Manifesting magical interior moments
Talking senses, from sight to smell to touch
When gardens and architecture intertwine
Design that sheds light on the matter
Minimal style appliances shown here
Choose from three appliance styles to complement your kitchen design
TIBBO SOFA SETTING, DALA LOUNGE CHAIR, MBRACE DINING CHAIR
A deep appreciation for beauty is channelled into each room in this house.
A series of spaces sequenced together through clever connections and alignments, this sociable home is its own little village.
Life here follows the sun, a laidback pace, and the ebb and flow of the tide.
Scout
Covetable stuff and things.
A ‘barely there’ chair.
Colour palette
Pickled pink.
Bookmark
A new favourite read.
Hark Handmade.
Paint trends
Catlins coastal.
Collection collab BoConcept.
Creative profile
Frances Shoemack.
Artist profile Deborah Moss.
Sculptor profile
Simon Lewis Wards.
The Fisher House.
Outside in Destiny fulfilled.
Woman in architecture Natasha Markham.
Garden With Fiona Brockhoff.
1… COVETING sweet treats, including this tangerine Teresa tote by Yu Mei. Available from October, it’s the perfect size to stash all my essentials in when I’m on the go.
2… PICKING ranunculus.
I love the way the light catches their paper-thin petals as they unfurl.
I bought these from a florist, but next year
I’m going to try growing some myself.
3… READING Spring Cannot Be Cancelled — an exchange between artist David Hockney and his friend, art critic Martin Gayford. I like how enthusiastic David is about the minutiae of everyday life, and specifically nature.
It’s so clichéd, but all the optimism of new life budding forth outside my window just gets me every year. We tried our best to steer clear of the tropes when we were putting together this October/November issue, because we’re predominately champions of creating a home for all seasons, as opposed to chasing trends. However, some of that spring cheer has made its way onto the following pages despite ourselves.
Don’t get me started on the delightfully delicate beaded florals by Hollie Ryan of Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland’s Hark Handmade on page 26, and other stories in this issue convey a literal and figurative lightness too. Frances Shoemack of natural fragrance brand Abel Odor is enjoying the sunny vibes at her new Abel Fabriek factory/lab/office/community hub in Pōneke/Wellington, where we visited her to talk scents (page 44). Sculptor Simon Lewis Wards’ light
is shining ever brighter as he explores new forms for his captivating glass art at his studio in the Waitākere Ranges (page 56), and the clever curator of our cover home, Jodi Newnham of Tāmaki Makaurau-based Mid Century Swag, has manifested many magical interior moments at her place, through the design and fit-out of a family dwelling in which the light hits right and the décor is her own brand of chic (page 66).
There’s more where these stories came from, so all this is to say that inspiration is abundant, and we hope our latest issue provides you with maximum motivation to nurture a home you’ll love forever, while enjoying the frivolity of seasonal finds as well. I’m currently finding joy in a fleeting ritual: picking up the petals falling from a vase filled with blossomy branches that I plucked from a tree along our driveway. For me, it’s just another happy aspect of the spring mood boost they bring.
Portrait: Naomi Haussmann. Alice wears: Micky T-shirt and Calla culottes, juliettehogan.com
Alice Lines, @alice.lines
Okay, I have to confess — I’m a hopeless romantic when it comes to spring!
While producing this issue, I’ve been…
Matt Black finish to complement the cedar cladding
Flush sill for carefree indoor/ outdoor flow
Over-the-wall sliding doors open the home right up
Alice Lines
DEPUTY EDITOR
Philippa Prentice
ART DIRECTOR
Adrienne Pitts
Helen Bankers
Bonny Beattie
Peter Bennetts
Lula Cucchiara
Simon Devitt
Sarah Ell Wendy Fenwick
Gavin Green
Naomi Haussmann
Duncan Innes
Melanie McDaid
Jackie Meiring
Leanne Moore Larnie Nicolson
Jono Parker
Catherine Steel Sam van Kan
Nicholas Burrowes
General Manager nick@homestyle.co.nz +64 21 505 992
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homestyle is subject to copyright in its entirety. The contents may not be reproduced in any form, either whole or in part, without written permission from 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 ‘not for publication’. No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material. Paint colours may alter in the printing process.
Create calm spaces for relaxed living this spring with hand-painted botanical designs, new hues in pure linen, timeless comforting checks and dreamy textures. Explore our bed linen, homeware,
natural and sustainable fabrics.
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Helen Bankers COVER STYLING Jodi Newnham WEBSTAR MAGAZINE MEDIA SUPREME
New dark oak furniture, designed in New Zealand. cittadesign.com • @citta
With its handmade tiles, organic curves, and custom ceramic lamp and bowl, this bountiful corner is all about bringing a smile to your dial. It’s part of a revamp designed to let the sunshine in Mediterranean-style at a time when the rest of the world felt very far away. Let it transport you on page 20.
Working hard or hardly working? Either way, you deserve to put your feet up, and it’ll soon be time to do that outside rather than in. Make your downtime extra-desirable by soaking up the sun on some hot new outdoor seating — we’re coveting these Amanu lounge chairs now stocked at Dawson & Co. By Toronto design studio Yabu Pushelberg for familyrun Belgian brand Tribù, they join the Amanu collection’s beautiful tile-topped dining table, and match its dining chairs with their teak frame and woven hemp-blend sling seat, plus cushions you can add for more “Aaah”. dawsonandco.nz
Words: Philippa Prentice
Since its humble beginning in a garage 17 years ago, Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland biz Ashley & Co has grown to produce 50-plus scented products and seen Tui & Kahili become its most popular fragrance. Its next milestone is its first design collab — with potter Rachel Carter, who’s created four limited-edition, handthrown vessels for candles steeped in that best-loved blend of lily, mimosa, sandalwood, ginger and ylang-ylang. In two hard-wearing, food-safe glazes, they’re designed for reuse once the wax burns down — as tumblers, utensil holders or planters, perhaps. shop.ashleyandco.co
In what can be compared to an exchange of love letters with the aim of strengthening the dialogue between our two countries, Correspondence connects Kiwi and Korean makers and consumers through handmade creations shared in stores and online. Its winsome website is organised according to material. Click ‘Metal’ and it’ll take you to a page where among other items thoughtfully curated by Tāmaki Makaurau founder, textile designer and weaver Jungeun Lee, you’ll find these flower-headed brass hooks by Seoul’s Yoonjeong Lee. Hand-cast and crafted in a process akin to jewellery making, they’re part of her larger Hardware series. correspondence.cloud
Inch towards summer with La Tribe’s latest footwear collection Before The Dawn, which invites us to prep for the lazier, hazier days ahead through a lifestyle-led selection of new and updated looks. Like the rest, these Rubber Pool Slides are rooted in the Kiwi brand’s commitment to quality construction and materials. Along with Bone, Lemon and Taupe, this scrummy Mocha flavour has been added to the custom-dyed design’s array, which already includes Army, Black and Blush. latribe.co.nz
Available nationwide. Free samples via our website.
Wildberries Lisbon Velvet Terracotta Wrybill BoucleDesign your style with our unique range of textiles and our custom making services.
Love a coordinated pile-up of cushions? Selecting them from a single range can be a good way to go about it, giving you the freedom to play while easing visual confusion. This lot is from Bonnie & Neil’s newly launched Beach Club offering — a joyful tribute to the Mediterranean in the form of handwoven, hand-painted and hand-drawn designs in the motifs and sun-faded shades synonymous with the region. bonnieandneil.com.au
You wouldn’t need to fish for compliments on Sydney studio Heliograf’s award-winning debut product, the Light Soy lamp — it’s clearly just so nifty. Unlike the iconic but environmentally unfriendly soy sauce packet it references, it’s intended to reduce plastic waste by taking it from geographic locations that are known sources of ocean pollution and recycling it into a portable light with four brightness levels and USB and fast-charge capabilities. As well as all that, your purchase will arrive at your door in biodegradable packaging made from waste sugarcane. kiosk-store.com
Find your faves from Mina’s newseason release, Two.3/4. Split into a duo of drops launching now and in November, it’s a full wardrobe of ageless pieces, all made with natural fabrics and the best intentions for your health and happiness, our local fashion industry and the environment. We have our hearts set on this Bloom dress (worn here with a Beach shirt), which comes in Tangerine, Cobalt and Blue Gingham, and can be worn back to front according to whether you’re in a dropped square neck or boat neck state of mind. It also has pockets. Need we say more? minaforher.com
Ōtautahi/Christchurch store Infinite Definite stocks a stellar selection of streetwear and lifestyle stuff from around Aotearoa and the world. Among several endlessly appealing Japanese ceramic brands on their roster is Bar Bar, whose designs rest on concepts of ritual and tradition. The perfect partner for fresh spring salads, this is their porcelain Mandala Rim bowl, which features a hand-sprayed pattern inspired by a bird flapping its wings. infinitedefinite.com
Chur to Pōneke/Wellington designers Formway, whose Lightly chair for Noho is rightfully garnering awards and nominations. Made featherweight and with little impact on the environment, only details essential to its multi-posture performance have been included in its creation from recycled plastic and an innovative material derived from the CO 2 -absorbing castor bean plant, which also makes it tightly stackable for easier shipping, shifting around and storage. Register your interest at: noho.co/nz/pages/lightly
Just discovered at the department of cool that is Mt Maunganui store Paper Plane: Eco totes by Emilia Sutton from Aussie label Mimmi Terra. Of Italian descent, Emilia has infused hints of her heritage and a desire to clean up the planet into these bags handmade from discarded PE plastic that’s melted down, then moulded into straps for weaving. Durable, lightweight and water-resistant, they’re a lifetime essential, great for jazzing up outfits, taking to the beach and using for storage at home. Pick them up in a host of colours and patterns, in sizes from Micro to Shopper to Traveller. paperplanestore.com
It takes a lot to make more of less. Those with a thing for minimalism will appreciate just how much skill goes into a highly refined design, and similarly how much confidence and restraint is required to style a space with only the best necessities. This new piece by Città, which we can’t help but admire, is impeccably well-resolved — a perfect example of reduction resulting in something quite remarkable. Expertly understated, the Trace dining chair was collaboratively created by industrial designer Scott Fitzsimons and Città’s furniture design team, David Moreland and Nikolai Sorensen. The uncomplicated silhouette exchanges straight lines for subtle curves, resulting in a hand-drawn feel, with the chair itself named for the way its legs elegantly follow the back of the seat. Flawless craftsmanship completes the picture of an everyday item that’s as gorgeous as all get-out, and a reminder of the true beauty in simplicity and pleasure we can gain from just enough. cittadesign.com
SITS WELL Minimalist design meets material warmth in the form of plywood and steel. The Trace dining chair is available in black oak veneer, natural oak veneer and walnut veneer, each with the option of a black leather or upholstered seat.
Whether design or décor details, there can be a wonderful richness in going with a chosen few.
