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This three level house in Khandallah really only had one thing going for it when the owners purchased it – its fabulous views across Wellington harbour!

The original 1950’s house layout had suffered from a number of alterations and additions over its years, creating cellular spaces and an incoherent layout. Our aim was to turn this into a five bedroom house that suited modern family living, and maximised the amazing views through the house.

Rationalising the existing split-stair internal access was a big focus of the design. A central “atrium” space was created right through the middle of the three floors, unifying the internal access, and creating a connection point right through the three levels. The openness of the stair allows light and views to enter the heart of the home.

Another focus was opening up the top level to create a modern family living space with zones for different activities. The open-plan kitchen, situated between the kids play space and the dining area, is the hub for the family, and has sightlines back across the stair atrium to the front door. The “bridge” across the stair atrium was another important feature providing connection across the two sides of the house and ensures the stair acts as a connecting element, rather than a separating one.

Vorstermans Architects
Wellington

About the
Professional

OUR PURPOSE

Utilising our commercial and residential experience to produce quality designs and creating beautiful buildings for our clients.  We aim to use our knowledge to positively improve and change people’s everyday lives both at work and at home and their experience of the environment. We vow to leave the environment in a better situation then we found it.

OUR PROMISE

Communicate | Respond | Enjoy | Deliver  

Design Excellence – We strive for design excellence in all projects no matter how big the project or small the budget. We have a creative team with multiple skills to offer quality solutions for any type of project.

Communicative – We respond openly, clearly and honestly to all communication in a timely fashion.

Accessible – Our team are always approachable for support and advice, easy to talk to and clients feel comfortable asking us anything.

Client Focused – We build long term relationships with our clients to create and facilitate unique solutions to their needs by engaging closely with our clients regularly through the process.

Professional  – Open, honest and transparent – we treat people with respect, value everyone input to the process to provide an educated solution which achieves positive results.

Experienced – we have been in the business for over 28 years.  We understand our community, the industry and we have the relationships to get things done.

When producing quality design work, we pledge to communicate openly, honestly and in a timely fashion, being responsive to both the clients and the environmental needs. We aim to make the design process enjoyable for everyone involved by creating positive and exciting experiences by removing traditional designer/client barriers which create unnecessary stress. We pride ourselves on timely delivery, exceeding our client’s expectations and providing a beautiful built environment for our clients for years to come.