Opposite Eden Park – and just a hundred metres from Kingsland Train Station – The Ockham Building was completed in 2011.

Our eponoymous first-born was immortalised in Auckland City’s Design Manual which lauded its “Low Rise, High Style”. Specifically, The Ockham Building was: “A good example of a low-rise apartment building that responds to a prominent corner site within a character area, demonstrates excellent building design and creates a well-articulated edge to the street.”

With 25 apartments across five levels, The Ockham Building is arranged in an L-shape on the corner of Sandringham Road and Rossmay Terrace, providing what the Design Manual described as “a continuous street edge, whilst protecting a generous landscaped courtyard at the rear”.

This sizeable, sun-drenched communal courtyard is perhaps The Ockham’s standout feature. It is not just a shared area for residents with outdoor tables and raised garden beds, but also a secluded overlook for rear balconies. Its west-facing position means it acts effectively as a lightwell, maximising natural ventilation and daylight for the apartments.

The manual also extols how the building is scaled in proportion to the suburban street for subtle densification, tucks carparking cleverly into a hidden basement area and blends with the line of heritage shops opposite. Truly textbook stuff. Although early in the piece for us, The Ockham Building has elements of what would become some of our hallmark moves. On the frontage, recycled railway sleepers and embossed concrete panels adorn the building in much the way our later builds are embellished with precast concrete patterned design and brick elements.

39 Sandringham Road, Kingsland | Auckland, NZ