on p.62) isn’t the only new thing in town. Late last year, Shaun and Cassie Conaglen returned to their home town after more than 20 years of working as a builder (Shaun) and a lawyer (Cassie) in Sydney. Sean says he had always wanted to own a shop – he just wasn’t sure what kind – and believes that despite the rise of online retailing, customers still value a high-quality face-to-face experience. So the couple took over the lease on an old barbershop – they’re also passionate about good grooming – along with an adjacent store and got to work.

The shop’s aesthetic was Shaun’s brainchild. He’d worked on many projects with industrial and vintage leanings in Sydney but, in New Plymouth, inspired by a painting of the Queen he discovered on TradeMe, he came up with a look he calls “Regal Vintage”, which involves a combination of gilt mirrors, chandeliers and mid-century furniture. It’s an intriguing formula that’s working exceptionally well. The Conaglens started out with two barbers and are now looking for a fifth. They’ve added a clothing section, a range of men’s grooming products and also sell coffee, Oscar’s Pies and other home-cooked treats. They also offer the chance for local artists to display their work upstairs. This unlikely combination has turned Jetcharm into a popular hangout, and made the Conaglens delighted to have made the move back home.

JETCHARM 32 Egmont Street New Plymouth 06 758 8840

01—A painting of the queen inspired the ‘Regal Vintage’ theme. 02—With the feel of a comfy living room, the owners designed their barbershop and cafe as a relaxing place to hang out. 03—The mural entitled ‘The Killer Inside’ is a part copy of a piece by Shaun Conaglen’s favourite graffiti artist, Conor Harrington. 04—The footrest of a Takara barber chair. 05—Shaun at the shop window. Photographyby Russell Kleyn.

34 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

36 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

D:11

HOME GROWN A LOCAL FASHION LABEL WORKS WITH AN ARCHITECTURAL ICON.

Architecture is often little more than an anonymous backdrop for fashion shoots, so it’s nice to see a label turning this formula around. Working Style, the 28-yearold firm that creates made-to-measure men’s suits and ready-to-wear items, is making great New Zealand architecture the star of its campaigns. Case in point: a new shoot at Wellington’s incredible Athfield House, which began its madcap evolution from rebel outpost (the local council hated it) to icon in 1965 and has not stopped evolving since. After the death of architect Sir Ian Athfield earlier this year, the compound remains the home of Athfield Architects – the firm is very much alive and well – and family members, friends and associates.

Working Style director Chris Dobbs grew up not far from Athfield House and says “it was always part of my psyche”. Prior to the shoot there, the Working Style team had photographer Mark Smith (who does all their campaigns) shoot at Auckland’s soon-to-be-refurbished 1928 St James Theatre by Henry Eli White. Now Dobbs is assembling a wish-list of other heritage structures. His tastes vary: he admires the classical beauty of Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery, designed by Donald Hosie in 1916, and New Plymouth’s brand-new Len Lye Centre by Pattersons (which you can see more of from p.62). “It’s our intention to embrace national treasures and be aware of all the country’s architectural community has to offer,” Dobbs says of his label’s campaigns, which also give him, happily, the chance to go on set. “The day we were at Athfield House, we could have been anywhere in the world – the Amalfi Coast, Santorini – but we were in a 50-year-old piece of architecture that looks better today than when it was first born.” WORKING STYLE workingstyle.co.nz

01—Model Fraser Wood on the roof of Wellington’s Athfield House, recently inscribed with ‘Ath’ in memory of architect Sir Ian Athfield, who died earlier this year. 02—Ivy crawls over the home’s white plaster walls. 03—A staircase at the house overlooks Wellington Harbour. 04—Looking through a porthole-shaped window to a courtyard. 05—A view over one of the home’s many terraces to the water. 06—The home’s labyrinthine interior features multiple split levels as it tumbles down the Khandallah hillside.

Photographyby Mark Smith.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 37

Make the right choice with the Fletcher Window Selector.

Whether you’re renovating your home or building a new one,

how spaces can be transformed through, light, ventilation and

the Fletcher window and door selector will inspire you to

indoor/outdoor flow. You can even create a wish list of windows

express the way you want to live. Featuring clever innovations

and doors with technical specifications, which you can save and

like the Foldback ® Bifold and LevelStep® Sill, you can discover

share with others. See it in action at windowselector.co.nz

Made exclusively by:

FLA0223 - HBNZ

D:12

RESTING EASY

SITTING PRETTY WITH DESIGN ORIGINALS FOR UNDER $1500.

01—‘Heaven 485’ chair by Jean-Marie Massaud for Emu, $642 from ECC, ecc.co.nz 02—‘Poly’ armchair by Robin Day for Hille, $225 from Bob & Friends, bobandfriends.co.nz 03—‘A2’ stool, $335 from IMO, imo.co.nz 04— Wire dining chair by Harry Bertoia for Knoll, $1500 from Studio Italia, studioitalia.co.nz 05— Side chair by Harry Bertoia for Knoll,

$550 from Studio Italia, studioitalia.co.nz 06—‘Snooze’ deck chair by Chiaramonte-Marin for Emu, $515 from ECC, ecc.co.nz 07—‘Miura’ stool by Konstantin Grcic for Plank, $550 from Backhouse, backhouse.co.nz 08—‘Tulip’ side table by Eero Saarinen, $1500 from Studio Italia, studioitalia.co.nz 09—‘Leaf’ chair by Lievore Altherr Molina for Arper, $607 from UFL, ufl.co.nz 10—‘Wishbone’ table by Busk & Hertzog, $690 from Katalog, katalog.co.nz. Edited by Sam Smith.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 39

D:13

NATURAL TOUCH

TAKE COMFORT IN DESIGN ORIGINALS FOR LESS THAN A GRAND.

01—‘Basket’ chair by Gian Franco Legler, $485 from Backhouse, backhouse.co.nz 02—‘Ballet’ chair by Goldsworthy Studio for Dialog, $800 from Backhouse, backhouse.co.nz 03—‘Signal’ chair, $678 from IMO, imo.co.nz 04—‘Baker’ stool, $552 from IMO, imo.co.nz 05—‘Smart’ chair by Estudio Andreu for Andreu World, $523 from UFL, ufl.co.nz 06—‘Tom and Jerry’ stool by Konstantin Grcic for Magis, $996 from Matisse, matisse.co.nz 07—‘About a Chair’ by Hee Welling for Hay, $606 from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz 08—‘Adelaide’ chair, $619 from BoConcept, boconcept.co.nz 09—‘Wrap’ stool by Tim Webber, $797 from Cult Design, cultdesign.co.nz 10—‘Tangerine’ chair by Simon James

for Resident, $591 from Simon James Design, simonjamesdesign.com. Edited by Sam Smith.

40 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

D:14

IN BLACK AND WHITE 05

MONOCHROMATIC DESIGNS THAT WON’T MAIM YOUR WALLET.

01—‘Duffel’ stool by Tim Webber, $670 from Tim Webber Design, timwebberdesign.co.nz 02—‘Rubik’ stool by Claudio Dondoli and Marco Pocci for Pedrali, $350

from ECC, ecc.co.nz 03—‘Bowl’ table by Ayush Kasliwal for Mater, $947 (medium) or $756 (small) from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz 04—‘Drop’ chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, $728 from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz 05—‘Tangerine’ stool by Simon James for Resident, $601 from Simon James Design, simonjamesdesign.com 06—‘Pendant 45’ lights by David Moreland, $301 each from Simon James Design, simonjamesdesign.com 07—‘Componibili’ modules by Anna Castelli Ferrieri for Kartell, from $204 from Backhouse, backhouse.co.nz 08—‘Series 7’ dining chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, $896 from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz 09—‘Chair 1’ by Konstantin Grcic for Magis, $669 from Matisse, matisse.co.nz. Edited by Sam Smith.

42 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

A Smart Client

+ A Creative Architect + A Talented Builder = A Great Home.

Building a new home, or adding to the home you already have, is a great opportunity. It’s also a serious commitment of your resources.

sympathetic shape — to produce a well-sited home that will meet your needs, endure over time and maintain its value.

Design is a small part of the cost of any residential project, but it has a huge effect on the outcome. The right designer, working with the right builder, will ensure you get the best return from your investment.

Registered architects work across the full residential spectrum, from large houses, where the cost and complexity of development demands a professional approach to design, to smaller houses and alterations, where clever thinking makes the most of tight budgets.

Registered architects are the most highly qualified spatial designers in the building sector. They know how to give your brief its most

No matter the scale of your project, a registered architect will be your advocate through the entire

construction process, from concept design to finished building. To get the best design result, talk to an architect, right at the start. To find an architect in your area, go to www.architecturenz.net For more information about the New Zealand Institute of Architects go to www.nzia.co.nz

D:15

NEWS FROM NEW YORK OUR CORRESPONDENT TOURS THE CITY’S LATEST DESIGN OFFERINGS. TEXT

/Sam Eichblatt

New York’s youthful citywide design fair is a strange beast on the festival circuit. Its flagship event, the rambling ICFF trade show, celebrated its 28th birthday this year and grew to occupy two floors of the Javits Center. Outside the Javits’ miles of carpeted commercial booth space, the festival was increasingly decentralised, with dozens of independent design shows clustered under the NYCxDesign banner created three years ago to raise the profile of New York as a design capital. The best of these, including designjunction, WantedDesign and Site Unseen OFFSITE, faithfully supported this goal, with tightly edited shows, installations and supporting events inside suitably well-designed gallery spaces. This year also marked a geographic shift of focus. The festival’s launch was held not in Manhattan, but in Brooklyn’s Industry City – vast former warehouses containing studios and small manufacturers in Sunset Park, a decidedly un-glitzy neighbourhood undergoing large-scale redevelopment as a creative hub. There was a correspondingly sharp contrast between the old and new guard in terms of actual design. Responding to social and environmental shifts and a change in attitudes to traditional “luxury”, smaller design studios are reinterpreting traditional craft, experimenting with process-driven design and non-traditional materials (small objects made of concrete were a persistent meme this year) and using technology to enhance sustainability.

The sea change in attitudes to design was expressed by Dwell president Michela O’Connor Abrams, in her talk at BKLYN DESIGNS, another satellite event: “To someone who is affluent and 35, a Mercedes isn’t a badge saying they’ve arrived any more. People want fewer, higher-quality items, and to create a sense of place, which is not necessarily about buying the most expensive things – it’s about buying the most well-made.” On these pages, I’ve picked some of the highlights of the NYCxDesign Festival.

44 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

01 Os + Oos

03 Avo Avo

05 Plant-in City

07 Assembly Design

09 Cody Hoyt

‘Mono-Lights’ by Dutch design firm Os + Oos is a play on the classic single fluorescent tube, but uses LED lighting. The fitting around the tube can be bent and flexed to adapt to a range of different situations, or the tubes can be joined together into a rope and suspended, creating a piece of sculptural lighting-furniture that can be applied to define different spaces. osandoos.com

Avo Avo’s hand-painted leather rug collection had an unusual take on a familiar material, using cowhides painted with bold graphics. While they have been commonly used as wall hangings, they are also incredibly durable and designed to be walked on – designer Brit Kleinman used the hide she displayed at Site Unseen OFFSITE as a rug in her own apartment for three years. avoavo.com

Plant-in City filled their installations with sculptural, stacked cedar and copper terrariums. Conceived by architects HB Collaborative as a “modular green wall”, the artful, nearly self-sustaining structures combine low-fi aesthetics (like the traditional Japanese burning method used to waterproof the boxes) with digital sensors and integrated LED grow-lights controlled by a smartphone app. plantincity.com

The Assembly Design ‘L Series’ of wood tables and consoles uses classic joinery and simple forms to create customisable pieces. Two leg designs – one long, one short – combine with a variety of tabletops and shelves according to each customer’s needs, and the do-it-yourself aesthetic is reinforced by the exposed joinery, as a reminder of each piece’s construction. assemblydesign.us

Cody Hoyt was another designer using heavy-duty materials in a new way. For each of his Heavy Vessels, the former graphic designer – who cites influences such as the Memphis Group, Nerikomi pottery and Brutalist architect Louis Kahn – layers, cuts and combines different hues of natural clay to develop striking cross-sections and a marbled appearance. After the final assembly, which can involve folding the clay like origami, he dries and casts the stoneware piece in sheet rock, which allows it to dry evenly by wicking away moisture. codyhoyt.tumblr.com

02 Peg Woodworking Brooklyn-based woodworker Kate Casey of Peg Woodworking created a range of pieces that refined the current infatuation with textile art and weaving. Her Shaker-style benches and stools are created with maple frames that act as the loom onto which she weaves white-on-white geometric, Danish-inspired patterns in cotton cord. pegwoodworking.com

04 Doug Johnston

08 Steven Haulenbeek 06 Anglepoise

Fibre artist Doug Johnston began with beautifully simple vessels made of coiled and stitched rope, but his installation at the Site Unseen OFFSITE pop-up show at the Collective Design Fair took his chosen medium to new levels, with a series of intricate vessels in vaguely anthropoid containers sprouting legs, humps and unexpected dewlaps. dougjohnston.net

British lighting designer Anglepoise was a standout with a borderline-minimalist display, which provided respite from the serried ranks of faucets, marble counters and “cottage-style” cabinetry. After more than 80 years of production, Anglepoise’s basic low-energy designs have remained the same, and still look better than most of the competition. anglepoise.com

Steven Haulenbeek’s icecast bronze collection is seriously process-driven design: made by pouring hot wax into large blocks of ice, then casting the result in bronze using the lostwax process. The weighty one-off pieces, like the ‘IceCast Double Mirror’ or the ‘Oblong Side Table’, have a smudgy black patina and otherworldly organic quality, as if lifted from a fairytale. stevenhaulenbeek.com

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 45

HOME + WYNYARD CENTRAL

D:16

CREATING COMMUNITY ONE OF AUCKLAND’S MOST APPEALING NEW RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS IS SELLING FAST.

Waterfront living in Auckland has never looked more appealing than at Wynyard Central, an exciting new development just behind the city’s bustling North Wharf precinct. The evidence? More than 50 percent of the residences have already sold in less than four months. The development, designed by Architectus (who also designed this magazine’s ﬁrst-ever Home of the Year in 1996), comprises more than 113 apartments and townhouses, all within walking distance of the waterfront, Silo Park and the soon-to-be-completed ASB Waterfront Theatre, the central business district, and Auckland’s best inner-city suburbs.

So who’s buying these high-quality residences, with generous outdoor spaces, concierge services, and a targeted Homestar 7 rating for sustainability and energy efﬁciency? The apartments have mostly sold to Aucklanders downsizing to a lowmaintenance home, all of whom prize the sense of community that comes with being part of this unique development, with its intimate thoroughfares and laneways. Importantly, any concerns about the buildings being on leasehold land have been thoroughly resolved: the 128-year lease is fully pre-paid by the developers, with a guarantee of no rent reviews throughout that period. With this sort of peace of mind, it’s no wonder these exemplary residences are proving so popular. If you’re interested in purchasing one, it’s best to act soon. wynyardcentral.co.nz 01—A rendering of one of the penthouse apartment interiors at Wynyard Central, designed by Architectus. 02—An artist’s impression of a penthouse bedroom interior in the apartment tower. 03—An artist’s impression of an apartment bathroom. 04—Wynyard Central will feature a mix of pavilion-style apartments, townhouses and one, two and three-bedroom apartments, all located in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter. 05—Wynyard Central will be designed in a village-style conﬁguration featuring intimate laneways alongside streets lined in park-like plantings.

46 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

HOME This is our small homes issue, and people in small spaces normally shy away from colour and pattern. But what can colour and pattern bring to a small space? EMILY SOMERVILLE-RYAN Small spaces often lack personality because of the minimal amount of floor space to fill with interesting and inspiring furniture. Making the most of surrounding wall spaces by injecting colour, depth and texture through paint is an excellent way to incorporate this and optimise originality. Patterns incorporating vertical lines give the impression of a higher stud and therefore make a small room feel more spacious. How did you choose the colours for this shoot, and how would you describe the way they work together? Because this is the small homes issue I chose a lighter colour scheme to brighten and lighten the compact space and maximise the light reflection in smaller rooms. With spring in mind, I have lent towards fresh greens and calm blues, suggesting the new growth of the coming season and incorporating the strong vertical and diagonal veins of spring leaves. This colour choice will inject freshness into smaller, stuffier spaces. The furniture has been kept to a minimum to prevent the room feeling cluttered and overcrowded.

