Houzz Tour: A Hillside Build Takes in the Harbour Views
A new home creates the best of both worlds for a car-loving couple who've left behind the family farm
The historic French settlement of Akaroa, 75 kilometres from Christchurch, is better known for its charming Colonial-style harbourside architecture. But it was the hills above the town that captivated Gail and Brendon Woods when they moved off their family farm. They hired a lifelong architect friend who knew them well, and gave him carte blanche in the design of a spacious modern house for them and their collection of cars. Using a mix of timber, steel and glass, Peter Townsend designed a home that delights the owners and welcomes visitors to share the breathtaking harbour views.
Gail and Brendon, who were moving off the family farm to run their business from town, briefed Townsend to come up with a design that fit into a subdivision of modern houses. Brendon’s biggest demand was a garage to house their collection of classic cars, and Gail wanted a house that would be comfortable for just the pair of them in the winter, but with enough bedrooms for their three kids, their partners and six grandchildren during the warmer months – the couple loves to fill the house with people in the summer.
Gail also stipulated that the house have easy drive-on access, a challenge on such a hilly site. The couple had frequently stayed with Townsend, and his wife Eryn who runs the practice, so were taken with the architect’s style. “I love the mix of the house’s materials, very textured and layered,” says Gail, who confesses to being a “bit of a magpie” with a penchant for collecting old stuff. She initially questioned whether her collection of things would work in a modern home, but says the home’s use of wood and stone meant the two styles would marry beautifully.
Townsend’s design took advantage of the slope of the land, allowing him to dig into the hill, effectively burying the garage. With only two street-facing garage doors, he broke up the scale even more with a mix of translucent and solid panels. Brendon jokes that normally sunny Akaroa had Auckland-style weather during the build, with constant rain in the critical month of excavation hampering the skilled digger operators with slips, as some 2,500 cubic metres of dirt was removed. He is still impressed at the engineering work, which included polystyrene blocks to keep the weight from the walls and the boat-shaped concrete columns supporting the garage.
The house tiers gently down the slope, allowing the back bedrooms to share some of the spectacular views. Townsend organised the house in a loose H-shape, with living rooms and the owners’ suite at the front of the house and guest rooms at the back, wrapped around an entry court on one side and a series of sheltered decks on the other.
The entry is wrapped in a rich, warm, vertical cedar, but once inside the front door, the stronger industrial elements reveal themselves.
Townsend mixed polished concrete floors with a stainless-steel balustrade softened by birch ply ceilings in the entry lobby and living rooms. Stairs lead up to the bedroom wing, and down to the garage.
Gail says she loves to stand at the top of the stairs to survey the house. “I look down and it takes my breath away,” she says. Townsend chose the Graypants light fitting, made of recycled corrugated cardboard, to add another texture.
Scraplight pendant: ECC Lighting & Furniture
Gail says she loves to stand at the top of the stairs to survey the house. “I look down and it takes my breath away,” she says. Townsend chose the Graypants light fitting, made of recycled corrugated cardboard, to add another texture.
Scraplight pendant: ECC Lighting & Furniture
An office is tucked off the hallway, opening through pocket doors to the living rooms so the couple can look through to the views while they work.
Townsend broke up the courtyard into several levels, anchored around a generous outdoor fireplace. He continued the steel beams as pergola supports, extending the roof to provide shelter from hot summer sun or rainy days.
Steps lead from the driveway to the courtyard, carefully landscaped in sculptural clipped balls to contrast with the strong angles and materials of the house.
Landscaping: Brent Shultz
Landscaping: Brent Shultz
A steel fascia wraps the roof, helping to break up and define the layers of the house when it’s viewed from the road. A stainless-steel chimney is a striking focal point against the dark-stained cedar. Bedrooms off this upper level share views of the sea, and have private outdoor spaces to retreat to when the house is full.
The seating area gets a view across neighbouring houses to the harbour and hills beyond.
“The roof slopes in one gentle plane, so I wanted to make that apparent from the inside,” says Townsend. He floated the fireplace away from the roof and used punched acoustic panels to express the plane of the roof. “Acoustics and ceiling planes are a bit of a fetish of ours; we deal with them a lot,” Townsend says. “It’s often neglected; no one really thinks about it.”