Deli/wine bar Pickled Poet in Wollongong, NSW celebrates life’s simple pleasures, and its fit-out by design studio We Are Duet was approached in the same way. Spirit-lifting joy is infused into the interior via details such as the gingham-look tiles that reference carefree picnics, and the welcoming curves that offset the linearity of the long bar and widen and tighten to maximise the usable space. Atmospheric day and night, the Mediterranean-inspired colour palette combines hues to delight that you could try at home, including pink and peach paints that radiate a summery glow onto everyone in the room. You could add extras like:
Pink overhead and peach all around makes everyone in this diminutive deli look like they’re on vacation.Photography: Pablo Veiga
Colours from Resene The Range fashion colours collection, available at Resene ColorShops and selected resellers.
Resene Rulebreaker
Resene Morning Haze
Freedom’s stylish range of serving and dinnerware is everything you need to eat, drink, and entertain all day or even all night long.
Words: Philippa Prentice
ABOVE LEFT This Arts & Crafts house located outside Raglan was designed in the 1930s by Sholto Smith. ABOVE RIGHT “Even though I live quite minimally, I really enjoy other people’s infatuation with things,” says Jane. The portraits she took in this special home in Christchurch show artwork and objects arranged with aplomb.
A typical look might come to mind when you think of New Zealand interiors. For this book, the venerable Jane Ussher MNZM shot some that are in another category altogether.
Jane spent 29 years as chief photographer for the Listener, rising to become the country’s foremost portrait photographer. After stepping down from the role in 2008, a chance meeting sent her to Antarctica to shoot explorers Scott and Shackleton’s huts, and she arrived home indelibly altered, >
Rooms by Jane Ussher & John Walsh (Massey University Press, $85)
A read that might change the way you see things.
“When I walk into a room that interests me, it’s like meeting a person who interests me. I look around the space, and I start seeing ways I can create images of that space.”
RIGHT Both the kitchen and the dining table in this ‘50s bach at Lake Rotomā were designed and built by Mark Bruce. B ELOW This turn-of-the-century Auckland villa is filled with artworks created by its owner. O PPOSITE, TOP On the Japanese dresser in this Wellington dwelling is a pair of birds the owner handmade using shells. O PPOSITE, BOTTOM LEFT This photo taken in a 1979 Governors Bay home by Jonty Rout includes a bowl by Mirek Smíšek, a pot by Margaret Ryley and hīnaki (eel traps) by Kari Morseth.
RIGHT The view into the bedroom in this renovated 1913 villa in Wellington reveals a painting by Catherine Clayton-Smith.
committed to photographing interiors as she had people. Evident in this book is her expert ability to capture and communicate the singular nature of a space — akin to the uniqueness of an individual.
This tome doesn’t take us anywhere as exotic as Antarctica, but many of these rooms from around Aotearoa have an international feel that makes this a read you can really escape into. Bookended by a wonderful essay by architecture writer John Walsh and an illuminating index by publisher/journalist Nicola Legat ONZM, it’s page after page of spaces you can get lost in, marvelling at the layered detail lovingly installed over time. In fact, more so than the houses themselves, Jane’s interested in the human urge to collect and curate the stuff that’s in them. “Put me in a room… and I don’t see the architecture,” she says. “I’ll be drawn to the corner with a pile of things.”
Although no people feature here, there are many signs of life: artworks creatively chosen, sofas you want to sink into, curiosities you’d love to clutch in your own hand. All are a very entertaining portal to the personalities that have made these walls talk. Rooms i s on sale from October 20, but you can p re o rd er your copy now from your local bookseller or masseypress.ac.nz.
Hollie Ryan of Hark Handmade sculpts beaded blooms as a way to preserve the loveliness of fresh ones in a historical form.
INTERVIEW Alice Lines
PHOTOGRAPHY Lula Cucchiara
BEAD ME UP “Starting a new piece is thrilling,” says Hollie. “I study the plant and make lists of all its parts, then experiment with ways of weaving the beads to create the right forms. It can take many tries to convey the lightness and movement or fullness and density of a plant. When I’m confident I’ve worked out the dimensions and settled on the technique I’ll use to make each component, I choose the beads.”
Hollie, beading flowers is a delightful niche art — what drew you to it? I have a huge love of flowers, then one night last year I was down an internet rabbit hole reading an article about funeral practices in Edwardian and Victorian times — my Google history is so embarrassing! — and found a mention of the lost art of beading flowers as grave ornaments. Women in 18thand early 19th-century France and Western Europe would weave elaborate wreaths for fallen loved ones, often out of necessity when war, weather and a lack of resources meant fresh flowers
weren’t available. The wreaths would disintegrate over time and the beads would be picked up and used again and again. The idea of people innovating in hard times to create something heartfelt and purely for decorative purposes really appealed to me when we were in the thick of the pandemic, so now I’m on a mission to revive the practice.
Is it part of a broader creative career for you? I come from a big family of artistic characters, in which pursuing creativity and experimenting with visual arts and music was almost >
mandatory. My grandmother was a ceramicist and taught me every handcraft imaginable. This was such a wonderful gift and I can’t remember a time when I was without a project on the side — in fact, when I moved to London in 2015, I packed more art supplies than clothing!
In 2018, I started making and selling jewellery in my spare time as Hark Handmade, which led to three years’ tutoring at Auckland’s Studio One Toi Tū. I also work in the architecturaland interior-design-product industry full-time. Although Hark is a side
project for now, it feels so right being able to use jewellery-making techniques to create decorative objects for the home, so I’m leaning into it fully and wish I had an extra pair of hands to bead quickly enough to realise all my ideas.
Are there any forms or colours you particularly enjoy? I love rounded forms and meandering, twisted curves. I also love art and interior design, and have a scrapbook stuffed full of magazine and book pages and print-outs from the internet that I go back to constantly to get colour
DOWN TO THE WIRE Hollie says she likes to work with Japanese and Czech seed beads for their range of colours and finishes.
“Taking the time to choose the right beads helps create realism. For instance, I use matte beads for velvety roses and transparent b eads to create the appearance of the sun shining through a petal.
S ome flowers have many separate parts, which can take days to make. It’s a wonderful, meditative process creating piles of petals, and I love the rhythm of counting beads and twisting wire. Eventually, I bind everything together on a stem wire to complete a finished flower or branch. I take photos and write notes the entire time, so I can recreate each plant again.”
inspiration. This art form’s weird history really inspires me too, as does the work of floral artists, my collection of botanical reference and photography books, and fresh flowers themselves.
How do you imagine people displaying your creations? My favourite way is wall-mounted with an invisible clip. I’m currently prototyping some interesting fixtures to allow people to suspend them on the wall as art pieces, instead of in vases, but I think they bring joy wherever you put them.
h ark h an dm a de.com
“I have endless ideas for installations and larger-scale sculptures, so watch this space!”
Sam van Kan PHOTOGRAPHY Wendy Fenwick
Decorate your space with a textural blend of natural materials. Aim for a subtle foraged feel — swept-up-on-the-sand, but less literal.
ABOVE: BACKDROP Wall in Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Hindsight, plinths in (from left) Resene Colorwood We Speak Beach in Resene Shore Thing and Resene Rising Tide, resene.co.nz/ colorshops. ITEMS, FROM LEFT Lucie vase by Marloe Marloe, $396, slowstore.co.nz. Luisa Acqua glass by R&D Lab, $170/set of two; Istanbul candlestick by Astier De Villatte, $275, tessuti. co.nz. Duo candle by Ferm Living, $30/set of two, slowstore.co.nz. Pot pourri dish by Christian Tortu, $92, tessuti.co.nz. Foliage stylist’s own. OPPOSITE: BACKDROP Walls in Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Hindsight, floor in Resene Colorwood We Speak Beach in Resene Breathe Easy, plinth in Resene Colorwood We Speak Beach in Resene R ising Tide, door frame in Resene Lustacryl in Resene Alabaster, resene.co.nz/colorshops. O BJECTS, FROM LEFT Looped Jute rug , from $3495, nodirugs.com. Envoy side table, from $1150, woodwrights.co.nz. Lucie vase by Marloe Marloe, $396, slowstore.co.nz. Men Carrying Flowers book by Ophelia Mikkelson Jones, $65; Luisa Acqua glass by R&D Lab, $170/set of two, tessuti.co.nz. Kingsview sofa , POA, woodwrights.co.nz. Medal cushion by Anke Drechseln, $529, tessuti.co.nz. Ava cushion, $47; Como cushion, $77, weavehome. co.nz. O Horizon 2022 artwork by Matt Arbuckle, $9800, tworooms.co.nz. Colbert amphora vase by Astier De Villatte, $369, tessuti.co.nz. Kyoto fabric in Willow (used as curtain), POA, jamesdunlop textiles.co.nz. Heirloom chair, from $2875, woodwrights.co.nz. Ida bolster cushion cover, $70, cittadesign.com. Foliage stylist’s own.
- Beachy, bachy, coastal aesthetics tend to go one of two ways: whitewashed, minimal Cape Cod or themed-to-thehilt sea blues teamed with shells, shells and more shells. Instead, we propose a distinctly local look — a Catlins-ish kind of windswept and interesting.
- On our walls we used low-sheen Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Hindsight — a versatile neutral with hints of grey-green and ochre. In a nod to salt-sprayed boatsheds, for our decorative plinths we chose Resene Shore Thing and Resene Rising Tide from the new Resene Colorwood We Speak Beach series of stains.
- For an effect that’s more sun-bleached than stark, on the floor we used Resene Colorwood We Speak Beach in Resene Breathe Easy, applying a single coat to allow the visual texture of the woodgrain to show through. Pick up a speed or bristle brush from your local Resene ColorShop (or if you’re painting a large floor surface, you could spray on this product), then apply the stain in the direction of the grain to achieve a uniform colour and leave it to cure without wiping it off.
Resene Hindsight Resene Alabaster
Resene Breathe Easy
Resene Rising Tide Resene Shore Thing
Nothing beats new. We visited some of our clients to find out what they love about their new home.
Alistair and Marie love opening their main doors to enjoy stunning landscape views from their home in Arrowtown.
To watch more of our clients share everything they love about their new home, head to davidreidhomes.co.nz
Alistair & Marie.
Investing in what really matters — a house that truly feels like home — is made easy with a comprehensive range like BoConcept’s New Kollektion. We’ve combined some highlights with styling tips for key spaces at your places.
FROM LEFT Dublin chair, from $3679; Carmo sofa , from $4579; Sevilla coffee table, $2639; Stockholm pendant light , $1299; Expose side table, from $749, boconcept.com. Selected additional accessories , boconcept.com.
furniture designer Morten Georgson, another of BoConcept’s permanent design partners, the Madrid side table (from $1049) now comes in two versions. Match them with Madrid coffee and dining tables (seen on these pages and page 37) for a cohesive effect within a room or throughout your house.
One of many BoConcept pieces designed by the Danish brand’s lauded long-term collaborator Henrik Pedersen, the new Berne sofa (pictured left and opposite) is a simple, modern form with a higher, more upright back and deeper seats to make it ultra-comfortable. Choose the right sofa for your space by considering features such as…
1… the welcoming visual effect of a softly rounded back, arms and seats — no sharp corners from any angle.
… legs that allow furniture to ‘float’ over the floor for a lighter, airier, more spacious-feeling interior.
… subtle sewing detail that’s both a minimal addition to a minimal shape and helps prevent wrinkles in the fabric.
