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Houzz Tour: Modern Homage to a Mid-Century Classic

A light-filled Christchurch home nestled beside a stream nods to the distinctive Eichler style of the '50s and '60s

Catherine Smith 25 October 2016

Houzz New Zealand Contributor. A design addict from way back, I can't resist looking at other people's houses. And doing a tiny bit of styling and decluttering. Just a tiny bit.

Houzz New Zealand Contributor. A design addict from way back, I can't resist looking... More

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Since the quakes that rocked their city, Christchurch people have adopted their own language: ‘munted’ means totally ruined, ‘liquefaction’ describes the ground virtually melting when stressed soil becomes liquid. Architect Cymon Allfrey uses the understated ‘earthquake sequence’ to describe the two shocks of September 2010 and February 2011 of 7.1 and 6.3, that ruined his clients’ home beside the pretty Wairarapa stream.

His brief to repair damage from the earlier quake turned into a full replacement plan after the second, with the new design finally getting underway in 2012. “The original house was from the late 1940s or early 1950s, so our brief was to create a contemporary environment that was light and open,” he says. “Our clients’ admiration of mid-century modern architecture was to inform the architectural language of the home.”

Photos by Stephen Goodenough

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A semi-retired couple
Location: Fendalton, Christchurch, New Zealand
Size: 299 square metres; 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Architect: Cymon Allfrey and Don Roy, Cymon Allfrey Architects
Builder: Homes by Maxim
Allfrey and Roy carefully located the house on the footprint of the original home to retain as much as possible of the mature, tree-lined garden to the east, and to embrace the stream to the north.

Their clients named Eichler‘s lean look as one of their favourites, so Allfrey and Roy took their cue for the proportions and timber structure.

The main living spaces were oriented to the north to face the river view, wrapping in an L-shape around an eastern court that provides private outdoor living accessed from both the kitchen and main bedroom. The central corridor running through the house links the east- and west-oriented private spaces, giving people a view of the stream as they walk through the home.

Spaces were organised to connect the interior of the house to the planting all around. The house is made up of a gentle sloping roof plane resting on two dark, horizontal cedar masses. Five structural timber portals span the width of the house to create a gridded rhythm visible from both inside and out. Allfrey says the final house stayed close to his early sketch design, which set up the proportions and scale of the house. “It needed to be comfortable,” he says. “It’s a loose, simple site elevation.”

Allfrey and Roy worked with Davinia Sutton of Detail by Davinia Sutton for the joinery throughout the house. The first impact comes from the living room screen divider. The architects repeated the clerestory windows of the old house to lift the eye to the trees. In places the ceiling reaches four metres, but the pair used dropped ceilings and beams to create intimacy.

Contemporary Living Room Contemporary Living Room

Both clients and architects wanted a house with honesty of materials, but early on set up a rule that no structural steel was to be seen. “Initially [the rule] was to control the architecture and guide the aesthetic and materiality,” Allfrey says. “During the course of the project it became more of a narrative to engage all those who worked on it.”

Structural timber is glue-laminated pine. The grid is glazed to allow light through the low-slung roof. While the house is just for a couple, it was also designed to host larger groups for entertaining.

Central to the brief was that the lady of the house did not want to be seen in the kitchen, so Sutton, Allfrey and Roy designed a functional ‘back kitchen’ and a social ‘front kitchen’. “This allows our client to work undisturbed, without the concern of a tidy appearance, while their guests enjoy a pinot or whisky in the heart of the home,” the architect says.

Sutton detailed the stained oak front kitchen to look more like a sleek bar. Underlit cabinets now house the husband’s extensive whisky collection. The back kitchen is behind the cutlery sculpture.

Allfrey and Roy ensured that light and the ceiling lines were not interrupted by a full wall. The back kitchen has a fully working stove, wall ovens and stainless-steel benches for ease of cooking and clean-up.

A wall of pantries and storage continue the lines of the dark oak front kitchen cabinets, but in serviceable white.

The open-plan main entertaining space is modulated by a sculptural fire surround, but again, the architects have continued the clerestory windows to draw the eye through the space.

Off to one side is a cosy media room, the TV snug.

The architects wanted to emphasise the materials, changing stain colours between the vertical and horizontal elements. While they didn’t want any steel elements to show, they did celebrate the structure of the building with beautifully detailed visible connections, bolts and studs.

Bedrooms are tucked on the private sides of the house. Clerestory and slim vertical windows frame charming private views of the greenery and the stream.

Contemporary Bathroom Contemporary Bathroom

While the owners wanted to age in place, Allfrey and Roy did not make overt universal design touches. Sutton ensured that the vanity joinery and plentiful storage cupboards, for example, continued the dressed-up look of the living room and front kitchen. The tub in the master ensuite has views of the side terrace and mature garden.

The second bathroom has a continuous floor, providing step-free access to the shower. Light is drawn from the high windows as this is a street-facing room.

Because the stream side of the house is open to the public, the architects created a large terrace to the east side of the house for private relaxing off the kitchen and bedroom. “But this is also about how the house relates to the site,” Allfrey says. “It is environmentally comfortable, with shading devices and window orientation for summer shade and winter sun.”

“We wanted an elegant portal structure, resting on the darker boxes,” says Allfrey. “The charm of that [mid-century] period was that it understood how the structure works, to celebrate how the connections come together. It makes a house that is honest.”
His design peers agree: the house won the practice the Canterbury regional award for Residential New Home over 300 square metres in the 2016 ADNZ Resene Architectural Design Awards.

TELL US
How would you interpret mid-century design into your house today? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.

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mickferd

an amazing house, my only criticism is what happens when it rains? no covered area of the side of the house. for the price this house would cost, I would like a covered area. Rain does not care if your entertaining or not.

1 Like 27 October 2016 at 12:20am

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corinan

Even with double glazing there is a lot of heat loss through windows in Christchurch winters, so I hope they have something for winter or the windows are thermally broken (or don't mind huge heating bills). Fabulous house.

Like 29 October 2016 at 8:50pm

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