Take our lead and bring rooms to life with Resene paint colours and a little imagination. For information, advice and samples, visit the Resene ColorShop nearest you, call 0800 RESENE (737 363), or resene.co.nz. Ladder by Menu, $894 from Simon James Design; ‘La Chaise’ lounge chair by Charles and Ray Eames, $11,720 from Matisse; ‘Dama’ stools by CR&S Poliform, $2,600 each from Studio Italia.

48 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

ADVERTISING PROMOTION / HOME + RESENE

Resene Designer White Resene Alaska Resene Kandinsky Resene Quarter Alabaster

Resene Tiebreaker

Resene Spring Rain

RESENE COLOUR CHALLENGE Use colour to enhance small spaces and bring the outdoors in. / Emily Somerville-Ryan PHOTOGRAPHY / Melanie Jenkins STYLING

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 49

SIZE MATTERS New Zealand kitchens were once among the smallest in the world. Our columnist has a theory on why they became so big. TEXT:

Douglas Lloyd Jenkins

Helen Leach can captivate an audience with the tale of the purchase of her first slow cooker, or with her still-enthusiastic endorsement of her 1974 Shacklock ‘Custom 27’ wall oven. This ability makes her book, Kitchens: The New Zealand Kitchen in the 20th Century (Otago University Press, 2014), a wonderfully eccentric read. The book is perfect for those wanting to understand the mustard-coloured rangehood in the kitchen they’ve just acquired, or those wishing to add a little design authenticity to a retro-style kitchen via a carefully placed Tala Kitchen Measure or a Ralta Kitchen Wizz. When I heard Leach speak at the Auckland Writers Festival, one comment stood out. “For a lot of the 20th century, New Zealand had some of the smallest newbuild kitchens in the world,” she said. This fascinated me. Once such centres of activity, I wouldn’t have been surprised to have heard her say that we once had the world’s largest kitchens – but the smallest? It happened like this. About a century ago, around World War I, we began to let go of the idea that a kitchen consisted of three interlinked rooms – kitchen, scullery and pantry – because the servants were disappearing. We’re not talking a Downton Abbey level of staffing here but, at the time, most middle-class, villa-dwelling families had at least one household servant who, although not necessarily living in, ran the kitchen and laundry. Times changed. The scullery went first because the scullery maid was no longer there. Eventually, the old villa kitchen disappeared along with the family cook. The kitchen changed most because of who moved in rather than who moved out. With the arrival of the lady of the house, the kitchen stopped being a secondary space, but it remained decidedly female in orientation. Although there was an emphasis on efficiency, there was also a lot of talk about prettiness and cheerfulness. Even the new word ‘kitchenette’ sounded pretty. It won’t have eluded you, however, that the wife had now become the domestic servant, occupying space at the back of the house. As the 1920s progressed, the family was also expelled from the kitchen, “which was not intended as a sitting room”, Leach’s book reports. The kitchen table went and the kids with it. Dad in his garage, kids in the back garden and mum in her kitchen. Because kitchens were women’s spaces, men judged they could be small. Nine feet by 12 feet (2.7 x 3.6m) was considered a good size. In the 1930s, architect Vernon Brown shaved off a foot, recommending

50 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

eight feet by 12 (2.4 x 3.6m). It was the Depression, after all. Wartime kitchens were smaller again but few new houses were built. In the 1950s, the New Zealand kitchen shrank to its smallest size yet. I think of the 1950s housewife as a powerhouse of domestic production, cooking breakfasts, scones, legs of lamb and pavlovas (the subject of one of Leach’s previous books). More often than not they did this with small children clinging to their ankles. You admire them all the more for knowing they did this in such tiny spaces. Fast forward and very few newbuild kitchens would be described as small. Now the primary focus of a home, it’s hard to know where the kitchen starts and stops. What happened? Leach’s book makes a polite exit with the last days of the 20th century, but leaves us with an image in which older family members gather in an open-plan kitchen doing last-minute prep for Christmas dinner. There are a lot of differences between this and an image of the same scene from the 1970s. The key change, however, is not architectural. It is that, in the later image, women are outnumbered by men. It would be nice to think that the new super-large kitchen was a result of decades of female emancipation, the merging of domestic and public space. Has the lady of the house, once uprooted from her parlour and banished to the back of the house (compensated with cheerful drapes and pretty patterned linoleum), at last been granted a kitchen in the spotlight? I suspect the opposite to be true: our kitchens are larger and more public because more men now cook. Kiwi men aren’t creatures given to doing things unnoticed, particularly not domestic chores. Men cook visibly or not at all. It’s hard to imagine a bloke popping in with a tray of warm scones that had been made unnoticed. Decades at the barbecue has made man-cooking a performance art. The blokes were lured inside by space and visibility. Men like to spread out and don’t work happily in small spaces (although they’re happy to design them for others). The space that once accommodated the production of a three-course meal is now taken up with the making of a salad. So kitchens are bigger. Why so open? A young chef recently pointed out that the acclaim needs to start well before the meal is on the table. If it’s not to be a chore, cooking needs to be a spectator sport. Leach’s book starts with the removal of servants and the arrival of the lady of the house. I suspect a sequel may well start with the arrival of the man of the house, in from the garage.

Left The white ceramic hob on the 1979 Shacklock range was imported from the United States.

Above Most cooks bought utensils to help convert ingredient weights and volumes from imperial to metric.

Below left Planning of balanced, economical and traditional dishes was set out in this book from Otago University by Emily Carpenter.

Below Eve magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s depiction of an openplan kitchen in 1969, with all the features that would become popular in the next decade.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 51

Bikes, sheepskins and (craft) beer A new Queenstown lodge and eatery takes over an unlikely 1980s building – but there’s no mocking this Tudor host. TEXT /

52 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Simon Farrell-Green

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ David Straight

Above Rob Essenburg and Ainsley Thompson head the kitchen. What the garden and foraging can’t provide, they buy locally for their wholefoods-based menu. Right The Sherwood’s roof boasts New Zealand’s largest private solar panel installation. Stacked timber is ready for the wood-fired grill. Left The property offers views of Lake Wakatipu, as well as a vegetable garden (with a teepee at its edge) where produce is grown for the kitchen. A BMX track circles the garden.

It wasn’t an obvious candidate for a hip makeover, but now, just outside Queenstown, a 1980s mock-Tudor motel and restaurant high on the hill above Lake Wakatipu is enjoying something of a renaissance. The original pink Formica vanities may remain in the bathrooms, but there are also sheepskins, recycled Italian army blankets as curtains, rough-hewn timber, white butcher’s tiles and marble. Outside, there’s a giant vegetable garden with a BMX track around it and a teepee in one corner. From here, the kitchen team at Sherwood, as the reinvented establishment is known, make their own sauerkraut and kombucha. In the restaurant, they serve food grilled over charcoal on handmade plates: chicken with a big seasonal salad and grains, for example, washed down with organic wine. After dinner there might be a band, a new-age surfer group from Queensland, say, and in the mornings when you eat breakfast they come down, all hungover and strangely glamorous, and then you return to your single-origin coffee, the view of the lake and people racing around the dirt track on their BMXs, and contemplate signing up for one of the on-site yoga or meditation classes. In the normal course of events, this building would have been demolished. Queenstown’s property

market eats its own every few years and a site as good as this – a hectare and a half of flat land with lovely lake views high above the main road into Queenstown – was a prime development spot. For most potential buyers, it was a great piece of land with a problem on it. But Adam Smith and Sam Chapman and their business partners Stephen Marr and Lucy Vincent Marr saw the chance to create something a little different. By the time Smith came across it, the property had been on and off the market for three years. The plumbing leaked, and the building was so badly insulated it cost $250,000 a year to heat. But the use of the land was nothing if not generous. Modern developments would cram many more units on this site, over multiple levels. Sherwood’s new owners wanted to give the old buildings a little respect. You might know the Chapman-Vincent-Marr team’s previous work: Chapman was one of the original partners in Wellington’s Matterhorn and went on to establish Auckland bar Golden Dawn with Stephen and Lucy. Both venues are beautiful spaces in previously under-rated rooms that don’t feel over-designed but are great to be in (Golden Dawn was meant to be a pop-up; five years later it’s one of Auckland’s favourite bars).

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 53

Above Designer Allistar Cox, who has worked with Sherwood’s owners on other projects including Wellington’s Matterhorn, says the Queenstown lodge’s design unfolded gradually. Here in the dining area, they opted for an industrial style. Ingredients from Sherwood’s garden and surrounding farms are prepared in the kitchen at the back of this photograph.

Working with designer Allistar Cox – who designed both Matterhorn and Golden Dawn, as well as other hospitality spaces – they made things up as they went along, working in a fluid, collaborative sort of way. At Sherwood, they kept anything that worked, and put budget into improving the things that didn’t. “That conversation kept going backwards and forwards,” says Cox of the project. “In this case, that happened as we were building. Which is tricky.” Most of all, they decided to embrace the old building, warts and all. “We’re not trying to cover the building up,” says Smith. “As challenging as that is aesthetically, we’ve got to respect what other people have done in some way. Resource was put into it, and energy – and time.”

54 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

So they installed New Zealand’s biggest private solar panel installation on the roof, and a bio-compacter out the back of the kitchen. They pulled up cobbles in the carpark and created a courtyard barricaded by timber for the wood-fired grill. They filled in the swimming pool and turned it into a conversation pit with an open brazier in the middle (because, really, what’s the point of a swimming pool in Queenstown for most of the year anyway?). Instead of relining the walls, they covered them with recycled cork panels, which is heavily insulating and has an earthy ease. There is also central heating and modern plumbing – the things that matter in the depth of a Central Otago winter. And just like that, a peculiar old building has an exciting new life.

Above The table-tennis table sits in an evolving space that also functions as a reception area, garden bar and bike workshop. Right The interior has been given warm, earthy touches, such as sheepskins on the bench seats. Below left Plywood panels are used like giant pegboards to store and display. Below right The rooms, some of which overlook Lake Wakatipu, are simply furnished. Commissioned work by Joel Kefali features in each room.

Sherwood 554 Frankton Road Queenstown 9300 03 450 1090 sherwoodqueenstown.nz

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 55

tiny ruins A weekend in a little apartment in Le Corbusier’s modernist dream world. TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY

A while ago my partner and I spent three days in one of the 337 apartments in the Unité d’habitation in Marseille, designed by Le Corbusier and built between 1947 and 1952. Our petite space had a view towards the Mediterranean from the living room on one side and, from the other, a view of the city stretching out to the rugged limestone hills surrounding Marseille. The locals call the Unité d’habitation “La Maison du Fada” (“the crazy guy’s house”). Photos from the early 1950s show a huge, stark concrete building floating like an enormous ocean liner in a sea of French bungalows. This was post-war public housing as idealistic modernism: Built as a prototype, the structure was the expression of an experimental housing solution containing all the facilities required for 1200 people living in a community. The building contains 23 variations on a basic apartment type, ranging from studio spaces to family dwellings. All of the apartments follow the same concept of a split-level space, with double-height volumes making them feel more spacious than they might. The configuration of our particular apartment meant that as we opened the front door, our view was directed through the dining area and out through the large windows to the sea. The cabin-like kitchen (Le Corbusier likened it to a cockpit) was tucked away to the left and linked to the dining area by means of a serving hatch. Moving into the dining area, you couldn’t help but look down into the living room, where the bed was tucked under the mezzanine.

56 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

/ Mary Gaudin

It was a dramatic flourish, generous but at the same time intimate and human in scale. The apartment’s owner, an architect, had modernised it but retained its original fixtures, such as Jean Prouvé’s oak stairs and window frames, and the cast aluminium and tiling of Charlotte Perriand’s kitchen. The balcony, or loggia, was envisaged by Le Corbusier as a space full of plants to bring nature into the apartment, which explains its tiny proportions. It was not meant as a place to linger, but somewhere to smoke a cigarette or drink a coffee while leaning on the concrete bar-like counter. I mostly just pottered around enjoying the space: eating, reading, watching the changing light and taking photos. My mathematician partner raided the supply of children’s drawing paper to work on some computations, a good sign that he was able to concentrate in the space. The apartment felt stimulating, but at the same time relaxing and intimate. It also made me think about space. On average, Europeans live in around half the living space of New Zealanders. Here in France, where I moved in 2007, apartments are sold by the square metre. My partner and I live in a 65-square-metre apartment, similar in size to the one in the Unité d’Habitation. We have two tiny balconies, one of which is large enough to stretch out a hammock. We have views overlooking a park. Storage space is tight, which means we are constantly editing our stuff. These are good things. It’s not the size of the space that matters, but how you feel when you’re there.

Above The original Jean ProuvĂŠdesigned oak doors lead to the concrete loggia, with its tile-inlaid shelf. Views from the apartment take the eye towards the Mediterranean, as well as the cityscape and limestone hills surrounding Marseille. Right The bed is tucked behind a storage unit in the living room and beneath the mezzanine in the split-level apartment.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 57

The large, black-painted recessed display units in the living area are a visual counterpoint to the white, double-height space.

60 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Far left This aspect looks into to the living room from the mezzanine. Left The Charlotte Perrianddesigned kitchen retains its original sliding cupboards, tiles and stainless steel benchtop and sink. Bottom left The original serving hatch is a transition between the kitchen and dining area. Right The Jean ProuvĂŠ-designed oak staircase leads from the entry on the mezzanine floor down to the combined sitting and sleeping area.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 61

62 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Zizz and zing The late, great artist Len Lyeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work gets a sensational new home in New Plymouth. TEXT

/ Jeremy Hansen

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ Simon Devitt

Above far left The Len Lye Centre, designed by Auckland-based Patterson Associates, has a stainless steel skin, making it a selfie-magnet that is also a tribute to Lyeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourite sculptural material. Above right Inside the building, the concrete forms are stripped of stainless steel, while slot windows allow light in between the forms. Left Reflections of neighbouring buildings in the crenellated exterior.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 63

The early 1980s. A family holiday: hot summer days driving around Taranaki listening to the Little River Band’s Greatest Hits on cassette in the back seat of the Peugeot 504. One afternoon, my parents announced we would visit New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Gallery. I was 12 years old and adamant that boredom awaited us. A few minutes later my two younger brothers and I were standing, mesmerised, in front of artist Len Lye’s ‘Trilogy’ (also known as ‘A Flip and Two Twisters’), its gigantic, swooping, clattering metal sheets sending shockwaves through my young brain. Art? This was more like a roller-coaster ride. The wonder of this spectacle has stayed with me ever since. Thirty-two years later, I returned to New Plymouth on a cold, clear July day to visit the breathtaking new home for Lye’s work. Lye, who lived mostly in London and New York and won international renown for his films and kinetic sculptures, bequeathed his collection to the New Plymouth-based Len Lye Foundation before his death in 1980. The foundation has battled to erect a suitable building for it ever since. The new centre is worth the wait. Designed by Auckland architects Patterson Associates, the Len Lye Centre – which forms a single art destination with the adjacent Govett-Brewster Gallery – is the perfect building for the Instagram age, and I’m

64 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

not implying any superficiality in saying that. Its undulating stainless steel skin is polished to such a reflective sheen that it begs you to take a selfie. During my two-day visit, most people passing by did just that. Children snuggled into the building’s nooks and gaped upwards to watch its mirror-like skin meld with the sky. A red-haired girl struck dramatic poses, flinging herself against the building while a woman took her photograph. Nine-year-old New Plymouth kid Jack Sullivan-Ussher didn’t have a mobile phone to take his own shots of the building, but he and his younger brother Jasper liked watching their skittering reflections as they sprinted back and forth along the façade. “It’s like a building you’d see in Wellington or Auckland,” Jack told me. “It’s good we’ve got it here.” For Len Lye Foundation chairman John Matthews, getting this sensational structure built has been “a perilous journey”. The engineer befriended Lye back in the 1970s and was instrumental in bringing the

Below left The Len Lye Centre connects with the refurbished GovettBrewster Gallery’s original building on the ground level and via two slim bridges.

Below The curvaceous concrete panels that form the building’s exterior are punctuated by slim windows that can be covered with metal shutters.