Create a personality-filled conversation zone in a living area by arranging an ensemble cast of characterful pieces facing inwards. We’ve included an occasional chair stage left: BoConcept’s new Princeton lounge chair — a relaxing, organic-shaped embrace on a light base that makes it effortless to reposition on a whim. >
LEFT, FROM LEFT Madrid coffee table, from $1449; Scandinavia rug , from $2669; Berne sofa , from $4189; Bordeaux wall systems , from $1499 each; Madrid side table, from $1049; Princeton living chair, from $2479, boconcept.com. Selected additional accessories , boconcept. com. OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT Expose side table from $749; Canadian Burnet framed artwork , $329; Form rug , from $2769; Berne sofa , from $3769; Madrid coffee table, from $1449; Eden footstool, from $649, boconcept.com. Selected additional accessories , boconcept.com.
Make your dining table so good to gather around that long lunches and lingering suppers become your entertaining go-to. To ensure lasting comfort, consider the height of your chairs in relation to the table; this Hague table and matching Hague chairs remove the guesswork — they’re made for each other. Maximise personal touches in the room via shelving such as this glassencased Lund cabinet, ideal for decorative objects, tableware and your cocktail-making kit alike. You could also keep in mind that…
1… extendable tables such as the one above provide the ultimate flexibility to serve only your nearest and dearest or expand your place settings to make mealtimes the more the merrier.
2… you’ll get the most out of extra dining chairs with a design like this that doubles as an occasional chair. Rather than store them when they’re not at the table, you can re-style them elsewhere.
… hanging a pendant light low over your dining table shines light on the matter while fostering an atmospheric sense of intimacy. Switch off any other lights and add the odd candle.
Given curves take up less room in a room, rounded tables are ideal for smaller spots, and allow you to easily accommodate guests without anyone feeling overcrowded. Graceful beauties like this Madrid dining table make for good chat that can flow easily in all directions. Devise a balanced look by accessorising with other circular forms, such as these vases, the pendant light, the sculpture and the rug. The curved profile of the contemporary-yet-classic Hamilton dining chairs ties in too. >
THIS PAGE, FROM RIGHT Hamilton dining chairs , from $819 each; Loom rug , from $2129; Madrid dining table, from $6499; Paddle pendant light, $1299, boconcept.com. Selected additional accessories , boconcept.com. OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT Hague dining chairs , from $1419 each, and dining table, from $3849; Paddle pendant light $1299; Lund cabinet , $6019 (also pictured top), boconcept.com. Selected additional accessories , boconcept.com.
We love the feather-light silhouette and understated frame of this Asti desk — they allow it to work well without dominating in either a dedicated study or a break-out workspace in an open-plan living area. The Hamilton dining chair levels up here to become officeappropriate through the addition of a swivel base, while modular storage keeps professional essentials within easy reach among your decorative collectables.
Curating a set-up to suit WFH and R&R requirements at her Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland abode, interior stylist and designer Michelle Halford, aka The Design Chaser, took advantage of BoConcept’s extensive options for customisation, putting her signature neutral stamp on the Modena sofa and Bermuda footstool. She went for Lazio fabric in White and Beige respectively, the textured bouclé bringing a tactile sense of warmth and interesting visual dimension to the furniture’s pared-back forms. >
“Both the sofa and footstool beautifully complement my existing Danish-designed pieces, while injecting a fresh feel into the space.”Photography
Size, colour, materials… nearly every one of BoConcept’s pieces can be customised — a fact that’s both fantastic and potentially a bit daunting, making the brand’s interior design service a big-time bonus. With no pressure to buy, you can benefit from free, personalised styling advice in store, at home or via video call. Talk function, form, space, lighting, storage. Flesh out ideas, determine what’s best for your lifestyle and budget, consider how to arrange new pieces with what you’ve already got. Co-create your perfect version of a single item, refresh just one room, or fit out your entire home.
RIGHT & BELOW LEFT BoConcept has just released its latest on-trend fabrics and colour updates. These include two of our favourites: chunky sheep and alpaca wool Auckland Bouclé in White and Beige, and soft yet durable, Oeko-Tex-certified Skagen in a calming light green (both are also seen on the chair and sofa on page 33). BELOW Juliet rug , $1299; Madrid coffee table from $1449, boconcept.com. Additional accessories , boconcept.com.
Dreaming about building or renovating? Interesting builds, bespoke concepts, unique materials, challenging terrain – our organisation of builders can make it happen. For a one-of-a-kind build to the highest standard, NZCB builders are here to build a special relationship with you. This means they put their heart and soul into your job and offer the finest craftsmanship.
If you want special, you need a specialist. Find yours at nzcb.nz
Abel Odor CEO Frances Shoemack says the brand has a very special scent launching s oon that takes their functional fragrance offering into “highly personal, super-relevant territory”. Her lips are sealed on that for now, but over the p age, she shares all sorts of other stuff that will similarly pique your interest.
INTERVIEW Alice Lines
PHOTOGRAPHY Bonny Beattie
NOSE TO THE GRINDSTONE
THERE’S NO STOPPING FRANCES SHOEMACK, WHOSE BRAND IS DESERVEDLY ENJOYING THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.
Having established the business in the Netherlands, what led you home to New Zealand? We always knew we’d move back at some point — it was just a question of when it would feel like the right time for our little family [including sons Rufus (8) and Arthur (6)]. We must have had a sixth sense, because we made a decision to move home in time for summer 2020 and left Amsterdam at the turn of the year. Our container of furniture arrived a few months later — the week before the first Covid lockdown.
As well as making a new home for your family in Pōneke/Wellington, you’ve built a new base for Abel Odor, which you’ve called Abel Fabriek… It’s been so exciting for us to really put down roots for Abel Odor. The fabriek [Dutch for ‘factory’] has so many purposes.
First, it’s a perfume factory; we produced our first New Zealand-made line in it earlier this year, and export it to more than 25 countries. Second, it’s >
A champion of what she believes is our most underrated sense, the olfactory world has always held a distinct allure for Frances Shoemack. Trouble is, she finds many synthetic scents unappealingly overpowering, so there was only one thing for it — to explore how complex and beautiful 100% natural fragrances can be by founding her own brand, Abel Odor.
So Frances, after studying viticulture at Lincoln University, you began your career as a winemaker — when did you decide to pivot to perfume? When my husband Dave and I moved to Amsterdam in 2011, I fell in love with artisan fragrance houses, but I couldn’t find a natural perfume in that category. That was the impetus for starting Abel the same year.
SKILLED SQUAD Bear Construction helped manage the Abel Fabriek build, and the stainless steel fit-out was made by Metric Sheet Metal. “It was amazing to create something with craftsmen who fully understand the possibilities and limitations of the material,” says Frances. When sourcing other items, she went as bespoke and local as possible, conceiving this chair and table (and the tall table and stools at the top of page 49) in collaboration with then Auckland-based Matan Fadida, having lighting and a rug curated by the capital’s ECC team, and ordering vases from Lucy Coote of Salad Days.
HOME/OFFICE There’s a Dutch word, ‘gezelligheid’, that conveys what Frances hopes to instil at Abel Fabriek. “Loosely translated, it means ‘cosy’, but it’s more than that — it’s the light, the atmosphere, the social interplay,” she says. “Although there’s pressure and we’re often working to tight deadlines, keeping the gezelligheid vibes going and making the workroom feel more like an ergonomically designed home than an office is what we aim for.”
an innovation hub, where we have our own lab and experiment with new ideas. Third, it’s the home of Abel HQ, with our offices upstairs. And last but not least, it’s a community hub — we’re open to the public four days a week as a kind of ‘cellar door’ experience, and have plans for a monthly event programme.
What kind of environment did you seek to create? The first step for us was really understanding the function of the space, then using that to inform the design and aesthetic. Stainless steel is the most
inert and appropriate material for a factory and lab, so it became a lead visual cue. My brother James Durcan is an architectural designer, so we and the Abel Odor team — a bunch of creative types — put together a plan and started working with local craftspeople and specialists to bring it to life.
Talk us through a day in the life here… Beginning with a fresh palette and focusing on the creative side is my ideal. I start early and when I don’t have to jump straight on calls with Europe or the US, I love to spend a bit of time in the laboratory looking at our latest trials or new raw materials when it’s nice and quiet. This is also the time when our São Paulo-based perfumers, Kiwi Isaac Sinclair and his French wife Fanny Grau, are most likely to be online.
I’m usually the first in, but it’s not long before the team arrives in dribs and drabs, often in time to join a call with Marieke Nooteboom, our US commercial manager in Boston. There’s quite a hustle and bustle upstairs; we’re a close-knit bunch and as well
as the hard work, there are loads of laughs and cups of Yorkshire tea, the latter thanks to our operations and impact coordinator, Yorkshirewoman Siobhan Oldale. Downstairs in the fabriek, depending on the day, it’s all go with production, or we’re welcoming locals and tourists behind the scenes.
When you started out, the general consensus in the industry was that it was impossible to make chic perfumes using only natural ingredients… It wasn’t true then and it’s not true now — it’s just harder and more expensive. Today, we have a broader palette of ingredients than ever, driven forward at pace by investment into green science. We use some incredible biotech ingredients — many of which are sustainable by-product ingredients — that mean we don’t have to resort to non-renewable, non-biodegradable petrochemicals like the vast majority of the industry in order to make our perfumes sophisticated and long-lasting.
Other than scent, what everyday rituals enrich your life? A year ago, Dave and I got really into cold-water swimming. I can’t overstate the impact on my mental health and overall wellbeing of 10 minutes a day in Wellington’s icy water. I was doing it daily, but I’ve since transitioned to ‘most days’ — although Dave hasn’t missed a single day in more than 12 months.
Another ritual I’d hate to give up is our family croissant date at Baker Gramercy on Friday mornings before school and work — carrying on a tradition we started not long after our eldest, Rufus, was born in Amsterdam. Yes, that is a lot of croissants! n z .a bel o d or.com
“I love the emotional trigger of scent and hearing the impact that has on our customers too.”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Larnie Nicolson
INTERVIEW Alice Lines
Abstract artist Deborah Moss lives with her family in Wainui, north of Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland, on a rural property that had a hand in her professional evolution. After studying English and sociology at university, her early career was focused on writing and research, but she’s always loved the arts in general and ended up working in a fine art gallery, then owning and directing one alongside her husband.
When their son was at preschool, the couple moved to the country — a lifestyle change Deborah describes as an epiphany. The space, isolation and beauty sparked in her a real desire to create, and so she did. Before long, she was invited to show her work in an exhibition; soon after, other opportunities arose and she began working as an artist full-time.
So Deborah, how would you describe the work you create today? It’s emotive, soulful, a painterly documentation of my everyday life. My relationship to the natural world has always been at the heart of my practice. I feel very motivated to keep exploring and sharing the beauty of nature and the importance of protecting it. My work is infused with the vitality I experience from living so intimately with it, and thanks to our farm’s rural vistas, gardens, forests, ponds, prolific birdlife and generous hilltop skies, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what I can tap into at home for creative inspiration.
Where do you paint? Recently, as my work scaled up in size and volume, I found myself needing more storage and working space, so we converted an old shed into
a second studio. Each of my studios has a unique character and outlook, which is essential, given so many of my paintings are derived from my observations of nature.
