St Andrews Residence

DESIGN APPROACH

This house design has a long story behind which is basically an old Asian immigrant's dream to have his whole family of many different generations accommodated within one dwelling at his site in an upmarket Auckland suburb. Qbix's design team worked with the old man - who even could not speak one single English word - with the interpretation skill of his daughter to understand his requirements and obtain the design brief.

It was strange to receive a design brief that did not follow the typical kiwi bungalow dream in a quarter-acre section. Instead, the design required to maximise the site area for at least two dwellings. One dwelling was required to be as big as possible with as many bedrooms as possible. The other dwelling was required primarily as a rental opportunity with a decent floor area to maximise the retail return. Accordingly, the internal layout of both dwellings was critical to fulfilling an old man's dream to have all his children and grandchildren around him with a guaranteed property income stream in his chosen new country