Right Len Lye’s kinetic stainless steel sculpture ‘Fountain’, rendered in different sizes, being installed in the Len Lye Centre’s large-works gallery.

The building is simultaneously monumental and irreverent, equal parts pop and pomp. artist’s technically challenging sculptures to life for an exhibition at the Govett-Brewster in 1977. The success of the show and the camaraderie they developed preparing for it prompted Lye to establish the foundation and bequeath his works to it. Matthews and I wandered up the grand ramp inside the building and turned the corner to a lofty space where one of those works, ‘Fountain’, was being installed. The sculpture, a bundle of vertical stainless steel rods that splays upward and outwards, is engineered to shimmy in the light. Matthews stopped to praise the progress that Evan Webb, the director of the Len Lye Foundation, had been making in his efforts to calibrate the sculpture’s movement. The pair

greeted each other with smiles and an enthusiastic hug. “It’s more languid now, not so pulsy and urgent,” Matthews said, dancing a little slow-motion groove to demonstrate what he meant. Two weeks still remained until the building’s opening, but the full reveal of its exterior a couple of days earlier seemed to have been greeted enthusiastically. Matthews, however, said the mood hasn’t always been so buoyant. “We’ve had an extraordinary saga. There have been many New Plymouth district councillors who have tried to kill it. I refer to them as the good, the bad and the mad. We told them hundreds of times that it wasn’t going to cost them a cracker – the city has got it as a gift, which was always the objective.” Indeed, the $11.5 million building was funded entirely from external sources, including Todd Energy, the TSB Community Trust, and the Ministry for Arts, Culture and Heritage. Another $5 million was spent on strengthening and refurbishing the adjacent Govett-Brewster. (The New Plymouth District Council contributes to the gallery’s running costs.) People thought the new building was a waste of money. They hated the look of it. They thought the stainless steel would deteriorate (the architects say a twice-yearly wash will prevent this). They felt the Govett-Brewster didn’t adequately support local artists, that it showed

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 65

66 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

The buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arresting exterior commands attention, its stainless steel skin seemingly dancing to a syncopated rhythm.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 67

too much weird and obscure work, that the shiny new building would be a humiliating flop. “We had a huge amount of vindictive press,” Matthews said. “The naysayers are the ones that get public attention. You have to become bullet-proof, but there’s a few that get under your skin.” One of the biggest controversies in the centre’s development was Matthews’ insistence on seeking an architect from outside Taranaki. A local firm had already proposed a design for the building, but Matthews used his leverage to nix it. “I was a bad boy,” he said, “but, fortunately, as the chair of the Len Lye Foundation [my view] carried some weight because we own the works. We only had one chance of getting this right.” The foundation visited 12 New Zealand architecture firms to discuss possibilities, then selected four of those firms to be interviewed by a committee that included the Govett-Brewster’s then-director, Rhana Devenport, and architect Sir Miles Warren. The firms weren’t required to present design proposals. Instead, Matthews said the committee was “looking for whether they had an empathy with Lye and his work. Andrew [Patterson] was the best prepared. He did a great job of convincing us he had the flair to do this.” The early renderings of the building looked seductive but also slightly unbelievable: it was easy to think the

68 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

promised spectacle could never be achieved. Happily, the opposite turns out to be true: the finished building has more “zizz”, as Lye would put it, than anyone could expect. Its façade evokes the sass and verve of Lye’s work, the exterior undulating in a syncopated rhythm like the jazz backing track of one of the artist’s lively film shorts. Sunlight bounces off the stainless steel to form dynamic patterns on the footpath like Lye’s pioneering scratchings on celluloid. The building is simultaneously monumental and irreverent, equal parts pop and pomp. Those early renderings made me think of a description historian John Wilson is said to have used for Christchurch’s new art gallery before it opened in 2003. He called it “a warehouse in a tutu”, a building whose flashy façade promised a lot but delivered only standard-issue interior spaces. I had wondered if this description might apply to the Len Lye Centre, but I needn’t have worried. “The building definitely dances with the street and the façade is really cool, but it’s what happens inside that’s the main thing,” Andrew Patterson told me. (The street itself will improve later this year with a new plaza by Pattersons, mostly paid for by Matthews’ firm, Technix Industries). Patterson said the building’s design refers to Lye’s interest in temples, and his belief that divinity could

be found in art. Inside, the stainless steel is stripped from the exterior wall’s curved forms to reveal the heft of its concrete panels. Slim windows between the panels allow light to spill down the concrete as it might in the nave of a church. The scale of the building is difficult to read from the exterior, but the majesty of the processional ramp inside fills visitors with awe. The circulation through the building is clear and almost classical in its elegance. The Govett-Brewster, it should be said, runs a programme of exhibitions not only by Lye, but by leading international contemporary artists. Director Simon Rees started his job 18 months ago, when the new building was being constructed. I asked him if the new building might yield a Bilbao effect, a boost in fame like that experienced by the small city in northern Spain when Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim opened there in 1997. Rees reckoned the Govett-Brewster will “probably double the [visitor] numbers from the base

rate of the 1990s and 2000s”, partly because the city has beefed up other cultural infrastructure since then, including the coastal walkway (featuring Len Lye’s ‘Wind Wand’), the WOMAD festival and Puke Ariki Museum. The Len Lye Centre’s attention-getting exterior, Rees said, “helps us publicise the experience you can have on the inside”. Indeed, the architecture is powerful enough to make visitors think differently about the city it is in. Len Lye “would be thrilled” at the new building, Matthews said. “He said to me once that great architects hoist great artists on their shoulders.” The way Matthews talked about him made Lye’s presence palpable, as if he might drop in to see the new home for his works. Patterson also talked about him in the present tense, as if the late artist had been watching over his shoulder, urging the building into being. “The building is Len Lye’s wharenui,” he said. “It was a real honour and privilege to design for him.”

Len Lye Centre Govett Brewster Gallery 42 Queen Street New Plymouth govettbrewster.com

Left The reflections on the building’s exterior change constantly throughout the day and into the night.

Far left The ramp in the centre’s main entrance leads up to the largeworks gallery and has a monumental scale.

Below The new buliding contains a 60-seat cinema for showing the works of Lye and other filmmakers.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 69

MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRY

Designed for the modern laundry, Fisher & Paykel SmartDriveâ&#x201E;˘ washing machines and matching dryers not only look great but also offer large capacity, easy installation, robust construction and high performance. Best of all, your laundry can now look as beautiful as the rest of your home.

NZ025ALT

6kg Vented Dryer (model DE6060G1) shown available from September 2015

Our annual awards reveal New Zealand's best new furniture and lighting.

TEXT

/ Jo Bates

Sam Smith and Catherine Wilkinson PHOTOGRAPHY / Toaki Okano

STYLING /

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 71

winner WINNER

CHESHIRE ARCHITECTS ‘Torchon’ pendant for Resident

A draped pendant encapsulated in a perfect glass orb, ‘Torchon’ exploits the viscous potential of molten glass. Achieving its simple, elegant form is a complex process, says Nat Cheshire of Cheshire Architects, who collaborated with his colleague Emily Priest and glass artist Luke Jacomb on the design. “The soft, spherical glass is carefully mouth-formed and, as this bubble cools, a ball of molten glass is placed into its open aperture,” Cheshire says. “Immediately, a digitally formed tool is plunged into its malleable core, forming a perfect quartz-like crystal.” That step demands equal measures of force and delicacy, as the tool’s blades extrude and stretch the glass into the crystalline form at the pendant’s heart. It’s a move that is executed in the precious seconds that precede the cooling and solidification of the toffee-like glass. The core is then filled briefly with an etching liquid that roughens its surface and diffuses the LED’s output. Two fine wires suspend the pendant. Our Design Awards judge, Fisher & Paykel’s design director Mark Elmore, describes the pendant as “a beautiful blend of technology and craft”. It marks Cheshire Architects’ second Design Awards win in as many years: their ‘Parison’ pendant, also created in collaboration with Jacomb, won our 2014 award. ‘Torchon’ pendant for Resident, $932 from Simon James Design, simonjamesdesign.com

72 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

FINALIST

TIM WEBBER ‘Stellar’ sofa

In keeping with his now-customary pared-back aesthetic, Tim Webber designed the modular ‘Stellar’ sofa with proportions that simply encourage people to curl up. “People put their feet up because of the deep, low seat, which affirms the notion of relaxation and leisure,” says the designer, whose ‘Duffel’ ottoman was a finalist in last year’s Design Awards. The sofa’s low base and solidity make it an anchoring presence in a room, while a perforated steel panel wraps up from under the arm to serve as an attachment point for a range of customisable shelves. Webber was inspired by the perforated panels often used in shop fittings, to which a variety of fixings can be hung.

“The same notion is relevant with our panel here, as we can create custom components to fit it, such as small bookshelves for magazines,” he says. Webber chose steel for this accessory as a contrast to the sofa’s soft, warm cover (the sofa in this photo uses James Dunlop ‘Commando’ fabric; Webber offers a wide range of options), while the American oak shelf adds an earthy materiality to the ensemble. The sofa caps off a big year for Webber, who this year opened his own space in Auckland’s BLOC showroom. ‘Stellar’ sofa, $7410 from Tim Webber Design, timwebberdesign.com, and BLOC, Level 2, 20 Normanby Road, Auckland.

Also pictured: Japanese cushion, $169 from Everyday Needs, everydayneeds.co.nz; dot cushion by Hay, $259, and silk throw by Emma Hayes, $499, both from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz; ‘Kam’ tumbler by Eric Bonnin, $40 from Douglas and Bec, douglasandbec. com; rubber band ball, stylist’s own.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 73

FINALIST

DOUGLAS AND BEC ‘Line’ lamp

Designer Bec Dowie called on her fine arts training when she referenced sculptor Alexander Calder’s playfulness with line and form in Douglas and Bec’s new ‘Line’ collection of floor and table lamps in wood, brass and glass. “This is what Calder’s work talks to me about: balance and form, and pushing the boundaries of this,” Dowie says. “I like the fine line juxtaposed with the large form, which you see in Calder’s mobiles.” Another analogy applies: just as Calder’s work is all about balance, Dowie has been steering her training in fine art towards the design world. “It’s a very delicate balancing act between making an artwork and a feasible design product,” she says. “This body of work has opened up an interesting dialogue and line of enquiry for my practice.” Construction is deliberately low-tech, all the better to showcase the beauty of simple materials in perfect poise. ‘Line’ table lamp, $565 and ‘Line’ floor lamp, $1325 from Douglas and Bec, douglasandbec.com; rubber band ball, stylist’s own.

74 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

FINALIST

TIM WEBBER ‘Shift’ table

Tim Webber’s ‘Shift’ table is an exercise in overcoming constraints. “I wanted to create a table which would be lightweight for export, flat-packable, and versatile for both commercial and residential spaces,” he says. These constraints helped shape the designer’s direction when considering materials and construction. “I’m always conscious of keeping my designs clean and simple, so the design was continually pared back in line with these ideas.” After trial and experimentation, Webber used a 6mm x 50mm aluminium flat bar to give him the desired lightness in both appearance and weight. “I also introduced the dowel to provide structure to the leg, as well as introduce a complementary material – the same notion which is relevant throughout a lot of my range,” he says. ‘Shift’ table, from $2550 from Tim Webber Design, timwebberdesign.com, and BLOC, Level 2, 20 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland, bloc.co.nz.

Also pictured: Garlic holders by Ruth Castle, $150 (large) and $105 (small), from Everyday Needs, everydayneeds.co.nz; ‘Chop Paddle’ board by Tom Dixon, $217 from ECC, ecc.co.nz; ‘InOut’ pitcher by Mater, $83.95 from Cult, cultdesign.co.nz; mug, $300 and ceramic object, from $200 by Martin Poppelwell, from Melanie Roger Gallery, melanierogergallery.com

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 75

FINALIST

GOLDSWORTHY STUDIO ‘Untitled’ table

The ‘Untitled’ table is part of a suite including a coffee table and stool which Nathan Goldsworthy designed following a visit to a home designed by architect Ian Athfield in Roseneath, Wellington. “The beauty of the spaces left a powerful impression on me and I wanted to translate that feeling,” says Goldsworthy. “I don’t profess to know anything about the thinking behind Athfield’s work, so the interpretation is purely my response.” Describing the project as very much a personal experience, Goldsworthy worked intuitively to channel Athfield’s playful anti-modernism into an elegant table with a trio of elements: a composite stone top, timber panel legs and a blue horizontal element that provides central support. It is, in part, a reaction against minimalist orthodoxy, but this is no juvenile rebellion: Goldsworthy’s years of experience mean the table has a confident poise and classicism that is all its own.

‘Untitled’ table, POA from Goldsworthy Studio, goldsworthystudio.com.

Also pictured: ‘Integral Boarders’ wall hanging by Marta Buda, $850 from Bath Street Gallery, bathstreetgallery.com; ‘Europ Line’ lava vase by Scheurich, $120 from Mr Bigglesworthy, mrbigglesworthy.co.nz; ‘Holding Holes’ stoneware by Lauren Winstone, $2500 from Two Rooms Gallery, tworooms. co.nz; jewellery dish by Jessica Hans, $130 from Douglas and Bec, douglasandbec.co.nz. 76 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

FINALIST

RESIDENT STUDIO 'V' wall light

Scott Bridgens worked with Tom Dixon in London for four years before returning to New Zealand to establish Resident with Simon James in 2011. Together, they designed the ‘Hex’ pendant, which won our Design Awards in 2013. The ‘V’ wall light can be considered part of the ‘Hex’ family, as it shares a common material palette and smart use of LED technology. But there are key differences, of course. “Flexibility was something missing from most wall lights,” Bridgens says, “and [we thought] if we could utilise the two superthin wires to create multiple hanging angles, we would have a product that fits a wider range of spaces and gives the user more creative control than ever before.” And so the arresting brass V can be hung in a variety of ways, projecting a warm LED light, outwards, downwards, or from lying flat against a wall.

‘V’ wall light, $1929 from Simon James Design, simonjamesdesign.com

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 77

FINALIST

FLYNN TALBOT

‘Mesh Space Pendant’ for Resident Flynn Talbot’s collaboration with Resident was struck after meeting the brand’s co-founder, Scott Bridgens, in Milan. The Australian designer, who shifted his focus from art to concentrate solely on lighting design almost a decade ago, works for lighting brands in Europe and the UK, and is relocating to London in September. He designs everything from lighting fixtures for mass production to light-art installations for galleries and festivals. “These fields seem quite separate,” Talbot says, “but my starting point is always the same – the light effect I want to create, which 78 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

I then craft the product or installation around.” Talbot’s brief for Resident was to create a progressive pendant. “I started with a seamless glowing halo of LED light and shaped the mesh diffuser around it,” he says. “The mesh filters the rising light but also reflects a good portion of it down.” The lovely gold-anodised aluminium mesh casts a diffused beam wide enough to hold a large table in its elegant glow.

‘Mesh Space Pendant’ for Resident, $3278 from Simon James Design, simonjamesdesign.com.

FINALIST

WELLGROOMED FOX ‘Apt’ shelving

‘Apt’ shelving is the first piece in a series by design duo Emma Fox Derwin and Nigel Groom whose ‘Notch’ pendants were a finalist in last year’s awards. Their objective was to develop modular, adaptable shelving that works in both commercial and residential settings and is easily assembled without fixings. “A good shelving system is understated and helps frame and present [people’s] possessions – this is part of the reason for the monochromatic finishing,” says Fox Derwin. The construction is elegant, and remarkably quick and easy to assemble: steel shelves slot into the timber frame, which is stiffened through the insertion of 3D-printed shims that lock the shelves in place and make the structure rigid.

Also pictured: Aluminum bowl in salmon by Fort Standard, $165 from Douglas and Bec, douglasandbec.com; bowl by Merchant Archive, $171 from Simon James Concept Store, simonjamesdesign.com; ‘Bird’ vase by Eric Bonnin, $98 from Douglas and Bec, douglasandbec.com; rubber band ball and other props, stylist’s own.

‘Apt Shelving’ unit in grey, $2260 and black, $1700 from Backhouse, backhousenz.com.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 79

PURITY AND SIMPLICITY Our Design Awards judge, Fisher & Paykel design director Mark Elmore, on the 2015 winner and what makes good design. INTERVIEW

/ Jeremy Hansen

Above Mark Elmore. Left Fisher & Paykel’s reinvented kitchen family offers a harmonious aesthetic across all appliances, with the same handle, black glass and stainless steel finishes engineered to perform and designed to match.