Your work comes together in a symphony of colour — how do you decide on your palettes?
Subject matter plays a role to some extent — for instance, seasons may influence the colours of my landscape-inspired works. I may draw on something I’ve seen in the garden or during walks on the land. A lot of the time, it’s about following my intuition and listening to what the work wants to say.
I don’t restrict myself — anything’s up for grabs if I think it serves the piece or expresses an emotion. Working abstractly or semiabstractly gives me the freedom to experiment and use colour >
“Having windows in my studios is a must. They keep me connected to the source of my work, and if I’m feeling stuck, looking outside reinvigorates me.”
BOLD GESTURES When asked about her process, Deborah says, “I take a lot of reference photographs, and although they may not be used representationally, the pausing, observing and composition is good training for my work . Sometimes I begin a series with an idea or theme in mind, and at other times ideas are generated as a conversation emerges between the developing works. There are often practical considerations when I’m working towards shows, such as size and how that relates to the space works will be shown in. As my practice has evolved, I feel more comfortable working on large piec es where I can move my whole body when creating — the generous space allows me to loosen up and paint freely. I always have several paintings on the go — th is keeps things interesting and it’s more efficient than labouring for too long on one work. The timeframe for completion varies — having many works in pro gress also allows me to revisit them regularly. I like to keep pieces in an ‘incubating stage’ for several weeks or months, so I can look at them with a little distance and be more objective.”
LIFE IMITATES ART As well as being informed by the natural world, Deborah’s giving back to it via her Planting Hope conservation p roject. “There’s a sizable pond on our land that was devoid of any surrounding f lora, so it seemed like the right place to begin rewilding,” she says. “Several years ago, I decided to plant a native tree every time an original work of mine sells. The pond is now surrounded by new trees and it’s been wonderful to see the transformation. I’ve also recently started planting close to my new studio too.“
unexpectedly. I love the combinations I get from mixing directly on the surface as I paint as much as what I prepare in advance on the palette.
What medium are you mostly working in? I enjoy acrylics for their fast-drying quality. They’re also great for building layers and their fluidity suits expressive mark-making. I like to work on linen because it has a gentle environmental impact and provides a lovely smooth surface to paint on.
What tools could you never be without in the studio? A good variety of brushes and rags; journals for playing, creating and documenting; and my trusted vintage lamps are great for desk work and providing extra light.
What are you working on for the rest of 2022? My main focus for the rest of the year is finishing a new collection of work for a solo show at Gallery Thirty Three in Wanaka, which opens on November 25. I’ll be preparing new work for my Australian stockists as well.
You’ve also taken on some interesting commissions… One of my most interesting recent collaborations was with Wanaka-based interior design company Undercurrent, who redesigned Queenstown’s The Central Private hotel. I created bespoke paintings that were transformed into wallpaper for different-themed guest rooms. The whole hotel design is really inspired, so it was great to be involved.
What routines help you stay focused
when you’re working? I like to keep active, so showing up to do studio work isn’t something I struggle with, but there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned wall planner with circled deadlines to keep me extra motivated. The ease of online learning is also beneficial to my practice, and I think taking courses regularly keeps things interesting and enables me to bring new ideas to the studio.
There are several native and exotic gardens on our property and I love to walk around and take mini-breaks in them between studio work to get fresh inspiration. Being in the forest also replenishes me. I enjoy sitting and watching the light, listening to the birdsong and typically being amazed by some new discovery.
deborahmossart.com
“I grew up surrounded by creative family members — keen gardeners, pianists, my grandmother was a milliner and loved floristry, my father enjoyed exploring the outdoors, nature photography and painting. Their passions shaped mine.”
Sculptor Simon Lewis Wards didn’t fit the school system particularly well, so he left in his early teens, and in a fortuitous twist, ended up helping out his mate’s dad (the late John Croucher, a pioneer in Aotearoa’s glass-art movement in the ’70s) in his glass studio. During the wayward years that followed, Simon jumped from job to job, before finding his way back to glass and starting to sculpt it seriously in his early 30s.
So Simon, what do you like about glass’s capabilities? I’m naturally a bull at a gate, but working with glass over the years —
especially the laborious lost-wax casting techniques I use — has taught me to slow down. I listen to my intuition when I’m working with glass and because of that, I probably do so more in my everyday life as well. Before the glass breaks, I’ll get a feeling I should stop; I listen to it about half of the time now, which is much better than 10 years ago!
Your classic Kiwi confectionary-themed works are icons in their own right — how did you originally land on them? I feel like the idea for that work existed outside of me.
JOURNEY MAN “I’m not a conceptfirst kind of guy,” says Simon (pictured at his SLW Studio workshop in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland’s Titirangi), when asked to talk us through his process for creating a new object or series. “I have an idea for a form, I’m compelled to make it, and through that journey I decide what medium works for the idea and the best technique for executing it. Often it’ll be a material I haven’t worked with b efore, and that’s a whole journey right there. While I’m fully immersed in making, looking at and thinking about the object, thoughts about the work and why I’m making it reveal themselves. Making art feels like a form of mind mining to me.”
SLOW BURN “The process of casting glass is slow and requires patience throughout many different steps,” says Simon. “You can work for a hundred hours on a piece, then a bit of plaster gets into the glass in the kiln and in a moment, it’s gone. When I’m working on larger p ieces, the stakes feel high as I nurture each sculpture for weeks and weeks, but that’s what makes them precious. The most exciting moment is divesting the plaster off a piece when it comes out of the kiln, the beautiful glow of the glass being revealed and there being no imperfections. It’s an amazing feeling! You’ll hear a cheer throughout the studio.”
I remember looking at crushed coloured glass early on and thinking about how much it looked like sugary jubes. The glass essentially told me what to make. The most special aspect of the candy is how it triggers memories and stories for people. Nostalgia is a fascinating thing. People see the candy and are transported to a time in their lives, a memory, a relationship… It feels kind of magic.
You’ve recently been exploring more sculptural pieces… As I’ve been making these twisted forms, I’ve realised I’m
tapping into my first art practice, graffiti — more specifically tagging and one-liners using one long, unbroken line to express flow and movement. Even though I don’t graffiti on walls much anymore, I still tag on paper every day — I’m an A4 gangster, if you will! The twists feel like I’m tapping into an innate style and muscle memory developed over decades, but in 3D form.
Are you utilising new techniques? In my humble opinion, raspberry licorice twists reign supreme visually in the candy world. I’d been thinking for a few years about >
CHARACTER-BUILDING Glass is inherently about light, but colour also plays a significant role — which hues does Simon favour? “It may sound strange, but each one of my new twist pieces seems to have its own character. It’s my job to listen and give these guys a colour that suits their personality. If they’re flowing, undulating and relaxed, I might work in brighter colours, whereas more angular, serious forms suit industrial tones. In a show, I’m looking to group colours and forms that talk to each other, that feel like mates.”
how best to translate this form to glass, then the idea came to me at 2am — as many do.
Lost-wax casting is a common technique used when making unique bronze or glass sculptures, and I figured while the wax was cooling I’d have a small window — which turns out to be around 10 minutes — to twist and manipulate it into a shape I’m happy with. I don’t have a plan for how the twist will look until the wax touches my hands. This combination of spontaneity and a short timeframe is new for me, and I love it. Only about one in
four of these waxes makes it to glass, so it’s a high risk, high reward-type situation.
Your twists will be on show at Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland’s Masterworks Gallery soon… My solo show with Masterworks opens at the end of October and it’s the first time I’ll be exhibiting the twists en masse. Masterworks has a history of working with the best glass casters — Ann Robinson, Layla Walter and Christine Cathie being a few I admire. These women are icons of their craft, and I feel humbled to be in such good company. >
“I don’t have a plan for how the twist will look until the wax touches my hands. This combination of spontaneity and a short timeframe is new for me, and I love it.”
What would be your dream commission or project? My dream commission would be a public work at Gibbs Farm [on the Kaipara Harbour]. I love making largescale public pieces, and collaborating with architects and others who are passionate about their craft is extremely inspiring.
As far as a dream project goes, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can work with young people again — it’s something I did with Youthline in the past and loved. I’m still in the discovery stage, but I’m weaving together stories from other makers and entrepreneurs who were made to feel
‘less than’ by the system and left school before finding the vocation that saved them. I’d love to help support the creative and entrepreneurial spirit in kids who are struggling in traditional structures. I feel extremely lucky that I had people in my life like John and his son Luke Jacomb [of Lukeke Design], who showed me what was possible, and I worry all the time about kids who don’t have that put in front of them. My art now allows me to support myself and a small team, so it feels like the right time to pay it forward. simonlewiswards.shop
ISLAND TIME Simon says that when he’s not working, he likes to fill his cup “by getting cosy at h ome, lighting a fire and watching Love Island. I also believe that having a solid reset is part of the creative process. It’s always when I’m on a road trip with my kids or visiting s omewhere beautiful overseas that I have new ideas.”
The design team behind the home on page 80 sought to challenge the distinction b etween materials used inside and out. The deep red of this brick flooring extends from the courtyard up the stairs, where it’s echoed on the powdercoated handrail and the carpet in the bedrooms above. Flip to the story for more out-of-the-ordinary inspiration.
WORDS Leanne Moore PHOTOGRAPHY Helen Bankers thing
A deep appreciation for beauty is channelled into each room in this house.
With Macfie Architecture and Allpro Construction, midcentury dealer Jodi Newnham and her husband Paul Barry, who works in IT, built this three-bedroom home in Auckland’s Pt Chevalier for themselves and their children Niamh (14) and Stafford (12).
Production, words and photography: Cave Bureau
Hidden from a bungalowlined Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland street, this two-storey house down a private driveway conceals a surprising interior. Designed by artist, interior designer and owner of Mid Century Swag and Swag Design Jodi Newnham, its layout has been cleverly manipulated to maximise the home’s vertical envelope.
“I was the designer and half of the client — the other half was my husband Paul,” says Jodi. “It was amazing to be able to create something that expresses our dreams for family life. Knowing the site well helped enormously when it came to working out the living spaces. We’ve squeezed everything we wanted into a relatively small plot of land and
ABOVE LEFT An Aloe barberae tree casts cool shadows in the courtyard. “I love the way this tree from the backyard of the cottage is now part of our new chapter,” says Jodi. ABOVE
RIGHT & OPPOSITE Jodi says this helical staircase is the most important feature of the home, so “we opted to put money into it and save e lsewhere. We didn’t want a spiral staircase — we wanted something that was almost suspended. Finding someone who could turn our idea into reality was a struggle, but thankfully Design Production came to the rescue.” The Wiggle chair was designed by Frank Gehry in 1972, and the Egg sculpture on the plinth is from Fourth St.
now we absolutely love living here.”
This home’s success is largely due to the many hours Jodi spent envisioning the kind of house she’d build on this Pt Chevalier site. For seven years, she and Paul lived next door in the cottage in front, having bought the property in 2012, originally intending to renovate. But the longer they lived there, the more Jodi realised there was scope for a new build in the backyard. “I began to dream big and imagine what a new house could look like out there,” she says.
