Belmont, Remuera

An urban site 5.5 metres wide and 38 metres long, located on the fringe between ‘historic’ residential one zoning and business use. The site holds one of two identical and very dilapidated side-by-side gabled worker’s cottages.

The ‘existing use’ of the pre-existing form was manipulated in architectural play. An origami fold in the bilateral axis of the gable facade insinuates a ‘slippage’ in the historic character of the street. The fold is replicated in the ground condition which opens up the possibility of integrating another level into the pre-defined envelope. The entry is dislocated from the traditional central position and the outward slippage, folding the facade out to the line of the original verandah, provides for a stair linking all the vertical functional zones. The materiality of the precondition was referenced but not replicated and the treatment of the fenestration further enhanced the geometric play of the slippage.

Deeper into the building, the various constraints of the site inform the design. The living is on the middle level, the parking below and a bedroom loft above. A single pavilion is spaced from the gabled form, creating a courtyard and a separate functional block that incorporate an office and guest bedroom. The connection between the two areas creates an axis and a view line through to a second grass courtyard at the rear of the site.

Designers: Daniel Marshall
Photographer: Ernie Shackles