What made you choose Cheshire Architects’ ‘Torchon’ pendant as the Design Awards 2015 winner? MARK ELMORE The pendant light to me is a beautiful blend of technology and craft. What they’ve done with the design is taken a very simple outer form – a sphere – and inserted this very organic, craft-like bespoke piece of glass through the centre and fused the two together in one form. It’s a very pure, very simple design at first glance, but when you look more closely at it you understand the complexity and how they’ve really understood the process of manufacturing with glass in quite a deep JEREMY HANSEN

80 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

way. It’s a very well-resolved design – they’ve edited back all the detail to absolute purity and simplicity. I also really like the use of LED technology. I think this is a growing, emerging and maturing technology in lighting, but the way they’ve included the LED lighting in the filament form of the pendant brings it to life without dominating the design, and that’s really interesting. What is good design to you? Good design to me is about fit for purpose: beautiful materials, simple concepts that are elegant and edited back to the absolute essence of purity of the design.

What difference does being a designer in New Zealand make for you, and the entrants in our competition? Our isolation is a real advantage to us. We look at what’s happening on the other side of the world – we understand globally what’s going on – but we bring our thinking back here and make it our own and interpret it to our local environment and our local culture. And so we’re able to be quite open-minded and adaptable as a result of that.

fisherpaykel.com

PRESENTS

small 82. SIX SMALL HOMES AND THEIR SMART FLOOR PLANS 94. BEN AND DULIA DALY’S PETITE WELLINGTON FLAT 106. A QUEENSTOWN COTTAGE BY DOMENIC ALVARO 118. DESIGNER PHIL CUTTANCE AT HOME IN LONDON 130. HENRI SAYES’ SUBURBAN ADVENTURE 142. HELMUT EINHORN ‘S MID-CENTURY CLASSIC

is beautiful HOME NEW ZEALAND / 81

Right Making the home simple and small was key to making it cheap. The architect designed two adjacent, double-height, gable-roof forms, with one structure sitting a metre forward of the other.

01 Height is key to making small spaces seem larger. Here, the kitchen pantry is concealed behind the full-height sliding door. The main bedroom occupies the mezzanine above the kitchen and dining area, where Abbe is reading with son August. The couople planned to install a ladder to access their books, but the baby put that idea on hold. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chair Oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dining chairs are by Konstantin Grcic for Magis from Matisse.

First floor

02 Ply sheets line the bathroom, following the ceiling pitch upwards to enhance the sense of space. The shutters above the sink open to overlook the living room, while the window (at left) allows in more light.

82 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Second floor

SMALL HOMES

SH:01

Popadich stands with August in the home’s double-height living area. The concrete floor is extremely efficient in retaining the heat from the sun that streams in through the tall windows. The home’s small site is slightly elevated, and looks across a neighbour’s driveway to Narrow Neck beach.

TIGHT SPOTS HOW ARCHITECT DAVOR POPADICH AND HIS WIFE ABBE PROVED THEY COULD AFFORD A HOME. SMALL HOME 01:

Popadich House, Auckland ARCHITECT:

Davor Popadich FLOOR AREA:

110m2

NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS:

Four

Sliding shutters on the upper floor allow views across the living space and out the windows from the bathroom sink. Most people believe plasterboard is a cheaper lining than ply, which is true until you factor in the costs of plastering and painting. The rug is from Dilana Rugs.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Simon Devitt

05 Tall windows in the living area allow in northerly sun (the home faces east), while a wood burner easily heats the entire space in winter. The couple decided not to scrimp on insulation, and find the home’s efficiency at retaining heat from the sun means the wood burner isn’t often needed. The main entrance is behind the built-in seating unit.

06 The main bedroom on the mezzanine overlooks the living area and is also open to the stairwell. The small room behind the bed was designed as a walk-in wardrobe but became August’s room soon after his arrival (the couple has since had a daughter and added two small bedrooms off the stairwell). The French oak floorboards were second-grade, with resin applied to seal the knots.

Davor Popadich (above) is a director of the Auckland architecture firm Pattersons and has plenty of experience designing houses, almost all of them spectacular creations with budgets far larger than his own. And while it is often said that an architect’s dream is to design his or her own home, it is also often said that, without clients to set deadlines and pay bills, architects are not good at getting their own projects off the ground. Luckily, Davor and Abbe’s limited budget (and the fact they needed somewhere to live) demanded a geton-with-it approach when they purchased a small piece of land on Auckland’s North Shore in 2008. “If we had lots of money I’d probably still be thinking about doing something,” Davor says. “If you could have every choice, what choice would you make? This became more about what was essential and we ended up with everything we needed.” A small, simple design was key to making it cheap. Davor designed two adjacent, double-height, gable-roof forms, one thrust a metre forward of the other. A steel frame supports the junction of the two forms; otherwise, the frame is all timber, clad in ColorCote steel. The main bedroom is in the mezzanine, along with a bathroom and a spare room that was occupied by August, the couple’s son, after he was born. The couple has since had another child and added two small bedrooms. Designing their home, Abbe says, “forced us to think about how we wanted to live.”

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 83

SH:02

SMALL HOMES

Right While no one was interested in buying the steep site, Andrew Simpson could see its potential, with all-day sun and valley views.

SQUARE PEGS

A WELLINGTON COUPLE SOLVES AN AFFORDABILITY PROBLEM WITH A MODEST FOOTPRINT.

The living area is arranged in two zones, making it feel larger: one space is adjacent to the kitchen, while a TV nook makes for a snug space under the mezzanine level, with a slot window looking out into the trees and built-in shelving for books and objects. A study occupies a corner of the mezzanine floor.

SMALL HOME 02:

Island Bay House, Wellington DESIGNER:

Andrew Simpson, Wiredog Architecture FLOOR AREA:

50m2 NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS:

Two (plus two whippets) PHOTOGRAPHY:

Paul McCredie

When Andrew Simpson (above) and Krysty Peebles began looking for a home, all their budget would allow was an abode in a far-flung suburb. But they didn’t like the idea of moving too far from the centre of town, and most of the homes out there were three-bedroom family pads with a whole lot of extra space they didn’t feel they needed. So they purchased a steep-and-cheap section in Island Bay and started making plans. The couple had previously lived in a 40-square-metre apartment so “we knew we could live in small spaces,” says Simpson. They also knew that the smaller their home, the more affordable it would be. Andrew, who runs Wiredog Architecture, had worked for a summer in Japan as a student and encountered the prototypical Nine Tsubo House, designed in 1952 by Makoto Masuzawa (a single ‘tsubo’ is a square made up of two tatami mats; nine of them together form an area of 50 square metres). The application of Masuzawa’s principles simplified the design of Simpson’s Wellington home, which features a kitchen, living area and bathroom downstairs, and a sleeping area and study on the mezzanine floor above. “It gets pretty cosy with a crowd,” Simpson says – they’ve had as many as 12 friends over for dinner simultaneously – “but what’s interesting about this place is that while it’s small, it’s so open the rooms don’t feel it. None of it feels poky.”

84 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

02 The home’s efficient bathroom is partly tucked below the stairs. The bathroom door looks like a regular wall panel, minimising visual clutter when closed.

03 The mezzanine level contains the home’s only sleeping space, along with a study and a hefty built-in wardrobe. More built-in shelving acts as a balustrade. The steeply sloping site offered the opportunity to incorporate another deck at this level, which allows access to the garden.

04 An enormous glass sliding door opening onto a northwest-facing deck is key to creating a sense of space in Simpson and Peebleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home, flooding the space with light and warmth. The couple says they barely need to use a heater in winter. 04

05 A galley kitchen with a wall of built-in cabinetry keeps things simple, and allows clear views from the bench to the valley outside.

06 02

A high ceiling enhances the small homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense of spaciousness. Here, Simpson opted for a pitched roof, with the pitch expressed internally to maximise the sense of volume. The couple splashed out on torrefied white ash to line the ceiling and enhance the spatial richness.

First floor

Second floor

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 85

01 The main bedroom on the mezzanine, which sits above the kitchen, overlooks the living area and out through the tall steel doors to the ocean. Built-in shelving contains any clutter.

Left The box-like bach features a motorised macrocarpa shutter that opens to reveal (and shade) the interior.

Second floor

03 04

First floor

86 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

02 A dining table has since been added to the living area. The bedroom in the mezzanine is accessed by ladder to the left of the kitchen. The door at the back of the kitchen leads to the bathroom and bunkroom. The kitchen is a single bench with a two-hob cooktop and above-bench shelves to store daily essentials. The built-in shelving mimics the rhythm of the beams overhead, minimising visual noise.

SMALL HOMES

SH:03

CABIN FEVER A SMALL HOLIDAY HUT BY KEN CROSSON DELIVERS BIG RESULTS. SMALL HOME 03:

Hut on Sleds, Coromandel Peninsula ARCHITECT:

03 In the living area, two-storey high steel-framed glass doors function as the main entry to the house, while offering generous beach views. The doors mean the main spaces are flooded with natural light. A small wood-burning stove is all that’s needed to warm up on cold nights.

04 To save space, bunks are stacked three high in the bunkroom. Each bunk has its own shelves, cubby hole, light and window, while extra storage is stacked at the end of the bunk beds.

05 Crosson kept the compact bathroom simple, with light-industrial tapware, ply cabinetry and a door that opens off the shower and doubles as access when the big front door is closed. It also allows the possibility of showering with an ocean breeze.

06 The hut’s bunkroom and bedroom are located in the box at the back of the main volume, with water tanks stashed above. A hatch opening off the back ventilates the bunkroom. The roof terrace offers beach views and catches rainwater for the tanks.

Ken Crosson, Crosson Architects FLOOR AREA:

40m2 NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS:

Five or more during holidays PHOTOGRAPHY:

Jackie Meiring

Yes, we hear you: it’s easier to make holiday homes small because they don’t have to accommodate the complexity of our regular working lives. But the Hut on Sleds by Ken Crosson (above) – a finalist in our Home of the Year 2012 – takes compact living to such an extreme it qualifies as a special case. It has two bedrooms and is only 40 square metres in size, yet it easily accommodates a family of five on holidays. “For the clients it was all about examining what was the real essence of a bach versus a beach house,” Crosson says. “They wanted something small and experimental. It’s tiny, so the challenge was making it as bachy as possible and not wasting any space in doing that.” The beach house takes the form of a vertical stack, with a petite living, dining and kitchen area on the ground floor facing the beach, and a bathroom and bunkroom tucked in behind. Designed on sleds, it can be moved around onsite or elsewhere if necessary once it’s decoupled from power and water supplies. A ladder accesses the main bedroom, which occupies a mezzanine above the living room, then there’s another climb to the roof deck. An enormous double shutter locks up the hut when the owners aren’t there, and raises to form a northeast awning when they’re in. Every available space is given to storage – even the walls double as floor-to-ceiling shelves that Crosson hopes will accumulate the personal histories of the owners.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 87

01 The main bedroom, which is located on the upper level, has vertical exterior screens to provide privacy as well as light.

02 The owners wanted a home that appeared as seamless and free from clutter as possible. Tall cupboards not only allow a pared-back appearance but enhance the sense of space within the kitchen and living area. Above The home is built on a subdivided suburban piece of land. It sits on the footprint of an old garage and also used its bricks in construction.

03 Beth and Ben Stradwick in the study, which is located on the upper level.

06 05

First floor

88 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

SMALL HOMES

SH:04

It’s all about height, right? The home is partially dug into its site, which prompted Lithgow to use high windows to invite morning light into the double-height kitchen and dining space. Simple kitchen cabinetry lines the back wall while, above it, there’s a view through the study and out a rear window. The children’s rooms are situated behind the kitchen and the stairwell is tucked away to the right. The ‘Non Random’ pendant lights by Bertjan Pot for Moooi are from ECC.

SPACE SAVER A FAMILY OF FOUR TAKES TO COMPACT LIVING WITH EASE. SMALL HOME 04:

Stradwick House, Auckland ARCHITECT:

Marc Lithgow, Space Division FLOOR AREA:

125m2 NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS:

Four PHOTOGRAPHY:

Simon Devitt 05

Natural light is an important feature of the home, and it lets some of the leafy outdoors into the downstairs bathroom, a small space which elegantly contrasts mosaic and white tiles.

The unusual dimensions of the children’s bedrooms – high ceilings and high windows – create lovely spaces in a small area. Here, Beth relaxes in her room.

It wasn’t as if Joe and Vanessa Stradwick and their two children lacked the space for a bigger house: their site in Mount Albert, Auckland, is a quarter-acre (1500 square metres). It had been subdivided from the large home next door, but the old property’s four-car garage was on the Stradwicks’ property. To streamline the resource consent process, they decided to use the garage’s 80-square-metre footprint as the basis for their new two-storey home. Architect Marc Lithgow (above) even re-used the garage’s brick walls, plastering over them for use in the home. “The restrictions on the build gave way to some interesting spaces,” he says. The home is 125 square metres in total, with one living area, two bathrooms, three bedrooms and a study – in other words, about the size of an average New Zealand house in 1976 (QV figures show New Zealand homes built since 2010 have an average size of 205 square metres). Lithgow’s design, however, means it feels far bigger than (the old) average, with a high-ceilinged living and dining area opening onto a generous front terrace, and high windows creating beautiful illumination in every space. Efficient planning means every inch of this family home is happily well-used.

Second floor

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 89

SH:05

SMALL HOMES

01 The home’s northern elevation deftly manages its relationship with a neighbour’s driveway. O’Sullivan (centre) built the home with the help of his neighbours (from left) Seti Fa’aofo, Rhys Hanna and Ikimau Ikimau (with Mary). Here, he sits beside Melissa Schollum, who holds Seamus. Friends Fred and Mary Taupa are at right.

02 The home’s living area and hallway open onto a sunny north-facing deck. The polycarbonate rainscreen overhead wraps around to provide privacy from neighbours. The home is clad in custom-designed aluminium panels.

FAMILY TIES ARCHITECT MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN FILLS HIS SMALL FAMILY HOME WITH WARMTH AND GENEROSITY. SMALL HOME 05:

O’Sullivan Family Home, Mangere Bridge, Auckland FLOOR AREA:

112m2 ARCHITECT:

Michael O’Sullivan, Bull O’Sullivan Architecture NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS:

Five PHOTOGRAPHY:

Florence Noble

One of the most effective ways to make a small home feel larger is to live in an even smaller one first – something Michael O’Sullivan (above) and his partner Melissa Schollum experienced first-hand. The two-bedroom house O’Sullivan designed and built for himself, Schollum, and their three young children Seamus, Finbar and Mary in the Auckland suburb of Mangere Bridge is a modest 112 square metres in size. The home was a finalist in our Home of the Year award in 2009 and the family still lives here, although there has been a small addition: a couple of years ago, Michael built a bedroom wing he calls ‘D-Block’, with three compact bedrooms for the kids. The home may seem small but it’s luxurious compared to their previous accommodations, a former classroom they moved onto the property and lived in for almost two years while the new home was built beside it. O’Sullivan built it with the help of his neighbours, keeping costs remarkably low. O’Sullivan’s strategy included touches of luxury, including velvet curtains, intricate ceiling details, and an all-marble bathroom. The sense of liberation he felt in designing the place is immediately clear. “The inherent fear for most architects is designing a house that’s too small and too confining,” O’Sullivan says. “We didn’t worry about that because we had already lived in a small place for so long.”

90 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

03 The home’s hallway features windows and a door opening onto the north-facing deck, allowing plenty of light to illuminate the space. O’Sullivan’s design enlivens the home with touches of luxury, including velvet curtains instead of doors, and triangular notches for lights in the ceiling. The children’s bunkroom is at the end of the hallway.

04 The main bedroom – one of only two bedrooms when the home was first completed – is lined in ply panels, with south-facing slot windows beside the bed for light.

05 Despite being completed for a low budget, the home’s strategic touches of luxury include a brass kitchen island, where Schollum stands. The glass-fronted kitchen cabinets allow even more light into the open-plan living area. The ceramic plates on the mullions behind Schollum are by Rachel Carley.

06 04

One of the reasons the home feels much larger than its square metreage is the way it opens so generously to its small site. Here, the main entrance opens into the dining area. Outside is a small courtyard shaded by an oak tree. The dining table is by IMO.