In 2019, Jodi and Paul carved off a chunk of land behind the cottage on which to construct a new home for themselves and their children, Niamh and Stafford. They engaged architectural >
designer Michael Macfie of Macfie Architecture to put their ideas on paper — and Swag House was conceived.
“We’ve ended up with a great family home, with lots of communal spaces where we can all gather,” says Jodi. “There are private spaces we can retreat to when we need alone time, and it also works well when we’re entertaining.”
As you step into the lobby, a curved wall leads you down a passageway, with floor-to-ceiling glazing showcasing the sun-soaked courtyard garden on the left, before the compression releases suddenly to reveal the main living room on the right.
“We love to throw open the doors
ABOVE The couple brought the mid-century Sputnik chandelier by Stilnovo from Smith Street Bazaar back to Aotearoa after a trip to Melbourne, dismantling it and packing it in Paul’s luggage. “Sometimes you have to nab iconic pieces like this when you see them, as they don’t come up often,” says Jodi. OPPOSITE The Italian marble dining table and Carimate chairs by Vico Magistretti from Jodi’s own store Mid Century Swag speak the same visual language as the tiles from The Tile People that form the k itchen splashback. Jodi had the 1970s bar stools restored with leather upholstery.
to the courtyard, and enjoy the ability to blur the line between inside and outside,” says Jodi. “The house wraps around the courtyard, so you really do feel immersed in it. It creates a resort-style vibe.”
In the smaller wing of the L-shaped ground floor, a second living room also opens to the courtyard through glass doors. “Our kids are at that age when they like to hang out in the media room, so it’s lovely being able to use the courtyard as a link between these two communal areas, instead of the indoor passageway,” says Jodi. “This private outdoor space is what the house pivots around — it’s what gives it its magic.” >
LIVING This artwork in the living room is Almandine by Jacqui Colley from Orexart Gallery. In the centre of the space is a vintage Raku coffee table by Mark Hines, and next to this, a 1 970s Vladimir Kagan sofa follows the curve of the wall.
“That was a lucky break,” says Jodi. “I happened to find this sofa online and had it reupholstered, and it’s as if it was made for the space.”
O ther hero items here include Mushroom chairs by Pierre Paulin restored using fabric from Warwick, and a Flux floor lamp by Jodi for Swag Design.
“As much as I love mid-century, I wanted our home to have a modern sensibility.”
Jodi wanted to enhance the sense of serenity the outdoor space contributes by using a limited material and colour palette for the interior. She’s arranged her collection of mid-century pieces, sculptures, artworks, decorative objects and market finds in a series of striking, ever-changing vignettes.
“I just can’t help myself,” she says. “I’m forever thinking about new combinations. I’m quite good at lugging heavy pieces of furniture around by myself, so sometimes Paul will get home from a work trip and find the house looks completely different! He’s very good about it and just lets me do my thing.
“I love interiors in which each piece makes its own statement, so everywhere your eye lands, there’s
ABOVE LEFT This arrangement incorporates an artwork by Mirjam Lugt, a 1960s Brutalist sideboard by Lane and a Buds 2 table lamp by Foscarini. ABOVE RIGHT & OPPOSITE To allow the biofuel fireplace by Naked Flame and its surrounds crafted using tiles from Tile Space to be an anchoring feature in this open-plan space, Jodi designed the adjoining cabinet to conceal the TV. “The tiles are a textural slate in varying shades of terracotta and grey with hints of verdigris, contrasted with acid-aged brass tiles,” she says. “The brass will continue to patina over the years, and I like that.” Beside sculptures called magiscopios by Feliciano Béjar is one of Jodi’s own artworks, In the Tides
something beautiful,” she continues.
“Our home is filled with a mix of furniture— mostly mid-century because that’s what I’m naturally drawn to through my work as a dealer, but I try to put it together in new and interesting ways. As much as I love mid-century, I wanted our home to have a modern sensibility.”
Jodi relished the opportunity to unleash her distinctive style on a blank canvas. The result is a dominance of soothing neutrals that allow the unique pieces she’s discovered from around the world to have their moment.
“My style is hard to pigeonhole as it’s always evolving,” she says. “I’m influenced by 20th century and contemporary design. I have a passion >
TOP LEFT A pair of Prisma sconces by JT Kalmaron are another of Jodi’s first-hand finds from Mid Century Swag; she’s positioned them on a cork wall in the main bedroom, which is located in a private wing upstairs. It’s the first time Jodi’s used cork in an interior design project and she says she’s thrilled with the result. “I love our bedroom! The cork walls [Stone Art Platinum tiles from Quantum Group] bring so much warmth and character to it, it feels like a cocoon.”
TOP RIGHT Reflected in a Layer mirror by Broste Copenhagen, cushions are aptly layered on the bed by Swag Design, including a duo also custom-made by Swag Design using Kelly Wearstler’s black and beige Chan nels fabric. ABOVE LEFT Curtains by Swag Design, made by Leigh Jackson using fabric from Warwick, diffuse the light that streams in through the sliding doors to the upstairs deck in the mornings. The Mid Century Swag scores continue with the American rosewood nightst ands and Herda mushroom lamps on either side of the bed.
ABOVE RIGHT Forming a vignette with the sconces is a sideboard by Luigi Gorgoni for Roche Bobois and a vintage print, both from Mid Century Swag. The reupholstered stool pictured opposite is from there too.
“I love interiors in which everywhere your eye lands, there’s something beautiful.”
for the California Arts & Crafts aesthetic, and I like a bit of rustic Brutalism but with a modern-glam influence.”
In the open-plan living area, the dazzling tiled fireplace is her focal point. “I’m always looking for materials that speak to me and that have a unique quality, and I like to play them against each other,” she says. “I love the contrast of warm with cool tones and smooth with rough, for example.”
Another of her favourite features is the helical staircase in the entryway, which makes an arresting sculptural element leading to the private domain upstairs, where Jodi has included cork-lined walls in the main bedroom and main bathroom (they also appear in the home office downstairs).
ABOVE Niamh and Stafford share the upstairs bathroom, in which cork tiles from Quantum Group appear in a paler shade. Other decorative accents in this room include Cylindrical Ribbed Up-Down lights from Byron Bay’s Lighting Collective, a mirror from Chesters, a plate by Fornasetti from Design 55 and a vintage sculpture. OPPOSITE The media room is a popular spot for family m ovie nights enjoyed on a Soriana sofa and pouf by Afra and Tobia Scarpa for Cassina. The framed photo was taken by Jodi, the side table is by Skitty Studio, the vase is by Gaetano Pesce from Design 55 and the rug is from Bohzali.
“I knew I wanted to use cork somewhere in our house,” she says. “It’s such a beautiful, tactile material — warm, textural and sustainable. What inspired me was [late Austrian] designer Paul Frankl, who featured it in his work in the 1930s, as a veneer on furniture. His pieces are now highly sought after. I think I’ll always look to incorporate cork into any interiors I design in future. It’s so versatile.”
Although Jodi has created the family home of her dreams, she hasn’t ruled out the challenge of another new build at some stage in the future. “I enjoyed designing this so much that you never know, we might do it all again one day,” she says. “For now, though, we just want to kick back and enjoy it.”
town WORDS Philippa Prentice PHOTOGRAPHY Peter Bennetts
A series of spaces sequenced together through clever connections and alignments, this sociable home is its own little village.
MRTN Architects, Brave New Eco, SBLA and Lew Building collaborated on this project in Melbourne’s Westgarth for a couple and their three teenage children.
When now Melbourne-based architect Antony Martin was a teen in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, he was good mates with celebrated architect Marshall Cook’s kids, and invited to their home in Parnell’s Brighton Road all the time.
“I used to have a second life around there, and it really stuck with me that when you went in through their front door, it was like a piazza, and all these living spaces looked down over it,” he says. “When it came to doing this house, it came into my mind how you could plan a house as urban planning rather than a floorplan.”
An artist and an economist/environmentalist, the owners are also good friends (and prior clients) of Antony’s, and one of their three teenagers is besties with one of his. And so it was, with past and present friendships as guides, that Antony came to design their home not as your usual house, but as a tiny town, the toast of which are the relationships nurtured within it.
It took a village to work on this veritable village in Melbourne’s Westgarth, underpinned by Kiwi common ground, with Antony and the owners all from Aotearoa, and the project team including New Zealander Megan Norgate and her colleague Kelsey Dabinett of interior design studio Brave New Eco, and SBLA Landscape Architecture & Urban Design led by Simone Bliss, whose partner happens to be a Kiwi, “so she sneaks in on relationship grounds”, says Megan.
“It’s a bit of an expatriate club that we’ve got going on,” she continues. “I think there’s a down-toearth utilitarianism Kiwis have that’s imbued in New Zealand’s local design community and based on a reframing of what lifestyle aspirations we value. This house was about accommodating the preferences of a growing-up family, where it’s more like five adults living in the space, who have their own unique needs with regards to sociability, privacy, noise…”
The singular new dwelling meanders down a narrow section from the street to Merri Creek >
THESE PAGES Private spaces and a variety of different-sized social spaces offer all kinds of opportunities to be together and apart, with friends and without. Between the front and rear two-storey buildings is this courtyard linked to a communal studio where the wh ole family can work and host meetings. PAGE 80 Most of the house isn’t visible from the street, and likewise from the rear it appears recessive, so the garden is the main event. One of Antony’s key design moves was pulling the north-facing wall away from the boundary, “so in stead of maximising the width of the house, we’ve made it more narrow and then created generosity down the side to encourage the garden to come up that north face, so it’s not just front garden, house, rear garden — it’s that kind of continuous linkage of green space aro und the house.” This approach also gives back to the community, allowing a view from the footpath right through to the Merri Creek parkland on the boundary.and its parkland on the rear border. Although the existing house on this section had been built in the 1960s, this is the site of the first European home in this suburb, so some sensitivity to that 1850s heritage was required. Courtesy of archival photographs used for reference, the new abode looks the part from the footpath, and Antony also honoured the past in a way you might not expect.
The original farmhouse faced north, and also predated the street network. “The interesting thing about that is that these days, it’s a kneejerk reaction to orientate to the street and the rear garden,” says Antony. “But the long façade here faced north, and we wanted the house to face north. It has a more classic, gabled frontof-house elevation to it, although you can never stand back and look at that façade in its entirety.”
Running along the property’s east to west axis, the collection of connected buildings caters to the sociable family’s various private and public needs, while following the lay of the land. The
streetfront structure houses the garage and a spare room designated for band practice, plus the two daughters’ bedrooms above that. Next, there’s a single-storey section — the ‘city square’ — comprising a communal work studio and an external courtyard. This leads to another twostorey section where the kitchen/dining/living areas sit alongside the son’s bedroom, with the main bedroom above them, then the home steps back down to a single-storey living area linking onto the pool and rear garden. Antony is very much an “anti-box architect”, and these cleverly arranged smaller spaces broken up by level changes and different ceiling and floor finishes each have a wonderful individual character.
