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A significant renovation, completed in two stages, has kept the steel-balustrade stair the hero of the set-piece but turned this Sixties’ special into a future-perfect family home. In the first stage, the floorplan was altered slightly to create a master bedroom and en suite where now floor-to-ceiling oak cabinetry spans one side of the room and the re-orientation allows a bedtime tableau of the city lights and Sky Tower.
In the second stage, the upstairs kitchen, living and dining room were made lighter and brighter. Retro-fitted ugly duckling features such as smoked glass and aluminium sliders were removed and replaced. From the entry with its cheerful yellow front door, the sculptural staircase weaves up through the guts of the home. The living zone has a backdrop of bush and the faraway city, and two new decked areas were created on either side of the renovated kitchen. One faces north to the sun, the other south to the view.
Re-roofing, repainting, re-flooring – the revival of this home took commitment to complete. But keeping the good bones of its semi open-plan nature and updating the aesthetic with serene tones of pale woods against white walls, has produced a win/win: the best of the old and the best of the new.
Photographer
Emma-Jane Hetherington
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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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