07 O’Sullivan lined the bathroom almost entirely in marble – an element of surprise that adds to the variety of spatial experiences in the home. A skylight provides natural light while Finbar (left) and Seamus enjoy the tub.

08 The living room flows easily from the dining area, and is demarcated by a slightly lower ceiling. A high window allows a view of Mangere Mountain. O’Sullivan spent many hours crafting the cedar weatherboard ceiling. Velvet curtains screen off the courtyard at right and the hallway at left in this photo.

09 When the house was first built, the children shared a bunkroom with four beds – one spare for when Michael’s son Remana comes to visit. The bunks free up floor space for playing.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 91

02 A key to making a small home feel spacious is good storage. Smith designed the kitchen so it didn’t encroach on the living or circulation space, as it’s contained in a small projection off the main building envelope. The fridge, pantry and laundry are all concealed behind sleek kitchen cabinetry.

01 The home is arranged on its long, slim site to allow a driveway down one side and a sunny yard on the other. The living area and bedrooms open onto the yard, making the exterior feel, in the warmer months, like an integral part of the home and an alternative circulation area.

03 02

Smith designed flexible spaces to give Williams options: when guests aren’t staying, sliding walls can be pushed back so the spare room can be used as an extension of the living space – which is the mode in which Williams normally has it.

04 01

92 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

SMALL HOMES

SH:06

04 Living minimally doesn’t mean you can never collect anything. In the spare bedroom (normally used as part of the living room), built-in shelving holds Williams’ books and vintage objects.

BLACK BEAUTY A DEVELOPER DOES HIS BIT TO DENSIFY CHRISTCHURCH’S INNER-EAST SUBURBS.

Light matters in every space, but especially in small ones. The home’s living area not only opens onto the slim yard, but to a north-facing courtyard as well, meaning light streams in from both sides. In this space, the TV is on the wall in the recessed nook, which also features built-in cabinets, and keeps the living room’s look clean and spare.

SMALL HOME 06:

Armagh Street House, Christchurch DESIGNER:

Tobin Smith, CoLab FLOOR AREA:

82m2 (including garage) NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS:

One PHOTOGRAPHY:

Guy Frederick

06 Williams likes to entertain, and Smith’s design proves that small homes can work as successful party pads. As well as the spare bedroom opening to form part of the living area, the home’s single garage is adjacent to the living area and opens onto the courtyard, meaning the home can easily cope with plenty of summertime guests.

07 Bedrooms don’t need to be big, they just need to be well-designed. Williams’ room has a large built-in wardrobe, sliding doors that open to the home’s small yard, and lovely dappled light courtesy of the neighbours’ trees.

When Jeremy Williams (above) asked his friend, Christchurch architectural designer Tobin Smith, to design him a bachelor pad, they knew it had to be small: the site was just 10 metres wide and 46 metres long, and Smith laughed at Williams’ desire to build two townhouses there. Williams took the smallest of the townhouses, an 82-square-metre (the floor area includes a single garage), two-bedroom “black box” in stained cedar with a gently pitched roof. “It’s a tiny haven,” Williams says. “I live minimally and the storage and layout have been resolved so well, I never feel short of space. It delivers everything I need.” Smith focused on creating fluid, flexible spaces. Williams likes to entertain, so Smith designed the second bedroom with full-height, moveable walls that slide back to work as an extension of the living area. And the six-metre-long garage is adjacent to the living space and can serve as an overflow area when parties get underway. The home’s northwest frontage opens to a slim, sunny yard shaded by trees on neighbouring properties. Inside, the light American oak floors and white walls suit Williams’ collection of vintage furniture perfectly. Now the property is finished, Smith is justifiably proud. “We often get gawdy in the scale of our houses, yet most of us don’t need a lot of space to live in,” he says. “If you analyse every square millimetre available, you realise you can live quite successfully in significantly smaller spaces.”

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 93

small

pleasures 94 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Right The apartment is located on top floor of an early-1900s factory in Wellington that was artlessly converted to residences in the 1990s. Left Dalyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objective was for the build to be as sustainable as possible. He re-used and recycled an array of materials, including leftover piping that has been reworked to hang pots in the kitchen and ply offcuts to use as window sills. Below The modest second bedroom is located on the mezzanine above the living space.

No squeeze here: Ben and Dulia Dalyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wellington apartment is 66 square metres of pure happiness. TEXT

/ Henry Oliver

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ Samuel Hartnett

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 95

96 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Left The 66-square-metre apartment contains two bedrooms, with the main bedroom providing just enough space for the essentials. Below Ben sits with Henrik, the retired greyhound, on a sofa by Simon James. Above is an artwork by Sam Hartnett. Next to him is a NAD stereo and vintage English Lenco record player with Castle speakers. Right The American white oak and steel table was designed by Daly – who works under the name Palace Electric – and crafted by Proffer in Wellington. The Palace Electric chairs are made with steel tube, American white oak and leather backs.

“There’s something comforting about small spaces. Any more space for us would have been completely unnecessary.”

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 97

Three years ago, after a decade at Tonkin Zulaikha Greer in Sydney, Walters & Cohen in London, and Daniel Marshall and Cheshire Architects in Auckland, Ben Daly stepped off the architecture career ladder to design and build his own home. An “artist trapped in an architect’s career,” he had grown weary of contributing to projects on a micro level and felt that he was missing the physical, utilitarian aspect of his craft. “Architects are getting so far removed from what architecture can be,” he explains as we sit drinking coffee in the Wellington apartment he gutted and rebuilt for him and his wife Dulia to live in. “Quite often in a job you’ll feel very removed from what it actually is. You might be stuck in a room drafting or detailing something, but you don’t get that hands-on experience. And there’s no substitute for actually making. Getting a bit of cardboard and ripping it up, getting bits of timber, taping it up and painting it. Being really rough but being spatially aware.” To force himself out of the drafting room and into the nitty gritty of design and construction, the Dalys bought a 66-square-metre apartment on the top floor of an early-1900s factory building that had been cheaply and tastelessly converted into apartments in the 1990s. The plan was for Ben to take a year off work and rebuild the apartment in sections so that the couple could live there while he worked. The process was intended to be a subversion of The Block-style suburban development, where houses are bought, renovated to the lowest common denominator and flipped as soon as profit can be maximised. Instead of designing for some hypothetical buyer, Ben designed for himself and Dulia – with a rough, handmade aesthetic that was inexpensive but not cheap. He calls it “slow architecture”. “There’s this movement where people are really interested in making things,” he says. “Everyone’s into trying to do something where you have more involvement with the process. For me you should do that in every way now, not just what you eat, what you drink, what you wear, but where you live, how you live.” For two years, Ben kept his tools under the stairs, and when Dulia left for work, he worked on the apartment. What he didn’t know how to do, he taught himself by watching YouTube. The only tasks he couldn’t complete were connecting the internal pipes to the building’s plumbing and wiring the oven. Dulia drew the line at potential electrocution. Although the construction had to be cost-efficient, he went to great pains to keep every element as sustainable as possible, buying as much of the material as he could secondhand and trying to find a use for every offcut. “I wanted every material that goes up to have the least impact that it possibly could, but also keep the building components to a minimum,” he says. “So

98 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

there’s no angles behind anything, there’s no extra little bits. What you see is what you get - it’s literally plywood screw fixed to a timber batten behind. I’ve tried to keep components low, reusing as much as I could from ripping out the old material.” Ply offcuts were turned into window sills, leftover piping used to hang clothes in the bedroom and pots in the kitchen, door handles were made from timber offcuts or secondhand jelly latches. Adds Dulia: “Things that most people would buy have been hand-made or hunted out second-hand and restored. That gives things like light switches, handles and doors a very human essence.” Ben also approached the project with the hope that by building something with a considered aesthetic, potential future buyers are less likely to have to tailor it to their needs and tastes, so won’t then turn around and repeat the process all over again. “If we’re all stamping our mark, if we’re all ripping something out and changing it or chucking it out every couple of years or whatever, there’s so much waste,” he explains. “But if you do something that just works as a space, it’s not just something that you put in for it to be ripped out. If that works, then the person who moves in shouldn’t need to put their stamp on it, they just realise that there’s something very wonderful about it.” Ben makes it clear exactly where he’s put his stamp by colour-coding the renovation. Everything black is structural, everything white is existing, and everything timber is an addition. “It was very important to me that there was some kind of method behind it all. That you see how something is made. I didn’t want to hide that,” Ben says. “It’s not glamorous, it’s not beautifully honed and finished, but to me it’s just a really visually interesting space to be in.” But it’s not just visually interesting. The design also manages to make the small space feel much larger. In this tiny one-and-a-half storey, two-bedroom apartment, Ben has maximised every square centimetre. With its high stud and north-facing windows, the gentle afternoon sun lights every corner of the apartment, fluctuating as Wellington clouds roll in and out. “There’s something comforting about small spaces,” he says. “Any more space for us would have been completely unnecessary.” Upstairs on the mezzanine are a small, comfortable master bedroom and even smaller guest bedroom, fitting little more than a double bed, a suitcase and a laptop-sized desk nook. Under the mezzanine is the kitchen in solid wood, stone and steel, and a minimal bathroom, a linen curtain separating the shower from the toilet. Now, after two years of learning curves and labour, Ben and Dulia are selling the apartment and moving to the Hawke’s Bay, to start again. They’ve bought the cheapest, smallest house they can find that has nice light and good bones. The maker has a new canvas.

The apartment opens straight into the combined living, dining and kitchen area, with stairs at left leading to the two bedrooms on the mezzanine.

Previous page The blue front door leads straight into the living area which also contains the kitchen. Left A traditional Canadian clothes-drying rack works on a pulley system. A mid-century Italian glass table sits in the background. On top is a red Scheurich jug from Mr Bigglesworthy. Top right Plywood doors off the landing lead to the bedrooms. Right The pine plank ceiling in the kitchen includes the existing 1908 factory truss.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 101

The front of the kitchen bench, where Ben and Dulia stand, doubles as a display area. A Schwinn bike is an easy fit between the bench, Robin Day chair and the table. An artwork by Richard McWhannell entitled ‘Whisper on the Wind’ hangs on the wall at left. In the corner display area sits a jug by Paul Melser and an egg-sculpture stand by Penny Walker. The bronze statue below is ‘Tall Torso’ by Llew Summers.

102 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 103

You’ve created a fantastic 66-squaremetre space for yourself and Dulia. Did either of you crave more space, or was this enough? There’s something comforting about small spaces. Maybe it comes from when you’re young and the idea of building a hideout, or holidays in small baches. I think there is something magical about being in this kind of space and being able to understand its volume as a whole – it’s something everyone can comprehend. You get lost in bigger spaces and there is a level of disconnect. A small space has the power to reduce things to a very simple concept. It then becomes important as to how you use the space and interact with its volume, textures and light. Any more space for us would have been completely unnecessary.

DESIGN NOTEBOOK Q&A with architect and maker Ben Daly.

Below The study nook is located upstairs in the second bedroom. Bottom right The bathroom features a terracotta-tiled floor, a hand-turned basin from Argentina, old brass taps, and a vintage naval frigate light over the mirror.

Right The shelving unit downstairs hides items behind black panels and displays those the couple likes to see. Behind the shelving is the plywood-clad bathroom pod.

1. Entry 2. Dining / living 3. Laundry 4. Bathroom 5. Kitchen 6. Bedroom 7. Main bedroom

104 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

What key aspects make the design work effectively in this small footprint? One of the main goals is to make people feel a certain level of joy when they are in a space, regardless of size. No matter where you are, you get a greater sense of volume. With this space it was also important to keep the language of the architecture simple. Further to this, everything that went into the space had to also serve another purpose. The idea of the shelves was to free up the main downstairs area. Likewise, the kitchen joinery also doubles as storage on its fronting side to the dining area, as does the landing for the first part of the staircase, which is entirely storage. This all helps in making the space feel larger than it actually is. Also it makes people interact more with the volume.

We’ve rolled out the guide to tolerances in new residential construction

There’s now a guide to tolerances, materials and workmanship in new residential construction Disputes over building work can be costly for all, both in time and money. We’ve developed a guide to tolerances that can help contractors and home owners identify and agree what is – and what is not – a defect in new residential building work.

MB12091

Download your copy at www.building.govt.nz/guide-to-tolerances

just

enough 106 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Opposite page From the driveway, architect Domenic Alvaro designed the cottage to look like “a super-abstract box, and then that box opens to the view”. The square window at the left frames a view of Coronet Peak. Left ‘Tio’ chairs by Massproductions sit on the front deck. Below A corner window wraps one of the bedrooms.

TEXT

/ Jeremy Hansen

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ Patrick Reynolds

A little guest cottage near Queenstown by Domenic Alvaro reveals the joy of dreaming small.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 107

It is small – 120 square metres – and almost undoubtedly perfectly formed. It is also a lesson in how a little can turn out to be just enough. It is a guest cottage on a central Otago property that was originally envisaged as the first piece in a larger puzzle that included a new family home. The property, with its 1870s stone stables, a chicken shed and a collapsing cottage, was purchased by a couple with two children who returned to New Zealand almost a decade ago after 13 years abroad. After a long, careful development process, the old stables are now the family’s compact two-bedroom home, and the chicken shed has been thoughtfully converted into an office. What the property lacked was space for visiting friends and family. The original 140-year-old cottage was so dilapidated it was deemed irretrievable, even by heritage consultants. So a plan was hatched to build a guest house on the cottage’s 100 square-metre footprint. It was a way of retaining the presence of the original building that had the added bonus of avoiding the host of resource consent issues that a larger dwelling would have triggered. The owners wanted something “that wasn’t the design du jour – something that would still feel classic in 50 years.” They admired the simple practicality,

108 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

muted material palette, and low-maintenance air of vintage Scandinavian ski lodges. They liked the idea of a contemporary cottage that was built to last. Otherwise, they went to Sydney-based architect Domenic Alvaro with a fairly open brief. They got to know Alvaro when he worked on an Australian project they had commissioned from his firm, Woods Bagot, when they were living there. (As well as many large Australian buildings, Woods Bagot is working on the design of Christchurch’s new convention centre, although Alvaro isn’t directly involved in that project). Alvaro came to Queenstown and liked what he saw. “It was a breathtaking site,” he remembers. “I loved the context of the existing mountain ranges, but I also liked how the New Zealand authorities thought in terms of heritage: that it’s not just what things look like, but they’re interested in a broader reading of the context of site.” This meant the council was happy for a contemporary building to be erected to replace the original cottage as long as it emulated its scale and placement on the site. As it turned out, the original cottage also governed the design in ways that aren’t initially obvious. The highest point of the new building’s monopitch roof is the same as the peak of the old cottage’s gable, for example. And the old building’s

Far left The cottage’s concrete core was poured on site and left exposed. The kitchen island doubles as the dining table. The ‘Tio’ barstools by Massproductions were purchased in Sydney. Above the island are ‘Spinning BH2’ (left) and ‘BH1’ pendant lights by Benjamin Hubert from Great Dane in Sydney. Left The new building mimics the orientation of the original cottage on the site, drawing sun deep into the interior. Heritage apple trees from the orchard on the property were retained as part of the project. Above Both the bedrooms connect to a central bathroom.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 109

110 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

“Rather than focusing on finishes and cladding the whole thing in granite or stone, it’s about building moments, about it being a beautiful experience.”

Left The Remarkables range looms behind the cottage. Above The bedrooms feature built-in oak cabinetry and headboards designed by Domenic Alvaro and built by Wedgerwood Joinery in Alexandra. The artwork is by Michael Hight. Right The bathroom door opens onto the cottage’s back lawn. The vintage Bertoia chairs were purchased from Mr Bigglesworthy in Auckland.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 111

Right The window frame at the end of the kitchen island projects from the building envelope to reveal a view of Coronet Peak. The artwork to the left of the window is ‘Orchestral Triangles NZ Post’ by Eddie Clemens. Below To maximise space, all services in the living area – the kitchen, fireplace and storage – were arranged along the concrete core wall. The artwork, entitled ‘Brothers’, is by Chris Heaphy. On the vintage rug, the ‘Gordon 495’ sofa is by EOOS for Walter Knoll. The ‘Studio’ fire is by Stovax. Far right Concrete walls are left exposed in the bedrooms, where the beds feature custom-made oak headboards.