Dovetailing beautifully with the architecture are the interior elements Brave New Eco devised, including expanses of gorgeous timber joinery. “I wanted to use reoccurring materials that were durable, textured and responsive to Ant’s architectural materials,” says Megan. “The clients >
ABOVE The custom joinery in the kitchen, study and laundry (which Megan jokes she “didn’t mean to make so beautiful”) incorporates c arbon-negative Marmoleum by Forbo, made from recycled content and 97% natural raw materials, including biodegradable linseed oil, pine rosin a nd wood flour. OPPOSITE, LEFT All sustainable, the materials used relate to the light and acoustic qualities of the spaces. In the more active areas of the h ome, the materiality is a bit richer and more reverberant, whereas in the quieter zones, it's lighter and more absorbent. Take the two s taircases, for example.
“The front staircase is like a public staircase — you walk up it and get a view back through the house and you can be part of s everal different spaces at the same time, so the materials are robust,” says Antony. “The second staircase into the main bedroom [pictured on page 87] is a quieter, enclosed s pace with timber and carpet on the floor. In the studio and courtyard, there’s brick flooring that’s an external material brought internally, blurring the threshold, then as you go to the back to the quieter living spaces facing the garden, the finishes there become a bit more refined.”
THIS PAGE Brave New Eco uses permaculture design principles as a system of thinking about the built and existing environment. An example of that here is stacking function, where one solution solves multiple problems, such as the joinery over two levels at the end of the kitchen that creates a battened return to keep the dish zone out of sight, and a record nook below it.
OPPOSITE, TOP A savvy idea Megan says she and Kelsey borrowed from Antony’s own home, below the window seat opposite the kitchen island are ‘bedroom repatriation drawers’ for each family member, where accumulated stuff can be stored before being taken back to where it belongs.
KITCHEN “The kitchen is visible from so many places in the house that we wanted it to feature furniture-like joinery, rather than the heaviness of kitchen cabinets,” says Megan. “We kept the overhead shelving light and open, using brass mesh and light frames that define the space but also let you see through.” High-efficiency electric appliances by Fisher & Paykel help the house to be gas-free.
Numerous rooms means life can go on in little pockets.
ABOVE “We layered a single colour on each of the three bathrooms to make them respectively soft and warm or moody and grown-up,” says Megan. This bathroom is shared by the couple’s two close-in-age daughters and features terracotta porcelain tiles in three shades and a poured-concrete bench in a custom muted plum hue. In keeping with the ethos of everyone on the team, there was no question that sustainable materials would be used on this project. All the bricks are reclaimed, sustainably harvested and milled silvertop ash is used externally, the inte rnal timber and veneer is Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and low-VOC paints and linen curtains feature alongside locally designed and made lighting and tapware.
ABOVE At the back of the house, the living rooms are across two levels, the lower one linking directly to the garden and the upper one (pictured) with a double-sided, sound-deadening cinema curtain that can be drawn across to divide it from the rest. “The TV’s in here, so the kids can go in and pull the curtain across and do their thing,” says Antony. The space includes wool-upholstered, L-shaped seating and plush carpet, so people can comfortably relax on the furniture or the floor. This was Brave New Eco’s third project with these clients, so they knew their inventory of sculptural and art objects well, and considered their colour influences and placement as part of the interior design.
have a big appetite for colour, so we embedded the colour in the materiality, with lots of warmth and earthiness. We worked in detail with the way they like to use the kitchen and the locations they keep things in throughout the house, making sure every item has a specific home — so much so that if I visited now, I could find the dog food, the tongs and a bottle of wine without thinking!
“They also wanted a future-ready home that didn’t use any fossil fuels, so no effort was spared on Ant’s part to use the best electric technologies and a whopping solar system to capture Australia’s plentiful sunshine,” she continues. Sustainability was a must for all materials and passive design principles led the way, so as well as the solar array on the roof, the concrete and brick flooring provides thermal mass, high-performance windows and the northern orientation harness the sun for thermal gain and natural light, and rainwater is collected off the roof for the laundry, toilets and garden.
Airy and leafy, yet grounded and cocooning, “this is a real kind of country house, but you can still see
the city,” says Antony. “It’s a fantastic feeling of being surrounded by green and you also have an awareness of that body of water down there.”
Indeed. Despite those Kiwi connections, Antony adds that there’s one regular reminder they’re not in New Zealand now. “There’s a snake alert that goes on among the properties backing onto the creek. If someone notices there’s a snake travelling through, they send a text to let everyone know!”
Apart from reptiles, everyone’s welcome at this address. “They wanted to create a home with an open-door policy, which again was very much how I experienced Marsh Cook’s house as a teenager — everyone used to be there,” says Antony. “Now that’s the experience I have when I go round to this house.”
Antony says his friends are “more themselves” here. “It’s been amazing to see them in this space tailored for them. I think that’s the thing about us. Architecture’s not just styling and aesthetics, but how we design our spaces to suit the people we are. We’re extroverted and introverted at certain times, and this house can accommodate both.”
STUDIO This zone in the heart of the house might be Antony’s favourite. “It’s just not a space you typically find in a home,” he says. “It has a U-shaped desk and a work table in the middle, big sliding doors that open onto the courtyard and a pivot door that opens or closes it off from the living areas.” Since it’s so central and can be seen from many different spots, it has lots of hidden elements, among them an in-built timber cable tray under the long desk and a dedicated cupboard for the printer.
TOP & OPPOSITE The watery blue ensuite features the same custom-made, Australian-manufactured tapware by Sussex that appears throughout the home, finished in brass to avoid the use of chrome. Also seen elsewhere in the house, the pure brass mesh screen s that shield the shelving will darken with age alongside the tapware. ABOVE With a floating wall dividing the bed from the walk-in wardrobe, the main bedroom catches glimpses of the city. Even though this is a very inviting home, there’s a strong sense of privacy in the spaces that require it. This bedroom, the son’s bedroom and the daughters’ bedrooms are all located in different parts of the house. “These are quite formal, and people can go up to their rooms and feel like they’re getting away,” says Antony.
THIS PAGE It’s rare to have a garden this size in a central location like this, and the owners were keen to make it one in which they can really get their hands dirty, so SBLA created a variety of green spaces, including a terraced garden with a pool at the back of the house. OPPOSITE Teens can be tricky at the best of times — how do you design a house to suit? “Future-proofing is always a key concern for us,” says Antony. “Teenagers become young adults, and here it’s less about how the spaces might be when the kids move away, and more about how they can coexist in the house together as young adults and feel welcome, and continue living there beyond being children.”
Life here follows the sun, a laidback pace, and the ebb and flow of the tide. easy
WORDS Melanie McDaid
PHOTOGRAPHY Jono Parker take it
It’s our forever home,” says one of the grateful owners of this sophisticated Whāingaroa/Raglan abode, situated on a one-way road following the Waikato town’s water’s edge. The northern, ocean side of the street is dotted with proud pōhutukawa, while the southern side is lined with houses that, like this one, can see the sea beyond the trees.
This family of four has owned the property since 2004, but it was only recently that they decided they wanted to move here to enjoy life in this charming village full-time. Their brief to architect Richard Priest was a house with a gabled roof, raked ceilings, maximum space and views, multiple indoor and outdoor living areas, three bedrooms and lots of storage.
“The concept is based on the fact that they wanted to make the most of the water view and sunshine,” says Richard. “At the same time, this is a fairly public road, so privacy was a major factor, as was retaining the feel and intimacy of a coastal bach. The use of the house follows the sun throughout the day and there are three distinct outside spaces integrated into life here.”
The dwelling’s subtly weathering exterior of board-formed concrete and charred larch timber provides a nod to a traditional bach aesthetic, yet has a contemporary appeal. “It’s a beautiful, cohesive home with such a welcoming vibe,” says kitchen and interior designer Annika Rowson of Rowson Kitchens. >
Architect Richard Priest and Annika Rowson of Rowson Kitchens designed this three-bedroom home in Raglan for a couple and their two children.
THESE PAGES Charred Siberian larch clads the home’s exterior, making a strong statement from the street that sits well with the environment, while contrasting with the paler interior palette that includes walls in Resene White Pointer and Manor Classique Yacona engineered oak flooring from Forté Beneath a Lito pendant light by Powersurge, the dining table by Wackrows Joinery with Tangerine chairs by Simon James for Resident is pushed up against the kitchen island to maximise this long, narrow, open-plan space, but can be reorientated as required. The Aiko sofa and cushions in the adjoining living zone are from Città.
The colour palette in the kitchen is deliberately earthy and warm.
KITCHEN Here, cabinetry in Manhattan oak timber veneer by VidaSpace, crafted by Rowson Kitchens, combines with benchtops and splashbacks in textured Dekton Liquid Shell by Cosentino. They’re accented by bursts of blackened brass that tie in with the exterior cladding, including handles and a Lateral light by Powersurge, and Buddy tapware by Progetto from Plumbline, plus other noir additions, such as the Wrap stools by Tim Webber. The ability to comfortably entertain family and friends was a factor for this family, and Annika met this need not with a separate scullery but with a drinks nook that allows guests to be served without disrupting the chef, and a butler’s pantry that hides LED-lit floating shelves, a second sink and a Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer behind Hawa Concepta bifold pocket doors by Häfele. The other appliances in this kitchen include a Miele induction hob with an integrated downdraft extractor in the island (eliminating the need for a suspended rangehood), Fisher & Paykel convection and steam ovens and warming drawer, an integrated Fisher & Paykel French Door fridge, and a Fisher & Paykel CoolDrawer in the drinks nook.
“It’s not a huge house, but it just feels so right.”
With a carport and studio underneath, the single-level floorplan positions the kitchen, dining and main living area at the northernmost part of the site, where they enjoy a direct view of the water. They’re connected to a large deck that benefits from a generous eave that provides protection whatever the weather. In contrast, the secondary outdoor living space is more private, comprising a walled courtyard area partially lined with larch and covered with an adjustable louvre roof.
Inside, the cathedral-like raked ceiling in the main living zone gives the home an impressive sense of space. When she met her clients on site for the first time, Annika says she was also immediately wowed by the view, “so I knew the kitchen design needed to be soft and natural to continue out into that environment.” Oak veneer was chosen for the cabinetry, complemented by benchtops in a surface Annika describes as having “a fossil-like effect. It’s an incredible texture that seemed fitting given the location.”
The central element in this space is a generous island with a dining table at one end, plus there’s a fully appointed butler’s pantry that’s designed to be used for food preparation and clean-up, and as a breakfast station. The entire scheme feels remarkably serene. >
ABOVE & OPPOSITE, RIGHT For continuity, Rowson Kitchens made the TV and shelving unit in the living space from the same oak timber veneer they used in the kitchen. It has a tambour door that allows everything to be fully concealed when not in use, while the biofuel fire below it is encased in black Dekton Domoos by Cosentino to ensure it too recedes. Other special pieces in this zone include (from left) curtains by Heckford Interiors in fabric by Mokum, a Davis chair from Bradfords, a rug custom-made by Bremworth and an Anerigo coffee table by Cattelan Italia from Ultimate Living. OPPOSITE, LEFT The same timbers used for the soffits and cladding outside continue into the entry foyer. A relatively compact spot, it’s enhanced by a generous picture window that leads the eye and lets in ample light.
For Annika, though, one of the ultimate spots in this house is the media room, which is illuminated by a tailored circular skylight. “The way the large window throws light is quite beautiful,” she says. “We custommade a sofa to fit underneath it and the rug is custom as well — it was all about the curve.”
