STYLE REVIVAL
While the footprint of the original dwelling continues on, a strikingly different aesthetic emerges in this Young Architects project, winning National Winner for Residential Interiors in the recent ADNZ Resene awards.
PHOTOS Dennis Radermacher
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER Greg Young and Andy McLeod, Young Architects
This Moncks Spur home is an earthquake rebuild. With the owner’s love of the architectural style developed in Ōtautahi, locally known as the “Christchurch Style”, Young Architects utilised similar forms, with high pitched ceilings following the rooflines, solid walls, and large windows. This architectural movement has had a strong influence on the aesthetics of the design and utilisation of materials, while the technology and engineering have been updated to best practice wherever possible.
The project’s material palette combines concrete, steel, glass, and timber, relying on the materials natural honest beauty. Large views are captured with the glazing in deep recesses to prevent overheating.
The ADNZ Resene Awards judges mentioned that “the careful and well-controlled articulation of a rich material palette has contributed to a very successful interior in this project that both respects and references the Christchurch Style with a clear authority and understanding”.
Interior elements like concrete and timber sit alongside each other, creating the primary visual experience. “Timber adds to the warmth and richness, and this is successfully contrasted against the harder bleached surfaces that the concrete provides the base for.
“Planning is also controlled particularly well,” the judges added.
“The interior to exterior flow is carefully crafted with a continuation of materials and excellent attention to detailing. Careful control of natural and artificial lighting is a final key to a very well-articulated solution that creates a set of refined interior spaces.”
Cedar has been used on the ceilings, oak on the floors, and birch on the walls. This is combined with crisp white on plasterboard and exposed concrete blockwork.
Lighting has been chosen predominantly for its simplicity, with feature pendants selected to reflect original influences.
Crisp white concrete blockwork defines the simple form of the home, with areas of the house recessed in a protective skin of a warm natural cedar cladding, which carries on into the interior of the home.
Touches of colour have been used throughout, in tiling, joinery, and wallpapers, adding to the refinement of the home, with the red oxide a nod to The Christchurch Style.
Greg Young of Young Architects mentioned the firm’s continued success in the Residential Interiors Awards.
“We designed virtually every element of this home, including furnishings, which allowed us to keep a cohesiveness throughout the home with its detailing and finishes. The inside of your home is where you spend the most time.”
Advanced Joinery was tasked with virtually an entire ‘house lot’ of architectural bespoke interior joinery. The coordination of the project had a ‘smooth transition’ according to the project manager, Jason Dean.
“The use of quality materials and finishes with superb craftmanship right from the architects plans to the reality of the build were easily achieved.” The standard of work is clearly apparent as you walk through the home.
The Christchurch Style has been described as “one of the few original and lasting cultural movements in New Zealand’s modern history”.