112 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

orientation turned out to suit the new structure, allowing its generous glass frontage to soak up the morning sun and stay warm throughout the day in winter. Despite the new building’s relatively small footprint, “the scale of the living area is quite spectacular, quite tall”, Alvaro says. The reason for this sense of spaciousness is not just the volume, but that the architect and his clients worked so hard at paring everything back. There are no circulation spaces in the new building, for example: oak panel doors on either end of the living area open directly into each of the two bedrooms, which in turn open into the shared bathroom that separates them (the roof pitch dives lower over the bedrooms, lending them a sense of intimacy in contrast to the larger volume of the living space). The interior material palette is restricted to concrete and oak, while dark cedar clads the exterior. The building is constructed around a core concrete wall that was poured on site and left exposed. All the services – the oak cabinetry of the kitchen, the fireplace, the plumbing and plenty of storage – are placed against it. The kitchen island was designed to double as the dining table. This reductiveness means a simple square window framing a perfect view of Coronet Peak at the end of the kitchen island feels like a luxurious indulgence.

Ah, luxury: it is, Alvaro says, “such a misused word.” To him, luxury in a location like this is providing warmth, shelter and access to the view. “Rather than focusing on finishes and cladding the whole thing in granite or stone, it’s about building moments, about it being a beautiful experience.” Alvaro doesn’t work on many stand-alone homes these days, as his time is mostly occupied with the design of multi-storey apartment buildings in Sydney. But the techniques he’s applied in this small building can be easily adapted in those projects. “The cost of apartments is getting higher so there’s pressure to keep affordable product on the market,” he says. This means finding ways to make smaller spaces seem more liveable or, as Alvaro puts it, “to improve your ability to live within the available space”. Back in Queenstown, these lessons have already been absorbed by Alvaro’s clients. He has designed a larger family home on the same property for them, but none of them seems to think ever they’ll bother building it. They’ve learned their current arrangement – the converted stables for themselves and the new cottage for guests – is all they need. Nobody is expressing any regrets about the big dream home that will probably never be. “We are really embracing small,” one of the owners says, happy that they already have enough.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 113

A low concrete retaining wall and gravel paths frame the cottage. “I feel it’s really settled in the landscape,” Alvaro says. “It sits on the ground so it really belongs.”

114 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 115

DESIGN NOTEBOOK Q&A with Domenic Alvaro from Sydney’s Woods Bagot Architects.

What did you think when you first saw this site? It was breathtaking. It’s a really spectacular rural site and I love the location. The site was a collection of buildings and it functions as a little family community rather than a single stand-alone residence.

super-abstract timber box that you see from the road, then that box opens up to the view. I was conscious of it being settled and not being an eyesore and feeling like it had been there a long time, even though it’s a contemporary structure.

How did you decide on the form the cottage would take? It was about this expansive window that opened up to the mountains, a simple leaning roof falling to the back to create quite a humble structure. The scale of the living area is quite spectacular, quite tall, and it drops down to intimate bedroom spaces at the back. They’re private but they capture the light really well. We worked to make sure the siting maximises solar gain to the living space – that set up the bones of the plan. We wanted this

How did this strategy extend to the interior? It was about making it efficient – it needed only one bathroom and a common living space. It focuses on the pure essentials, and that way we’re able to keep the footprint down within the scale of the original building that was there. It was about keeping the palette simple: concrete, oak and cedar [on the exterior]. It was about elements like the single cabinetry wall in the living space, like the bedheads, building in those little details.

Left The aspect from the living area takes in expansive views. The cottage was built by JustBuildIt of Queenstown.

Below The property’s 1870 stone stables, located just a few metres from the new cottage, have been sensitively converted into the owners’ family home.

Far left The artwork in the southern bedroom is by Fiona Pardington.

03 01

04 02

116 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

1. Living 2. Bedroom 3. Kitchen/Dining 4. Bathroom 5. Deck

HOME + PIE FUNDS

PERSPECTIVE

Beyond the backyard With a diversiﬁed investment outlook, you’re on the path to creating a healthy ﬁnancial future

ADV2015 CS6414 08/15.

When Sam de Court bought his fi rst home in Auckland three years ago, he never even considered selling his shares, the fi rst of which he had bought while still at university. He knew better than that. Pie Funds, the investment management fi rm for which de Court is head of client services, has funds that have delivered longterm returns of over 20 percent per annum*. Even the Auckland property market can’t boast anything like that performance. But while great returns are important, just as important is making sure that if something happens to your home, you don’t lose everything. And things do happen: things like re-zoning, new motorways going past or through your backyard, natural disasters, leaky homes and – as many parts of the world have recently learned – market downturns. “It’s easy to believe nothing is going to happen to property prices,” de Court says, “But history tells us that’s not the case.” Because of that fact, diversification is an important part of a solid investment portfolio. By investing in different asset classes, like shares and property, you limit your risk, because a downturn in one

doesn’t necessarily mean a downturn in the other. In fact, de Court says, the up and down cycles of shares and property tend to work at different times. Diversity is not just about spreading investments among different asset classes, though. If all your shares and property are in New Zealand, for example, you’re more exposed than you would be if at least some of your investments were offshore. “If the Auckland property market had a downturn,” de Court says, “there may be some correlation with the stock market here, but there may not be any correlation with stock markets in Japan and America.” With Pie Funds’ Global Fund, diversification is almost a mantra. Unlike the company’s high-performing Australasian funds, which contain between 10 and 20 stocks, the Global Fund is made up of 500 stocks from around the world. “They’re spread massively among different regions, different industries and different economies,” de Court says. So while there’s diversification across asset classes, there’s also diversification within asset classes. A selection of 500 different shares from around the world is

a hugely diversiﬁed asset as compared to a single piece of real estate. Pie Funds is also able to turn all its funds to 100 percent cash, which means it can avoid exposure to market downturns, then use its cash to invest cheaply in quality companies when the market begins to turn. “Funds that have to stay 95 percent invested, by contrast, can take several years to get back up to where they were,” de Court says. “Whereas at Pie Funds we believe that we can bounce back pretty quickly from market downturns.” Many New Zealanders have learned through Kiwisaver how easy it is to build a steady investment portfolio without much impact on living circumstances. Investing in a strong managed fund can offer many of the same beneﬁts, with the possibility of higher returns and the added plus that the money can be accessed any time you want it: for a boat, bach, renovation or even a new home. Pie Funds is a boutique fund manager based in Auckland, New Zealand, specialising in small companies. Our mission is to provide our clients with a high level of service and above-average investment returns.

For more information, call (09) 486 1701 or email clients@piefunds.co.nz To download our investment statement visit www.piefunds.co.nz Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. No person, including the Directors of Pie Funds Management Limited, guarantees the repayment of units in the funds or any return of units in the funds. Returns can be negative as well as positive and returns over different periods may vary. *Performance for the Pie Australasian Growth, Dividend and Emerging companies Funds exceeds 20%p.a. since inception of each Fund.

PERSPECTIVE

New Zealand product designer Phil Cuttance finds a small home and a big career boost in London. TEXT

/ Jeremy Hansen

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ Emily Andrews

great

expectations 118 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Far left Phil Cuttance in his North London studio, which is walking distance from his small Victorian flat. Left Vases from Cuttance’s ‘Faceture’ range, sales of which went berserk after a short web film featuring them went viral. Above The main street near Cuttance’s studio.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 119

Right Cuttance at home in his London flat. One of his ‘Rough Diamond’ lightshades hangs above the dining table. The piece on the far wall is by artist and Cuttance’s friend Andrew Mealor.

Phil Cuttance is a New Zealand product designer who, for the last seven years, has been drawing inspiration from London, his adopted city. He and his partner, television promo director Natasha Brinsden, live in a little upstairs space in a Victorian building in London’s north. Their 50-square-metre pad may not be large – Cuttance is almost bashful about showing me around, certain it’s not fit for these pages – but it makes up for its lack of space by its proximity not only to Cuttance’s studio (it’s just a short walk away), but to the enormous range of distractions that London specialises in offering. “My eyes are constantly feasting on all sorts of stuff,” Cuttance says. “I’m always missing shows at galleries – which in a way is a great sign, because it means there’s just too much to see.” Making the move to a new city is never easy, and Cuttance’s transition to London has involved a fair bit of time giving away his labour for free. Not that any of this time has been wasted: he interned for the British/Dutch design team Glithero, with whom he now shares a studio, and spent a year and a half working on and off for the Italian-born, Londonbased, internationally respected Martino Gamper, an experience Cuttance describes as “a real treat”. The better news is that he doesn’t need to work for free any more. Cuttance’s ‘Faceture’ vase is a piece of pastel-coloured resin that looks as if it has been digitally created but in fact is crafted in what he calls a decidedly “lo-fi” manner, using a handmade mold and a rudimentary machine that, with its timber frame, little wheels and polypropylene hopper, looks sweetly Dickensian. The vase won this magazine’s Design Awards in 2012, but as much as we would like to claim the credit for Cuttance’s subsequent success, it was a short web film about the project that catapulted him to design-world fame. One evening in London, not long after developing the ‘Faceture’ range (which also includes lightshades and side tables), Cuttance teamed up with Czech photographer friend Petr Krejci in a borrowed gallery space and, with the help of a bit of funding from Creative New Zealand, shot a three-minute clip of the making of a ‘Faceture’ vase. Edited by Brinsden, he uploaded it to Vimeo, and watched it go berserk. The short web film has now been watched more than 200,000 times, been shared by an enormous number of influential design blogs, and generated a blizzard of orders that Cuttance has been struggling

120 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 121

Above The living area of Cuttance’s flat features one of his ‘Segment’ shades. The artwork on the wall above the sofa is by Dutch duo Daphna Laurens, whom Cuttance exhibited with in Milan in 2013. The artwork above the day bed is an original ‘Screaming Hand’ screen print by legendary skateboard artist Jim Phillips. Cuttance’s ‘Weld’ cabinet, which stands in the corner, was exhibited in Milan in 2009. Right Cuttance’s north London neighbourhood is located at a point in the city where dense Victorian terraces like this one gradually give way to standalone suburban houses.

122 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Below In the flat’s only bedroom, one of Cuttance’s ‘Faceture’ lightshades hangs over the bed. On the wall is an old East German educational poster of a wheat harvester.

Bottom In the kitchen, a wall planner from dig-berlin.de helps keep schedules on track. Below it, the photo of a ballerina is by New York-based photographer and friend Renee Bevan.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 123

Above The flat looks out onto an abandoned church. Cuttance and Brinsden have gradually filled their home with artworks by friends and peers. The piece on the windowsill is an ink drawing by Los Angeles artist Carson Mell, and the work on the wall is a set of Paper Planes by Glithero, with whom Cuttance shares a studio. Right The artwork at left on the ledge in the stairwell is a print by photographer Martin Usborne from a book by local publisher Hoxton Press. Cuttance picked up the other prints, by unknown artists, at a recent gallery visit.

124 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

“Living in a small place has forced me to cull a lot of junk – or, should I say, stop acquiring junk”.

to keep up with pretty much ever since. ‘Faceture’ was eventually nominated as one of the London Design Museum’s Designs of the Year in 2013. “I was completely caught out by the popularity of it,” he says. “The film was pivotal. Dezeen published it and overnight I got an inbox of emails and orders which was unrelenting for two years. I worked like a maniac over that period. Now there are a lot of projects that have come out of it.” And here’s where the benefits of being in London come into play: the proximity of enough affluent, design-savvy people to commission a designer like Cuttance for bespoke one-off projects. When we met, he was working on hand-cast door fronts for a bespoke kitchen, for example, and had recently completed a custom-made 1.4 metre-tall plinth for an artwork for another client. These are the sorts of gigs that New Zealand is less likely to offer, and they provide the type of financial ballast a designer like Cuttance needs to research and develop new ranges. This success would be enough to make many designers want to coast for the rest of their days, but Cuttance is not wired this way. His amiable brand of curiosity is always prompting him to investigate new schemes. “I don’t seem to make anything that’s not challenging,” he says, mock-ruefully. “I don’t know why”. He has recently produced the beautifully simple ‘Aurora’ pot, a pared-back vessel hand-cast with water-based resin, with a flat lid that gently refracts the light around it, a little like an oil slick on water. He’s also developing a new lightshade with a UK company that is due for release in September, and is experimenting with a process of using water pressure to shape new objects, an exercise that’s been causing great frustration but has also been an opportunity to collaborate with his father Bernie, an Auckland-based engineer. “Dad has been doing all the maths and physics on it,” Cuttance says. Perhaps more momentous, Cuttance has hired his first full-time employee, a sure sign that his business is getting serious. The common thread in Cuttance’s work is his examination of process, and the almost perverse pursuit of creating digital shapes from hand-crafted processes. “I don’t like to use technology for the creation of my objects,” he says. “I’m very much a maker, but I think a pure craftsman is someone that masters a craft. I have a short attention span, so I

will try to learn something and get competent at it and then move onto the next thing. The challenge is to make simple things in an interesting way.” Cuttance and Brinsden have made their little flat a pleasure to inhabit, but you get the sense they’re not in London to hang out at home. They’ve painted the walls and floor white and decorated the space in an easy-going way. “Living in a small place has forced me to cull a lot of junk – or, should I say, stop acquiring junk,” Cuttance says. “After moving to London with only the contents of our suitcases, we’ve only filled the place with what we need plus a few limited objects and artworks – some made by friends and peers. The open-plan nature makes our place feel bigger, and the painted floors allow you to really get some speed up for sock-slides.” Their abode is part of a tight-knit Victorian neighbourhood that possesses all the eccentricity and layers of history in which London specialises. There’s an abandoned church building out the back that they can see from their windows and now seems to be mostly inhabited by foxes. “Their rutting noises nearly ruined last summer,” Cuttance says. Their complex also boasts a long, straight driveway that Cuttance happily reports is perfect for playing cricket. It is as if their neighbourhood straddles some sort of city border: walk one way, Cuttance says, and you feel immediately absorbed into the buzz of the city; in the other, the pace gets sleepier as the streets grow progressively more suburban. It’s like some sort of metaphor for the crossroads Cuttance found himself at a few years ago, choosing to move to London (New Zealand plays the sleepier suburbs in this concoction). Ever since, the life of the city has buoyed him and his career. When we chatted on his last visit to Auckland, he noted that New Zealand has changed a lot in the time since he left: being a designer here no longer feels like being left out on a limb. He now aspires to creating a working life that involves a reasonable stint of time back home each year, preferably in the southern hemisphere summer. During his last visit he ran casting workshops, (events he also hosts in London), caught up with old friends and local stockists of his work. But he’s clear that London, with its crowds of creatives and eternal stimulation, still holds him. The city has been good to him, and he’s eager to return the favour.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 125

Below Cuttance’s shared studio space is just a short walk from his flat, and features glass doors opening onto a courtyard.

126 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Above right A hand-made mold for a ‘Faceture’ vase sits among craft knives and other tools in the studio.

Below right Work in progress: one of Cuttance’s ‘Faceture’ lightshade nears completion in the studio.

“I don’t like to use technology for the creation of my objects. The challenge is to make simple things in an interesting way.”

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 127

DESIGN NOTEBOOK Q&A with product designer Phil Cuttance.

You’ve lived in London for seven years now. What made you move here from Auckland? I had exhibited my work in Milan twice and had been crazily inspired by being surrounded by all the creativity there. I developed a sense that I was missing out on opportunities, because it was really difficult to be back in New Zealand while trying to be part of the European scene. I had to intern for a few people for free for a while, but that was okay. Being in London is incredibly inspiring. My eyes are constantly feasting on all sorts of stuff. How did your ‘Faceture’ range get so popular? We made a short web film to visually illustrate how lo-fi the process of creating the objects was. We managed to wrangle an empty gallery space and filmed over a weekend. After we uploaded it, Dezeen published it, and overnight I got

Above Phil Cuttance in his north London studio with one of his ‘Faceture’ side tables. Left Cuttance’s studio is part of a former stables complex that he shares with other creatives. Right Cuttance at his desk.

128 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

an inbox of emails and orders which were unrelenting for two years. I was completely caught out by the popularity of it. They’re all hand-made, so I had to work like a maniac to keep up. There are now a lot of projects that have come out of it: commissions for lighting from a UK company, and some work for private clients as well. How would you describe the way you work? I did an industrial design degree at Massey University, and I’ve always loved furniture. My work is more object-focused now. I don’t like to use technology. I don’t know why. And I seem to be scared of curves. I’m very much a maker. People ask you to define yourself. I think a pure craftsman is someone that masters a craft. I have a short attention span, so I will try to learn something and get competent at it and then move onto the next thing.