The material and colour palettes cohesively continue through the bedrooms and into the bathrooms, where the vanities have been constructed from the same material as the kitchen benchtops and are full-formed, so they’re completely seamless. In the main bathroom, a bespoke bronze-framed shower with textured glazing is backlit from above by a roof window and seems to glow. This window is automated, so it can be opened and closed for ventilation as required.
“The design of this home is very well-considered,” says Annika. “It just feels so calm, inviting, comfortable, restful and gentle — much like a soothing hug.”
Meanwhile, the rapt homeowners recall that the best thing about building this home was having such an amazing team, including Annika and co at Rowson Kitchens, builders Fitzgerald & Gillard, tilers West Coast Tiling and Graeme Burton of Rukuhia Homestead Landscaping. “We’re so happy living here and wouldn’t change a thing.”
ABOVE This secondary outdoor living space sees meals served at an extendable Columbia table from U rban & Beach, with Ariel chairs from Nood. OPPOSITE Surrounded by Villa Raven engineered oak by Forté on the walls, the media room includes (from left) a Valero chair by Coco Republic, a Deco ottoman from Kindred Road, another custom rug by Bremworth, tables from The Design Depot, a Bloom lamp by Tim Rundle for Resident from Simon James and a sofa tailor-made by Trenzseater. A nnika aimed to make a statement in this area and really have some fun. “Structurally, everything in this h ouse is straight-lined. It’s quite an unexpected detail when you walk through to see the circular skylight, so we played on its form and made everything in this room curved.”
“we played on the skylight and made everything in this room curved.”
TOP A wall-mounted Exhaust light by Buster & Punch from ECC illuminates linens by Foxtrot Home in the main bedroom, where Villa Raven engineered oak by Forté on the headboard is capped with a strip of brass. This isn’t an overly large room, but like the rest of the house, thanks to the raked ceiling (and elsewhere, the skylights too), it feels like more than enough. A BOVE & OPPOSITE In the main bathroom, which features a roof window by Velux, a ledge was cleverly incorporated to supply visual interest, hold functional and decorative objects, and conceal plumbing. A mirror by Joska & Sons is lit by more Exhaust lights by Buster & Punch — this time in pendant form. The Buddy tapware by Progetto and Grab vertical heated towel rails by Avenir are all from Plumbline. West Coast Tiling flawlessly installed the luxurious large-format Urban Style Light tiles from European Ceramics. Annika enthuses that “of the many bathrooms we’ve designed, it was incredible — one of the best tiling jobs I’ve ever seen.”
Designer Furniture, Lighting and Objects
15 Williamson Ave, Ponsonby, Auckland goodform.co.nz
L. Ercolani –Studio Daybed by Lucian Ercolani, Canvas Media Unit by Norm Architects, IO Side Table by Lars B. Fjetland. Astep –VV Cinquanta Floor Lamp by Victor Viganò
To the untrained eye, it’s not easy to tell what’s past and what’s present in this once one-bedroom, now threebedroom dwelling. Thoughtful design and contemporary tech have resulted in a respectful renovation that slots in with the original vision. See more overleaf.
in architecture Garden
Modernist melds with modernity in this update that enhances an icon without compromising its true-blue beginnings.
Being invited to revive an iconic mid-century home is an honour few architects would turn down, yet with that opportunity comes the challenge of respecting its legacy while updating it with the contemporary changes required. The solution is a delicate balance of honouring the past while moving forward, which is just what architect Adriana Hanna has achieved with great success at this dwelling dubbed The Fisher House in Warrandyte, Melbourne.
Designed and built by lauded late designer Alistair Knox in 1969, the modernist home was bought by art director Jess Lillico and photographer Sean Fennessy. The creative couple had been living in an apartment in the central city, but when the time came to find a bigger base for their young family, they began searching further afield and discovered this Modernist gem in the outer suburbs.
“It’s only about 30 minutes out of Melbourne, but you feel like you’re in a remote part of Victoria because of the landscape and topography,” says Adriana. “It’s pretty beautiful.”
For all its considerable appeal, the house was rundown and needed work to improve its functionality for today, so the pair called on Adriana to conceive a plan that did that >
ABOVE Compact and quickheating, the kitchen’s Fisher & Paykel Contemporary 60cm Electric Cooktop has a flat profile that slots fluently into the benchtop. Below it, a Fisher & Paykel 60cm oven offers s ophisticated styling and a generous capacity that’s ideal for a busy family. OPPOSITE
The original cedar roof beams, blackbutt lining boards and red brick floors laid in a basketweave pattern drive the local, mid-century aesthetic.
without compromising its heritage principles.
“I was sympathetic to the existing building and its aspirations,” she says. “I wanted it to look like I wasn’t present, but Knox was. My vision was to reconfigure it to give it new life so it would transcend for another 50 years.
“The home also needed modern amenities to bring it to a contemporary place,” she continues. “The key moves were materiality, maintaining a connection with the landscape, and planning — providing better flow and a more rational layout.”
Over the years, additions to what was initially a one-bedroom abode had led to poor zoning between the shared and private areas. For instance, one of the bedroom doors opened onto the entry foyer and living area — a timber screen now obscures this.
Other layout changes included moving a walk-in wardrobe off the main bathroom to make way for the main bedroom’s ensuite. At the back of the house, the high windows were replaced with full-height sliding doors
LEFT Encasing a Fisher & Paykel 60cm Integrated Refrigerator Freezer in the kitchen cabinetry allows it to read like furniture. This appliance is designed for a flush fit, and has ActiveSmart tech that ‘learns’ how you use it and adjusts temperature, airflow and humidity to maximise the longevity of its contents. In the cabinetry opposite, beside the oven, is an integrated Fisher & Paykel 60cm Dishwasher, key highlights of which are its ability to kill 99% of bacteria in the final rinse and its low decibel rating that ensures quiet washes.
OPPOSITE, TOP Jess and Sean felt the interior was perhaps a bit ‘brown’ due to all the brick and timber. Adriana’s fix was to render some of the brickwork to bring in light and for it to appear like mudbrick, which was a typical material used in Knox’s homes.
to provide a visual connection from the living room to the backyard. Alterations were made to the kitchen, laundry and bathroom to improve their connection to the rear garden as well.
Also key to creating a kitchen that works for this family was the introduction of Fisher & Paykel appliances, with the brand’s Contemporary range providing a high level of functionality and a clean, timeless look in a room that can often be visually busy. Adriana says it’s the epitome of up-to-theminute form and function for houses with a simple aesthetic.
Typical of older laundries, this utility space was previously located by the back door, again disrupting access to the garden. Now, it’s slotted into the bathroom, out of the way and in an easily serviceable spot. Exerting a subtle presence but big on performance, its new Fisher & Paykel Combi Front Loader washing machine/dryer fits right in to the terracotta and white colour palette.
Back in the kitchen, both the Fisher & Paykel dishwasher and fridge/freezer are integrated behind cabinetry that includes battens and handles that reference Japanese carpentry, like the timberwork on the ceiling. In the hands of an expert architect and mindful owners, this renovation has stayed true to the home’s origins in myriad ways. We believe Alistair would approve.
fisherpaykel.com
ABOVE An all-in-one appliance occupying minimal space, this Fisher & Paykel Combi Front Loader washer/dryer is literally a complete success in its new home in the bathroom. R IGHT
The kitchen’s Fisher & Paykel 60cm Integrated Insert Rangehood has five fan speeds and easy-clean, dishwasher-safe filters. Adriana designed a copper sheath to wrap around it that will gradually develop a patina over time, like the surrounding timber will.
WORDS Alice Lines
PHOTOGRAPHY Simon Devitt
There are certain junctures in life at which we might question how suitable our homes really are for us. For one Pōneke/Wellington couple, doing so saw them seek an option to downsize and return to their roots.
After a long time spent living in a 1950s house in Mt Victoria renovated by Studio Pacific Architecture, their brief for this new project called for a more modest abode, one that would take shape as a dwelling for two but could also comfortably accommodate visitors. The pair had enjoyed their family’s early years in the harbourside suburb of Eastbourne and kept a vacant site there for some time. When they were at last ready to build on it, they called on Studio Pacific once again.
Referencing the great era of pavilion houses — specifically the Harvard Modern school and some of the most noted mid-century architects, such as Marcel Breuer and Richard Neutra — the result responds to both environment and site with a simple palette of concrete and timber that serves to preserve the design’s clarity and is a natural fit for the New Zealand aesthetic and local climate. In a bowl ringed with bush-clad hills that provide shelter from the prevailing winds, the new three-bedroom home sits on >
Everything about this house makes it just what its owners and the surrounding environment ordered.
LEFT The open-plan main living space is surrounded by Metro Series windows and stacker sliding doors from First Windows & Doors that provide a physical and visual connection to the western terrace and sunken garden, framing distinct views.
BELOW Metro Series joinery throughout the house has a Duratec Matt Black finish and colour-matched Urbo hardware.
OPPOSITE The material palette — including both stained and clear-finished cedar timber, plasterboard, and concrete walls and floors — was deliberately limited to allow the architecture to sing. Overhead, the clerestory windows from First Windows & Doors are automated for easy opening, while underfoot, the floor is hydronically heated with hot water. The large-scale artwork on the wall is by Ian Scott.
a slightly elevated platform that pushes back to the southeastern corner of the property, creating open space to the north and a garden to the west.
“Our clients previously owned a home with generous views over Wellington city and harbour,” says Studio Pacific senior associate Richard Beatson. “Although there’s no sea view here, being nestled into the surrounding neighborhood context offers privacy and protective closure.”
The journey inside leads you through a courtyard, where you come into contact with the exterior’s raw concrete, which both forms the house and encloses the street-front garden. In-situ concrete ‘chimneys’ provide vertical visual anchors, grounding the flat-roofed shape of the rectilinear pavilions that stretch the length of the property. Stained cedar weatherboards are introduced as a counterpoint to the concrete, and combined, the textural palette of the building reads as characterful and warm — a feeling that grows as you step into the entry gallery, where shafts of light stream down through clerestory windows from First Windows & Doors.
“The entry acts as a pivot space, where a concrete spine wall clearly delineates living and entertainment from sleep and utility spaces,” says Richard. “The volume >
here provides natural light and ventilation, drawing air from the building’s perimeter.”
You get out what you put into concrete elements such as the aforementioned spine and the fireplace in the living area, and considerable effort has gone into the making of those in this home. The result has a lovely haptic nature — “You can hardly resist touching it,” says Richard.
Clever separation of the house’s public zones makes the modest footprint work hard, with nooks off the open-plan living area dedicated to daily routines and pastimes; you can hole up in the office or step away to play the piano while still being within cooee of the kitchen. In part of the hallway, hidden doors set into timber walls open to reveal a powder room and storage cupboards.
Taking advantage of the north-west aspect, generous swathes of glass shroud the living space, alongside Metro Series stacker sliding doors that open onto a terrace. Supporting the pavilion aesthetic, horizontal eaves extend out to provide protection from the sun, and work in combination with the low-E technology of the tinted, double-glazed windows to maintain a comfortable interior environment while reducing the demand for additional heating. >
BELOW This floating seat in the den spans a wide corner window, with a sort of ‘no hands’ approach. Warm sun shines in beneath it, seeping into the concrete flooring and creating interesting shadows.