The floating ceiling is lit at night to create a cosy room within the great room. Townsend added structural columns to allow the sliding glass doors to disappear at the corner.
Window joinery: Vistalite Windows
Window joinery: Vistalite Windows
Gail is a keen cook, so worked closely with Townsend on the kitchen design. She wanted a social space along with a scullery for messy bits to be hidden away (to the right, out of view). The island has been wrapped in oak. Waimea West Joinery made the kitchen as well as the bathroom vanities, bedheads, and bunk beds for the kids.
Gail wanted a bachy feel to the finishes, introducing a mix of knobs on the drawers to suggest vintage layers. “Pete and I were on the same wavelength,” she says. “The mix of oak and white is warm, and I’m a person who loves character and comfort.”
A Carrara marble splashback and a place to hang her copper pots from France were musts. The couple is still amused at the builder’s solution to the pot rack: because Gail is short and other family members are not, the rack moves up and down with the help of a remote control. It’s the favourite toy for visiting grandchildren. And they love the kink in the breakfast bar too, a place where people love to gather and interact with the cook.
Drawer handles: Katalog; vintage lights: BB French Antiques
A Carrara marble splashback and a place to hang her copper pots from France were musts. The couple is still amused at the builder’s solution to the pot rack: because Gail is short and other family members are not, the rack moves up and down with the help of a remote control. It’s the favourite toy for visiting grandchildren. And they love the kink in the breakfast bar too, a place where people love to gather and interact with the cook.
Drawer handles: Katalog; vintage lights: BB French Antiques
Brendon worked as a labourer every day on the 18-month build. “We’ve watched Grand Designs on TV, and knew that in a complicated build, lots of things come up and you need to make a decision on the spot. I’m not a builder, but I’m a farmer so I’m used to running projects. It’s getting the people around you, you establish the crew and make it happen.”
“It’s a beautiful home to live in,” says Gail. “When there’s just Brendon and I it doesn’t feel onerous. When there’s a crowd, it just flows.”
The couple brought the dining table from the farm, pairing it with vintage chairs. To keep the house toasty, Townsend specified underfloor heating and radiators, run off a diesel boiler in the garage.
The leather couches had been in the family for years, while the trunk was a secondhand find.
Brendon and Gail love Townsend’s cheeky solution to having the master bedroom opening off the kitchen: a secret door is hidden in the cedar panelling. The master bedroom is simply furnished, with a custom-made oak bedhead and oak wardrobe fixtures. Brendon and Gail love to sit on the balcony off their bedroom and watch the sun rise.
Gail laughs that the stone for the bathrooms was sourced off the back of a truck: plans for the building had started not long after the Christchurch earthquakes, so the stone distributor no longer had an operating warehouse. Gail and Townsend selected the dramatic pieces of stone out on the street. The continuous floor to the shower is a signature Townsend touch, as is the shelf that continues from the vanity into the wet area.
Guest bedrooms open on to their own private balconies, and share the palette of the rest of the house – stained vertical cedar, fine oak joinery.
A guest bathroom opens off the lobby between the split-level bedrooms.
In the family bathroom, Townsend repeats the open, wet-area shower and continuous bench. A soaking tub adds a touch of luxury for guests.
“In our profession there’s a saying that you should avoid building for friends,” says Townsend. “But I’ve loved doing the job and they’re delighted with it. We had a fantastic working relationship all the way through, so that debunks that theory.”
TELL US
What do you think of this newly built hillside home? Tell us what you like about its design in the Comments section below.
TELL US
What do you think of this newly built hillside home? Tell us what you like about its design in the Comments section below.
Who lives here: Gail and Brendon Woods
Location: Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand
Size: House: 238 square metres; 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms; 12-car garage: 210 square metres
Year built: 2015
Architect: Peter Townsend, Townsend Architects
Builder: Mike Brown and Dicky Podmore, Woodlau
“It was important to give Pete a free hand,” says Brendon, of his friend since primary school days. “He’s the artist and he gave us something that we would never have come up with ourselves.”