Great kitchens donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just happen... they happen by design Kitchens by Design www.kitchensbydesign.co.nz Phone: (09) 379 3084 Showroom: 7 Melrose Street, Newmarket

suburban

prognosis 130 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

A young couple re-imagines suburban back-section living with a compact, optimistic new home. TEXT

/ Simon Farrell-Green

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ Patrick Reynolds

Left Architect Henri Sayes in the kitchen of the home he designed to fit the back section of a 1940s cottage in Onehunga, Auckland. Above The home and its 75-square-metre footprint make a confident intrusion in an established street of bungalows. The soaring exterior cut-out is playfully mirrored in the landscaping. Right The pink ‘Slow’ chair is by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec for Vitra. On the wall behind is ‘Ship at Sea’ from Laurence Aberhart’s Last Light series. To the right is an artwork by Conor Clarke, and another Elizabeth Thomson. The platter on the dining table is by Gidon Bing. A brass dish by Minimalux sits on top.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 131

Never mind it was in the suburbs. It wasn’t the possibility of a picket fence that drew Henri Sayes and Nicole Stock to a rundown 1940s cottage in Onehunga, not too far from Auckland’s Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill). It was the cottage’s large, flat, north-facing back lawn, 400-odd square metres on which to build a house. More particularly, it was a chance for Sayes, who works in the office of architect Malcolm Walker, to design a house, regardless of the fact that, at that point, he had just one previous home and a toilet block to his name. The result is delightful. From the street, you look down the driveway, past the original cottage (which the couple sold after subdividing the site) at a simple, elegant form. The 116-square-metre home is a confident intrusion into an established street of weatherboard and brick bungalows, its asymmetric pitched roof and vertical cedar weatherboards somehow sympathetic to the local vernacular. It might be infill housing, but it doesn’t share much with its counterparts. Noticeably, when you come down the driveway, there’s no double garage door confronting you. Instead, there’s a grassed parking area and a playful berm planted with titoki trees to delineate the front courtyard from the driveway. There’s a glass front door with a bright yellow frame, through which you step straight into the living room. It’s at this point that you realise this is not the usual suburban infill. There is a soaring, double-height ceiling with exposed trusses. There are views out through windows and up into other rooms, most noticeably the main bedroom with its soft pink ceiling. For a small house, it has a sense of elegance and spaciousness. “What you tend to find when you squeeze down plans is that you lose the poetry,” says Sayes. “The trick with this house is that everything comes off the dining area. You’re always borrowing space.” Effective planning was key. “The brief started with spatial things,” says Stock, a marketing executive. “We wanted volume and height, and we wanted to create a sense of space through volume because we knew we wouldn’t have a big footprint. And then it was defining how those spaces would fit together and how you actually live.” Not everyone was convinced: the day the council inspector came to survey the newly laid concrete pad, he looked perplexed. He wandered out the back, looked around, and said: “What, are you just building a garage?” In fact, the couple considered a garage, before realising their car was only worth about $500: what would be the point? So many houses for younger people on a budget are all about budget, but this home doesn’t feel constrained in conventional ways. The footprint is small, with 78 square metres at ground level housing the living room, kitchen, laundry, bathroom

132 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

and a spare bedroom that the couple uses as a study. Upstairs, two more bedrooms and a bathroom occupy 38 square metres of space. It is tightly planned but never feels mean. There is minimal circulation space and what there is doubles as something else – the hallway to the bathroom has one big long cupboard beside it housing a pantry and glassware, for example. The home is of a size that makes it easy for two busy professionals to maintain and clean, and it’s easy to heat thanks to the Studio woodburner and double glazing. Sayes kept things practical in the planning. The house is designed around standard sheet sizes, so there was very little cutting and very little waste. Materials are prosaic, but nicely treated. The floor in the living room is the concrete foundation slab, which has been polished up. The ceiling is lined with grooved ply, and the couple used pegboard – more commonly found in old men’s workshops – to cover the pantry doors in the kitchen and the cupboard doors for the laundry. And, thanks to the intervention of stylist and colour consultant Amelia Holmes, the place is playful, almost whimsical in its use of colour. There is that pink ceiling, but there are also mustard yellows, a beautiful green in the study and another soft pink on the laundry doors. In a clever move, every recess in the place is grey. Many things changed as the design progressed, but one thing stayed the same: that main volume. In a way, the house was designed from the inside out, creating the volumes of space, stacking them up on top of each other, then draping the pitched roof around them. In essence, it’s a barn: the house uses standard trusses partly for their elegant form and partly because they’re so cost efficient. For a long time, they were used in a standard triangle before, late one night, Sayes wondered what would happen if they were turned over, creating the asymmetric triangle that both sets the angle for the roof and defines the interior spaces. The small size and simple material palette allowed them to spend in all the right places. Windows are consistently oversized – there are big expanses of glass throughout the house that both let light in and lead the eye outside. There is a generous window seat in the living room, big enough for two people to comfortably sprawl. The door to the study downstairs – which could also function as another bedroom – is on a pivot rather than standard hinges, which further makes the space feel like one. “Henri’s just done a lovely job of mixing real life with poetry,” says Stock. “We were careful with where we spent our money and if there wasn’t a payback which was more than what it cost to do, then we wouldn’t do it,” says Sayes. “We took a few key moves and did them properly.”

Through the yellow framed front door, the polished concrete slab flooring leads directly into the living area. Behind the pivot door before the stairs is the booklined study.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 133

Sayes, seated at a Bentwood chair, talks to his wife Nicole Stock, who stands at the bedroom door. The architect decided to turn the ceiling trusses over to create an asymmetric triangle. The feature serves to draw the eye to the ceiling height and define the living area. The vintage kauri dining table top sits on ‘Taurus’ trestles by Jörg Sturm and Susanne Wartzeck for Nils Holger Moormann. The ‘Spar’ light by Jamie McLellan for Resident towers over the ‘Brit’ lounge chair by Sintesi.

134 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

The day the council inspector came to survey the newly laid concrete pad, he looked perplexed. “What, are you just building a garage?”

Above Stock stands in the living room at the foot of the stairs. A ‘Constellation’ light hangs in the all-white stairwell. Right The generous window seat is big enough for two and offers a gloriously sunny spot for relaxing. A ‘Circus’ stool by Martino Gamper sits at one end. Outside, the sculptural berm was originally suggested as a way to re-purpose the site’s excavated soil and now provides privacy and whimsy to the landscaping. Sayes sits on a ‘Heaven’ lounge chair by Jean-Marie Massaud for Emu from ECC.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 135

136 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

The homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exterior is a confident insertion in a neighbourhood of weatherboard and brick bungalows, but its asymmetric pitched roof and vertical cedar weatherboards remain sympathetic to the local vernacular.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 137

Left Cupboard and wardrobe recesses throughout the home have been painted a soft grey. The ‘Tolomeo’ light by Michele de Lucchi for Artimide is from ECC. The ‘Minimator’ table is by Matthias Ferwagner from Katalog. The photo above the bed is by Deborah Smith. Below The main bedroom overlooks the living area, the central point from where Sayes’ design continually borrows space. It has direct sight into the upper level to emphasise openness.

138 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Above Pegboard is used in the bathroom, which also houses the laundry, and in the kitchen for pantry storage.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 139

In this issue, we’re focusing on small homes. What were the three key things you did to make your home feel bigger? I think the key to making the house feel larger was volume. The house was designed as much in section as it was in plan. The plan is tight, but the volume is generous, with differing spatial volumes across the building’s length. The other thing we did is that we pivoted everything off the main double-height living space. Nearly every room engages, opens onto, and borrows from this space – you’re never just in one room. There’s also a certain generosity to things: the window seat is one metre by 4.2 metres, the doors and windows are taller than standard. This all combines to make the space feel grander than it really is.

DESIGN NOTEBOOK Q&A with architect Henri Sayes.

Below The oak of the stairs carries through to the bathroom floor. The penny tiles, mirror and dolly bulbs repeat a circular motif. Bottom right Utilising space under the stairs, a pegboard pantry provides kitchen storage.

House sizes have been ballooning in New Zealand. What did this house teach you about having enough space? It was an exercise in identifying what we needed and building to that rather than second-guessing what we thought we might need in the distant future. There was an immediacy in the design of this house; it wasn’t designed for an intangible idea of possible lives we may be living in five or 10 years, it was built for the two of us, newly married, both working, both enjoying each other’s company. So the design had enough space for the immediate reality of our lives now, but may not have enough space if we have three kids or take up competitive mountain biking. You end up with a lot of wasted space if your house is designed around what-ifs.

Right A rocking chair by Charles and Ray Eames sits in front of the desk that Stock made while she was at architecture school. A ‘Tolomeo’ lamp by Mic hele De Lucchi for Artemide from ECC sits on top. The two photos are by Laurence Aberhart.

7 1. Living 2. Deck 3. Kitchen 4. Bathroom 5. Office 6. Bathroom 7. Bedroom 8. Bedroom

140 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

3 8 5 4

HOME + CORIAN

Above A stand-out feature is the stunning island, the bench is a focal point for entertaining and lingering over coffee and breakfast. Right The seamless black Corian® Deep Nocturne makes for a dramatic statement.

MAKING A DESIGN STATEMENT Corian® from Evolution of Surfaces Ltd 0800 CORIAN | 0800 267 426 corian.co.nz Melanie Craig Design Partners (Nationwide) 03 443 5312 melaniecraigdesign.co.nz

THIS CENTRAL-OTAGO KITCHEN SHOWCASES THE INTENSITY OF CORIAN® DEEP NOCTURNE, CONTRASTED WITH THE WARMTH OF PLYWOOD The owners of this family home in Queenstown were looking for a kitchen that would hold its own in the large open-plan living area and deliver a design statement. A great deal of entertaining happens in the space, with friends and family often involving themselves in the preparation and cooking of meals, so functionality was also important. A small scullery off the kitchen was turned into a “big boys” pantry containing sinks, food and utensil storage, plus a large number of appliances, enabling the main kitchen space to look more clean and tidy. The stunning island is the stand-out feature of the kitchen – the owners envisaged this as the key spot to entertain,

relax and linger over coffee, or wine and beer from the handy drinks fridge. Corian® was the obvious choice for the kitchen island for three main reasons. Firstly, the clients wanted a surface that felt warm and soft to touch, not cold and hard, like most stone-based surfaces. Secondly, with the seamless appearance of Corian®, unsightly joins can be avoided, which is very important for a benchtop of this scale. Finally, as the clients and designers were after a dramatic solid black statement, the new Corian® Deep Nocturne ﬁtted the bill with its superintense, deep black. The clients and the design team at Melanie Craig Design Partners just love the dramatic and seamless black Corian® Deep Nocturne benchtop, which harmonises beautifully with the warmth of the plywood. And for an expert design tip from the team: stop the cabinetry short underneath one end of your Corian® island benchtop so that everyone can sit in comfort and enjoy the table-like functionality.

a little means a lot 142 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Above The sculpture at the entrance of the home is by Roy Cowan and came with the house.

The slightest of design tweaks makes a petite mid-century Wellington classic just right for a family of four. TEXT

/ Alistair Luke

PHOTOGRAPHY

/ Paul McCredie

Left Sarah Taylor and her sons Levi (left) and Otto live in the Karori home designed by architect Helmut Einhorn. Sarah’s grandfather, artist E. Mervyn Taylor, knew the house and the Einhorn family well. One of her grandfather’s artworks hangs above the desk to the right. On the desk below is a work by his son, Terence Taylor. Also hanging on the wall is a work by Inga Fillary. The desk was purchased in London. Above Sarah now sells her grandfather’s artwork (as seen on cards in the photograph above) at emervyntaylor.co.nz.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 143

The western side of the house is captured from beneath the canopy of a large magnolia tree. Taylor says the house is surrounded by native trees planted by Ester Einhorn, architect Helmut Einhornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife, which are popular with native birds including tui, kaka, piwakawaka, bellbird and hihi.

144 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Living in London and wanting to return home to Wellington, Sarah Taylor and Rolf Lamberg started looking at properties online. A single photo of the entry lawn and terrace of the Einhorn House in the Wellington suburb of Karori captured their attention and, four days later, sight unseen but with the assistance of friends, they became only the second owners of this modest, modernist residential masterpiece. Designed by Helmut Einhorn in 1950 for himself, his wife Ester and their two young daughters, Barbara and Jule, it is all the more brilliant for its modesty. Fleeing Nazi Germany, Helmut and Ester Einhorn arrived in New Zealand in 1939. He worked primarily for government agencies on large-scale infrastructure and university projects, including the University of Canterbury School of Engineering and the Wellington motorway. He brought a modernist ethos to all the projects he worked on that extended to engineering, architecture, landscape architecture and, importantly, urban design. Key members in the establishment of Wellington’s Architectural Centre, the Einhorns brought a keen eye and critical views to the state of, and the future of, architecture in New Zealand. When it came to his family’s home, Einhorn was confronted by severe post-war austerity restrictions on a landowner’s ability to finance house construction. At this time the ability to raise government-guaranteed loans through the State Services Commission limited floor areas according to the number and gender of a family’s children (if you had a boy and a girl you were allowed three bedrooms). In the Einhorns’ case, this established that the house could have only two bedrooms and could not be larger than 1250 square feet (116 square metres), small by today’s standards. The Einhorns were further constrained by a slender budget and by the very limited variety of building materials that were available. On what were then the rural outskirts of Wellington, the eloquence of the result is a testimony to Einhorn’s skill. As time has passed the house has been subsumed into suburbia, but this has only given it more grace among the built fabric that now surrounds it. The L-shaped house is stepped into the steep hillside, with a primary design strategy being to create an outdoor room, lawn and terrace to which the living room, dining room and the children’s room open on to. Along with the hillside to the east, the low-slung house embraces and encloses this outdoor space in a way that is both protected from the elements and is remarkably inviting. Sheltered and private, it is a beguiling triumph of simplicity, effectively extending the restricted floor area by its own quantum. The defining image of the cleverness of this house, the image that captivated Sarah and Rolf, is from this aspect. Internally, Einhorn squeezed every efficiency he could from the limits placed on him. The planning has virtually no circulation space and is designed for maximum flexibility. The main bedroom on the western side of the house is separated from the living room by a curtain. The front door opens directly into the

centrally placed dining room. Using the same idiom as fellow émigré and peer Ernst Plischke, Einhorn also designed built-in furniture, purpose-made light fittings and several pieces of loose furniture. The apparent spaciousness of the house belies its small size and, even better, creates the sense of an invitation to sit, relax and dwell. An evocative early picture of the house shows Ester sitting on the step in the open doors of the living room reading a book in the sunshine. When I first visited the house – Ester was still living there then – it felt the interior was saying, “Grab a book, have a seat and relax”. Helmut Einhorn died in 1988 but Ester continued to live there until 2006. She died in 2010. In 2009, their home found the ideal new owners in Sarah and Rolf. By pure coincidence Sarah’s grandfather, the artist E. Mervyn Taylor, was strongly connected to the Architectural Centre, being the designer and, along with his wife Teddy, publisher of their Design Review magazine. He knew the Einhorns and the house very well. On the western side of the house, where it steps down the hillside, Einhorn designed a separate lower floor and garage. He always intended to link the upper and lower floor – to the extent that he inserted two long hatches in the dining room floor where he thought the future connecting stairs might go. Sarah and Rolf – committed to preserving its fabric as much as possible – wished to complete that connection between the upper and lower floors to create a studio and bedrooms for their boys, Otto and Levi. They engaged my partner, architect Sharon Jansen, to locate and design this stair and to reconfigure the lower floors. With Einhorn’s two hatches in place there were some prompts. The stair was inserted into the westernmost hatch and loosely based on designs contemporary to the era of the house but with a sophistication that is allowed by all of the materials we can acquire today. Seemingly simple, the stair is actually a very complex piece of joinery that feels suspended from the floor above. Its lightness and transparency fit with that of the house. All of the original downstairs details that Einhorn rendered have been retained; his light fittings in the battened ceilings are especially elegant. Added details are in complete consistency with the original house. A nice note is that Rolf has made the removed stairway hatch into a bench in the original garage, which has been converted into a studio (another of Einhorn’s future plans). The new owners are to be congratulated for their utter commitment to the originality of the Einhorn House. They live there as a family with two boys in a house that was designed for a family with two girls. Barbara and Jule have become friends and have been kept in close touch with the changes to the house in which they grew up. In a sense, a circle is completed. The new owners couldn’t wish for more than the harmony of the modest but rich family spaces and garden that the Einhorns created. It is a continuation that would bring enormous warmth to Helmut and Ester.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 145

The apparent spaciousness of the house belies its small size and, even better, creates the sense of an invitation to sit, relax and dwell.