OPPOSITE A fireplace with a niche purpose-built for a Luna sculpture by Tanya Ashken separates the main living area from the more intimate den on the other side. “We wanted to provide a canvas for the owners to inhabit, and creating space for their artworks was part of that,” says Richard.
ABOVE In-built shelving in the den houses a library of books that are also easily accessible from the office n ook around the bend. LEFT Matt black subway tiles have been used to dramatic effect in the bathroom above a custom-made floating vanity. OPPOSITE In the bedrooms, the concrete flooring transitions to wool carpet. The placement of the windows here allows for cross ventilation in this west-facing space.
The textural sophistication of the crafted concrete combined with the warmth of the cedar brings a certain richness to the architecture inside and out.
“Studio Pacific were also early adopters of warm roof technology in residential construction, which will become a more common industry solution,” says Richard. “It allows a more controlled internal thermal environment, which is easier and cheaper to heat.”
In contrast to the expansive joinery in the living pavilion, in the bed and bathrooms, smaller windows capture more intimate views of the planting beyond. “Striking a balance aesthetically, thermally and economically, First Windows & Doors provide a really good suite of windows to suit basically all circumstances,” says Richard. “Metro Series ThermalHeart are my current go-to for residential aluminum windows.”
All in all, this is a considered take on the modern suburban dwelling that sits comfortably within this neighbourhood. “Despite being a distinctly contemporary interpretation, the design maintains strong mid-century references in terms of scale, form and materiality,” says Richard. As much as it’s a job well done that suits its inhabitants perfectly, this home is a testament to the enduring qualities of an architectural style that puts people at the heart of the design. firstwindows.co.nz
THIS PAGE Taking advantage of the existing topography of the site, Studio Pacific d evised hard landscaping as a framework for a sunken garden that features structured planting and a pebbled courtyard. Linked to the living pavilion by Metro Series stacker sliding doors, the terrace is a hotspot for alfresco dining.
Members of the renowned Badcock family have each carved out their own artistic niche, and today, three generations of
— the new home of Susan Badcock Gallery. As the main agent for her father, celebrated painter John Badcock, Susan Badcock Gallery runs regular exhibitions showcasing his portraiture, landscape and garden works, which have found favour with
view New Zealand art history, and with a fantastic gallery shop, The Mailroom, adjoining it, it’s a beautiful place to stop in and spend some time.
susanbadcockgallery.co.nz themailroomgeraldine.com
Regional New Zealand is a great incubator of talent, so when Susan Badcock dreamed of opening a gallery, she felt her hometown of Geraldine calling.
Next to take the mic in our Architecture+Women NZ series is Natasha Markham.
WORDS
Philippa Prentice
What with running her own practice (MAUD — Markham Architecture & Urban Design), co-hosting a podcast (76 Small Rooms), parenting and everything else, Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland architect Natasha Markham definitely needs the good breakfast and strong coffee she says keep her firing on all cylinders. She also thinks she might need to say no more, but luckily she didn’t start with us when we asked…
What was your journey to establishing MAUD in 2015? After graduating from the University of Auckland, I worked at Cook Sargisson & Pirie and got
registered while I was there. It was a great place to learn the ropes, as Marsh [Cook] and Peter [Sargisson]’s approach was to throw you in at the deep end, so I quickly found myself on building sites and in client meetings as well as working on documentation.
From there, I went to London and worked in a larger practice on medium-density housing. I’d always loved cities, but that really piqued my interest in urban design, so when I returned to New Zealand, I enrolled in the Master of Urban Design at the University of Auckland, where I studied part-time while taking on private architectural jobs.
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Photography: Sam Hartnett.
Portrait: Jackie Meiring
THIS PAGE & PREVIOUS PAGES
“I think our projects are characterised by how they feel, rather than how they look,” says Natasha. “We think a lot about how our clients want to live and work, and seek to design spaces that make that easy.”
MAUD’s Twin Peaks project updated an Edwardian villa in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland’s Herne Bay, for which an addition was conceived as a series of small forms that enclose a leafy courtyard. Heritage b ricks clad the central kitchen and living area, and inspire the warmth of the interior material palette that includes walnut timber and brass.
I then worked for local government, which was a very different experience. We were looking at strategic planning for centres and the wider region, and considering how the form and design of places could accommodate population growth over the next 20-plus years.
Founding MAUD was largely a pragmatic decision. Having my own practice allowed me flexibility when my sons were young, and meant I could take on both architectural and urban design work without being pigeonholed. Interestingly, I think working in each discipline has informed and strengthened my approach to the other.
What are some of your key concerns when designing? Environmental considerations are an increasingly important aspect of our work. We’ve experimented with using recycled materials in a few of our renovation projects now, ensuring they’re used in a contemporary way to keep that good friction. I love it when there are multiple reasons for settling on a design decision, and reusing materials is one way to respond to the history of a place and sustainability concerns, while creating something beautiful and unique in the process.
You also co-host podcast 76 Small Rooms
with Jeremy Hansen, Mat Brown and Richard Archbold — what does that entail? The podcast is a passion project that started on a whim and is still going strong seven years on, mostly because we’ve all become good friends and also, because everyone is super busy, we’re very loose about when episodes are released. We’re interested in architecture-related stories and current issues, and centre our episodes around those themes. In truth, I initially agreed to take part because it scared the living daylights out of me, but I said yes because I like a challenge and my desire to be a part of a conversation about architecture was just a little bit
stronger than my fear and loathing of being recorded. I still can’t listen to myself, though!
You’re also on the Auckland Urban Design Panel and the Hobsonville and Auckland Housing Programme Design Review panels… I’ve been involved with urban design review panels for a number of years now. It’s an opportunity to contribute to the future quality of our city and to improve living environments for all. As we move to denser models of living, the quality of the spaces between our buildings and how architecture shapes that becomes even more important.
Have you faced challenges as a woman in this industry? I think the challenges for women working in any industry are far more nuanced than I imagined when I first graduated, in part because some of the barriers are baked in at a societal level. To that end, organisations like Architecture+Women NZ are great at bringing important conversations to the fore in a constructive way.
I’m in a position now where I can provide some support to my peers and younger women coming through, and that’s really rewarding. I think the opportunities for women in architecture are broadening and I’m seeing more women doing things
on their own terms, which is exciting because it’s redefining the paths to and measures of success.
What’s your ambition for your career? That’s an interesting question. I think more than ever, I’m interested in the journey rather than the destination.
What secrets to professional success can you share for anyone in any vocation? Be true to yourself and operate with integrity, be curious, and be open to opportunity, even if it takes you on a different path to the one you had planned.
m a u d .n z , architecturewomen.org.nz
LEFT Major Minor was a project that slotted a new minor dwelling into the spot once occupied by the garage wing of a 1980s South Auckland home designed by Ron Sang. The addition to the existing footprint is a stair popout that has panels set into its walls for p assive ventilation. RIGHT & BELOW Turning a small bedroom into extra storage and a luxurious ensuite for a couple of busy parents, this renovation in the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn located the bathroom behind a new wardrobe; it’s ingeniously accessed by a pivot door that offers no hint of what’s behind it.
Garden designer Fiona Brockhoff is kind of a big deal, renowned for her naturalistic, sustainable style. Her new book With Nature combines DIY advice with profiles of her projects, including this lakeside haven.
Photography: Earl Carter
entre stage at this country house by Meacham Nockles McQualter in Main Ridge, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, is the lake at the bottom of the hill — an ever-changing view, a welcome swimming spot and a haven for wildlife. The relaxed garden rolls down to the water’s edge, successfully mimicking the planting of a natural lake margin or water course. Plant choices are mainly Australian native and complement the Scandinavian-style holiday home, which sits close to the earth with an open and light aesthetic, a single step from the house into the outdoors.
The garden was designed in conjunction with the house, allowing for soil improvement after the house site was cut. Good on-site topsoil was combined with compost and manure to create a healthy planting medium, but much of the success of the garden was due to careful plant selection, including varieties that handle dry spells as well as periods of inundation. The landscape materials were all local to Victoria and included Pyrenees
TOP LEFT In this soft setting, a void made from local Dromana gravel is encircled by plants including common tussock grass Poa labillardieri, spiky green Lomandra longifolia ‘Tanika’, Anigozanthus ‘Big Red’, and Dichondra repens as a tight ground cover. ABOVE Even the door to the laundry is beautiful. The seed pods of Koelreuteria paniculata above it rattle in the wind, making a sound like rain falling on a roof. PREVIOUS PAGE With papery, twisted trunks, Melaleuca nesophila grow alongside this path with Lomandra longifolia ‘Tanika’ at their feet. Both plants like boggy ground.
The western side is dominated by a large treehouse that sits high up in a pine tree, complete with a flying fox that propels you toward the centre of the lake.
slate for retaining walls and paving, local granitic gravel for the paths, and recycled bridge timbers for steps and to define the entrance.
A major feature in the garden are the clumps of Anigozanthos ‘Big Red’, which flower all summer into autumn and draw in honeyeaters and other nectar-feeding birds. Crimson glory vine (Vitis coignetiae) rambles over the pergola and provides welcome shade as well as brilliant autumn foliage.
The trees include the small gum Eucalyptus macrandra , with its stunning shiny trunk, sheoak Allocasuarina littoralis and the deciduous Koelreuteria paniculata . Mass planting of tussocks such as Themeda triandra ‘True Blue’ and Lomandra longifolia ‘Tanika’, and groundcovers including Grevillea lanigera ‘Mt Tamboritha’, which flowers throughout winter, create soft swathes of vegetation that surround the house, connecting it strongly >
“Designing gardens with nature, to suit the environment, is about being respectful and sensible.”ABOVE Tall she-oak Allocasuarina littoralis helps to frame the view of the water. BELOW A stacked slate wall retains this semicircular space for lounging; Correa reflexa var. nummulariifolia drapes over the stone. Banksia spinulosa ‘Birthday Candles’ adds bird-attracting interest to the upper level.
to the lake. The bold Phormium tenax ‘Anna Red’ have thrived in the wet conditions along with Melaleuca nesophila and the indigenous tussock Poa labillardierei .
As the garden has grown and more shade has been created by the developing tree canopies, especially on the east side of the house, some of the underplanting has been modified to include more shade-loving plants. The success of Plectranthus ambiguus ‘Nico’ and Microsorum diversifolium has allowed a continuum of low-lying vegetation.
The eastern side of the garden includes a cherished kitchen garden of vegetables, herbs and fruit trees, plus a chook house and run. The western side is dominated by a large treehouse that sits high up in a pine tree, complete with a flying fox that propels you toward the centre of the lake. This is a practical, productive and fun garden for all seasons.
Edited extract from With Nature by Fiona Brockhoff (Hardie Grant, $75).
ABOVE The pergola is an extension of the hou se, adding an outdoor dining area shaded by crimson glory vine. Slate crazy paving is an attractive textured surface underfoot, and the use of stand-alone rocks as steps into the house is a Japanese-style touch. LE FT A strong inside-outside connection is made via large sliding doors and floor-to-ceiling windows. From this space, the evening light can be seen illuminating the tussocks and dancing on the water.
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