















This standard bungalow on a standard quarter-acre section had the standard problems of its era: rooms oriented by rote and no connection to the backyard. A gabled roof that rose five metres at its apex made the dwelling look tall and blunt, rather like a school hall.
An extensive renovation and addition to the home retained its character features and achieved free-flow living for this family with three young children. Within the weatherboard bungalow, spaces were reconfigured, mainly as bedrooms. The former living room became a play-space with built-in shelving that hints at what is to come. It also provides a visual link between old and new.
The owners’ tongue-in-cheek brief to create “a Brazilian jungle house” was used as reference for the stepped-down addition. It takes the form of a garden room, anchored closely to the earth and clad in vertical cedar. Internally, concrete block walls form an industrial backdrop to the kitchen in this open-plan space. The brutal nature of raw block and concrete floors is balanced by the warmth of gaboon-ply cabinetry and plywood ceilings.
Although the palettes of the two forms are in contrast, exposed triangular trusses in the pavilion echo the pitch of the gable. Extra-wide joists traverse the threshold and continue to the edge of a covered terrace, accessed via large glass sliders.
Leading from the terrace floating concrete ‘lily pads’ step playfully up into the house, their edges bounding an internal garden lush with sub-tropicals - a touch of Brasilia in the burbs.
Photographer
Emma-Jane Hetherington
We're an architecture and design studio creating warm spaces for human connection. We believe architecture thrives on play and exploration, where clever solutions and clear dialogue create a dynamic interplay between all the elements of a project, bringing them all into balance.
Our directors, Tim Dorrington and Sam Atcheson, have spent over twenty years developing a design philosophy that's playful, balanced and inclusive. Clever solutions to interesting challenges are one of the hallmarks of our work, as is an eternally-youthful enthusiasm for creating truly transformative design. We like to think of it as delivering just enough surprise to truly delight our clients.
We're proud of the impact our team has made on the built environment of Aotearoa, with multiple NZIA Awards to our name and a roster of happy clients. We specialise in residential projects, but have also had success with retail and commercial environments.
Our approach is highly collaborative. While we often draw on the rich lineage of mid-century modernism, we're not design dictators. Every project is a response to site, budget and our clients dreams and objectives. It's an honest and open process, which reflects in the materiality of our buildings and the experience of the spaces we create.
Our design philosophy:
playful, human, balanced, clever, inclusive, transformative.
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