146 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Left Einhorn designed a lower level with a garage, which he intended to link to the upper floors by stairs, but this wasn’t realised until the new owners engaged architect Sharon Jansen to do so. Jansen has not only made that connection with a sensitively designed set of rimu stairs, but also reconfigured the lower level to include a bedroom each for Otto and Levi, as well as a studio, and has retained all of the original details rendered by Helmut Einhorn. Behind the stairs you can see into Otto’s room which has a ‘secret’ bathroom hiding behind the rimu wall. The timber units, concrete beams and light fittings are all original. The watercolour is by E. Mervyn Taylor. Far left Otto works with playdough at the dining table. The new stairs are lined with a rimu and ply balustrade. The lights and cork floor are all original. The room is full of artwork by Mervyn and Terence Taylor, as well as Sarah’s teapot collection. Bottom left The light switches in the living room were designed by Einhorn. Visitors always comment on them, says Sarah.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 147

148 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Rolf Lamberg reads on the built-in sofa designed and made by Helmut Einhorn, as was the builtin wall unit, which contains a record player and stereo. On the unit, from left, is a maquette of Athena by E. Mervyn Taylor. To the right of the lidded bowl is a pottery dish with a bull by Juliet Peter. The painting on the wall is by Callum Arnold. The sculpture to the left of Lamberg is‘Ambassador’ by Mervyn Taylor. It sits on a sideboard which was purchased in London. The coffee table came from Sarah’s grandmother, Teddy (Mervyn’s wife). The sofa and chair are from Fuzzy Vintage. The original light fittings were designed and built by Helmut Einhorn.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 149

Left The built-in shelves and cupboards in the former main bedroom (now a playroom that doubles as a guest room), which used to be separated from the living room with only a curtain. Below The turn-table unit was custom-made for the living room.

150 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

Above The room below the stairs sits between the boysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bedrooms. The artworks above the bed are wood engravings by Mervyn Taylor.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 151

For this project, you were making a small modification to a mid-century home that’s already revered in architecture circles. How did you navigate this potentially intimidating situation? With a great deal of trepidation! We tested many locations for the stair, but it was always apparent a solution needed to maintain the integrity of upper floor. In fact, I set out on this process not believing it was possible, as I thought putting a hole in the floor of a house which I thought worked perfectly would be too destructive.

DESIGN NOTEBOOK

Building requirements have changed dramatically since the Einhorn house was built. What can we still learn from a good modernist house like this one? Economy of size and materiality can lead to innovative

Q&A with architect Sharon Jansen.

Above The home’s original architect, Helmut Einhorn (left) and architect Sharon Jansen. Below A curtain divides the boys’ playroom and the living room. Works by E. Mervyn Taylor hang above a set of nest tables by G Plan.

Right The L-shaped house encloses a sheltered outdoor space. Bottom right Otto stands on the stairs that lead to his parents’ bedroom and underneath a painting by his great-grandfather, E. Mervyn Taylor.

07 01

05 05 1. Living 2. Dining 3. Kitchen 4. Bedroom 5. Playroom / guestroom 6. Bathroom 7. Studio

02 04

Lower level

152 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

04 06

Entry level

solutions. Being restricted in the building’s overall size (116m2) and to two bedrooms led to the unusual arrangement of the main bedroom being open to the living room. This added spaciousness and the opportunity to use the room in multiple ways. Why do we all seem to think we need more living space than is necessary? Misled desire, and a lack of critical thought about what houses need for good living. People are constantly misled into thinking they need ensuites, multiple bathrooms (how many toilets do you want to clean?), rooms and bathrooms for guests, and individual rooms for individual functions when in fact you can mix up and share functions quite easily. Planning and storage are key to managing clutter and keeping a sense of space.

STYLE SAFARI GETTING AHEAD OF THE LATEST DESIGN DEVELOPMENTS.

style safari PRESENTS

In May, we took 50 lucky guests on a tour of Auckland’s finest design stores, guided by HOME editor Jeremy Hansen. Most of our presenters were fresh back from the Milan Furniture Fair, and gave presentations of the latest releases they’d seen there and the interiors trends they observed. At Studio Italia’s new Grafton showroom, Valeria Carbonaro-Laws showed her favourite discoveries from Milan. ECC’s Debbie Quy showed luxurious new furniture and lighting that will soon be heading to their showroom. At Backhouse Interiors, Michelle Backhouse talked about her meetings in Milan with the family firm’s long-time Italian associates. IMO’s Sam Haughton and Hannah Brodie discussed their New Zealandmade prefab kitchen range as well as their homegrown furniture classics. And Artisan Flooring’s Greg McLeod showed his firm’s artisanal range of beautiful rugs from Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Our guests also enjoyed lunch at Auckland’s Ebisu, and ended the day with drinks in the Studio Italia showroom and notebooks full of design inspiration.

2015

HOME’s Style Safari is coming to Christchurch on Friday October 16. For ticket information, visit homemagazine.co.nz

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 153

Above and right The home at Jacks Point, Queenstown, by David Reid Homes features the latest in ALTHERMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S window technology. ALTHERMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S new ThermalHEART window and door

range offers 35 percent better thermal performance over and above standard doubleglazed products and an impressive 130 percent improvement over standard singleglazed windows.

154 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

ADVERTISING PROMOTION / HOME + ALTHERM

A HISTORIC TRANSITION FOR WINDOWS Altherm Window Systems altherm.co.nz | facebook.com/AlthermWindows

The implementation of tougher energy efficiency rules in the Building Code and the requirement for double glazing in most homes has arguably been the most significant development for windows and doors in New Zealand in the last decade. Although double glazing is not specifically mentioned, the R-value (a measure of thermal resistance) for windows and doors outlined in the code can generally only be met by double-glazed units. This increase in standards has added to the cost of construction but is seen as a necessary energy conservation measure that brings New Zealand into line with international best practice. A powerful enhancement to double-glazed units is the revolutionary thermally broken products that separate the inside and outside of profiles and frames. The result is a fully integrated barrier system addressing both glass and metal conductivity, ensuring comfort, warmth and the health of your family and your home. The ALTHERM ThermalHEART window and door range offers 35 percent better thermal performance over and above standard double-glazed products and an impressive 130 percent improvement over standard singleglazed windows. ALTHERM, the sponsor of this magazine’s Home of the Year award, has used leading-edge European technology to stitch the nylon thermal break into aluminium profiles. A Belgian Aluroller machine incorporates the barrier – an insulator – into every window and door perimeter so that the transfer of heat and condensation are minimised.

The impressive pedigree of the ALTHERM brand cross-bred with the latest in integral barrier systems allows homeowners to keep warmth in and cold out during the winter months and vice versa during the summer months. Thermal modelling carried out by ALTHERM gives a good indication of the positive effects ThermalHEART technology can have on the insulation of your home. For example, in a room where the air temperature is 21°C and the air temperature outside is a nippy 3°C the temperature of a non-thermally broken aluminium frame on the inside of the window will typically be around 8°C – a major radiator of cold. For a ThermalHEART product the inside frame temperature would be a more desirable 15°C, before you’ve switched the heating on. For larger windows and doors ALTHERM offer the super-robust METRO SERIES ThermalHEART range. This is popular amongst designers who prefer to incorporate tall doors for aesthetic and functional reasons but also require maximum thermal resistance. As a final touch to its thermal efficiency programme, ALTHERM manufacturers are moving towards a helpful communications tool to alert prospective purchasers to the energy rating of windows and doors. The rating systems are the ENERGY STAR® administered by EECA, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, and the WEERS system (Window Energy Efficiency Rating System) that has been adopted by Window Association of New Zealand. These systems are scheduled for introduction in the next few months.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 155

style safari PRESENTS

2015

CHRISTCHURCH A day of design store tours and expert briefings guided by HOME editor Jeremy Hansen

FRIDAY OCTOBER 16

$75

156 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

HOME’s Style Safari is an exclusive day-long set of briefings on the latest design trends and new furniture releases, guided by HOME editor Jeremy Hansen. The day commences at 9am and includes design briefings at Christchurch’s most important design stores, finishing around 5pm. Lunch is included. Numbers on the Style Safari are limited to 50, so reserve your tickets now.

OUR GUEST SPEAKERS

Cam Dickey

Mike Thorburn

Sam Haughton

MATISSE

BOCONCEPT

The co-founder of Matisse will talk through new arrivals from the Milan Furniture Fair as well as the latest developments in kitchens and bathrooms.

BoConcept’s Cam Dickey will talk guests through the Danish furniture label’s latest releases in their new Christchurch store.

ECC’s Mike Thorburn has a host of new lighting and furniture releases from Milan covered, as well as the latest trends from the world’s biggest design event.

The New Zealand design house IMO will brief guests on their classic range of furniture and their innovative prefab kitchens.

Jeanne Bertenshaw

IMO

ECC

HOW TO BOOK Book your tickets online at eventopia.co/stylesafarichch Each ticket costs $75 and includes lunch and our all-day Style Safari experience. For information, contact Liezl HipkinsStear, 09 308 2873 or lhipkins@bauermedia.co.nz

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 157

Few kitchen brands offer high-performance products that visually match. The truth is looks do matter. That’s why Fisher & Paykel reinvented their kitchen family to create a consistent aesthetic across all appliances. With the same handle, black glass and stainless-steel ﬁnish, the Fisher & Paykel kitchen family is engineered to perform and designed to match. From the newly launched Fisher & Paykel Wine Cabinet to the unique drawer-based design of the DishDrawer™ Dishwashers and CoolDrawer™ Mutiltemperature Drawer, the appliances are consistent in their look and with edges that run seamlessly between different products. Whether you are renovating, building or replacing existing appliances, you can choose the ultimate selection of kitchen appliances to suit you and your lifestyle.

01 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

$50 FOR 6 ISSUES ONE YEAR SAVE 24% $98 FOR 12 ISSUES TWO YEARS SAVE 26% OFFER ENDS 4 OCTOBER 2015

Subscribe to Be in to WIN with Fisher & Paykel Be in to win your choice of Fisher & Paykel’s Designed to Match kitchen appliances to the value of RRP $7500 Subscribe securely online at www. magshop.co.nz/home/M508HAE Phone 0800 MAGSHOP (0800 624 746) and quote M508HAE This offer is valid for delivery in New Zealand before 4 October 2015 to subscribers quoting M1508HAE by phone or online at www.magshop.co.nz/home/M508HAE. This subscription offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Once processed, all subscriptions are non-refundable. Rates include GST and postage. Please allow 6 weeks for delivery of your first magazine. For overseas subscription rates and full terms and conditions refer to www.magshop.co.nz. The prize is the winner’s choice of Fisher & Paykel Kitchen appliances to the value of RRP $7,500. The winner may select from the current Fisher & Paykel Kitchen range www.fisherpaykel.com/nz/kitchen/. The prize includes delivery to the winner’s address, but does not include installation or cabinetry. Fisher and Paykel Appliances accepts no responsibility for any costs not specifically included in the prize description above. Image is indicative of Fisher & Paykel ‘Designed to Match’ appliances that the winner can select from. Total value of appliances shown exceeds RRP$7,500.

HOME NEW ZEALAND / 02

ADVERTISING PROMOTION

IAN ROUSE AT THE CLEVER VER www.thecleverdesignstore.com A classically-styled storage solution on for electronic equipment, the Weaver ver Credenza is handcrafted from solid d hardwood and perforated aluminium um sliders in colours to suit.

www.lavaglass.co.nz lavaglass1@gmail.com

SIMON JONES

Lynden Over, a Taupo-based glass artist, melds colour and light in his unique pieces which are inspired by the dramatic landscapes of New Zealand.

www.simonjones.net.nz Simon Jones is a designer based in Christchurch and specialises in studio furniture & sculpture. New works are for sale at Wanaka Fine Art Gallery. Commissions are also available.

FURNITURE, OBJECTS & DESIGNERS

THE IO DRUM Designer: Mat Macmillan

MONTREUX FURNITURE www.montreux.co.nz Andrew Hopping / Montreux The entire range of furniture is manufactured in Christchurch. Now showing the Lucca Chair made of American ash and covered in Mokum Zebre.

HÖGLUND ART GLASS H w www.hoglundartglass.com Ph: 03 544 6500 P Ola & Marie Höglund glass O artists and creators of a New Zealand art glass since N 1982. Visitors are welcome. 1

The handcrafted lamps made of sliced plywood around cylindrical forms create lighting with stunning effect. See the range at theclever:designstore

To advertise here contact Kim Chapman, phone: (07) 578 3646, mobile: 021 673 133, email: classiﬁeds@xtra.co.nz

LAVA GLASS

SOURCE

With more than 15 years of building experience and an established reputation with an excellent team of qualiﬁed subcontractors, Bungalow & Villa Renovation Specialists has the expert knowledge to turn your building dream into reality.

www.bungalowvilla.co.nz Phone (09) 629 0366/ 021 270 1388

WINNER 2014 CREATIVE EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR THE MOST INNOVATIVE KITCHEN Visit our display kitchen at:

New Zealand realist painter www.richardshanksart.com

PO Box 28-700, Remuera Phone (09) 813 6192 www.croninkitchens.co.nz

Add style and warmth to your home with a Warmington fire We have a quality range of wood and gas fires, woodburners and outdoor fires designed and manufactured here in NZ, and all from one convenient location. Visit our Auckland Fires by Design showroom at 47 Sir William Ave East Tamaki Ph: 09 273 9227 Or visit our website: www.warmington.co.nz

Readership: 98,000* Circulation: 10,795** * Nielsen CMI Apr 14-Mar 15 ** NZ Audit Bureau of Circulations Apr 14-Mar 15

To advertise your product in the Urban Living Directory

contact: Kim Chapman

To advertise here contact Kim Chapman, phone: (07) 578 3646, mobile: 021 673 133, email: classiﬁeds@xtra.co.nz

Ph: 07 578 3646 | Mob: 021 673 133 Email: classiﬁeds@xtra.co.nz

Hand crafted Scandinavian-inspired indoor and outdoor furniture. Thoughtful enduring design for your residential, hospitality, commercial and apartment projects

www.sagelifestyle.co.nz

Showroom: Unit 3A 79 St Georges Bay Road, Parnell (09) 379 5582

155 The Strand, Parnell.

MY FAVOURITE BUILDING Wellington architect Roger Walker on a favourite small-house project. “I was asked if I had any small houses I could be photographed with. That was easy, as I have designed very few large ones. In the 1970s, the Wellington City Council created a subdivision in the suburb of Wilton. One of my clients still lives in his house. Over the years I was commissioned to design two additional detached houses for guests and family members. One house is pointy, another curvy. Five years ago I was asked to add to the curvy one. Because suburbs are so deserving of (and, some say, invite) subversion, the addition is not an extrusion of the original curved cross section, but takes the form of a split monopitch roof intended to wave PHOTOGRAPHY /

162 / HOME NEW ZEALAND

at the neighbours. This was a friendly, rather than provocative gesture, as the neighbour lives in one of my designs as well. All these houses are deliberately compact, with living and service spaces of appropriate dimensions clipped onto efficient vertical and horizontal circulation routes. Just as the Holden Commodore has been replaced by the Mazda 3 as Australia’s best-selling car, house sizes on both sides of the Tasman are headed in the same direction and for similar reasons. Overbuilding is energy inefficient, wasteful of resources and can be socially unfriendly. It’s also architecturally easier to make small houses far cuter than big ones.” Paul McCredie

Home at last.

o 25 Nugent ST, Grafton, AKL tel. +64.9.523 2105 info@studioitalia.co.nz

GROUNDPIECE SECTIONAL SOFA design by Antonio Citterio FLEXFORM www.flexform.it