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Architects often expect opposition from heritage planners when proposing changes to a villa’s front fa9ade, given the preference for hiding any new building work from view. But with this late-nineteenth-century villa hard up against its rear boundary, and the only available garden facing the street, architect Andrew Meiring had nowhere else to position an addition than at the front of the site.

The house has a Category 1 heritage listing and is one of the earliest houses to be built on the slopes of Maungauika/North Head in conservation-conscious Devonport. But when Meiring’s clients bought it, its. original appeal had already been compromised by the addition of a carport, as well as a 1960s Vernon Brown alteration that was in a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, given its local significance and prominent location on the main accessway up the popular Maungauika landmark, it was somewhat of a surprise when council planners happily endorsed the plan for a contemporary, yet respectful, addition that would expand the house all the way to the road frontage.

Meiring’s light and airy, flat-roofed extension encloses what is now an inward-looking courtyard garden complete with swimming pool. The most dramatic intervention involved the creation of a rock-faced garage, which has been dug into the uphill side of the site, close to the road. This has allowed a gently layered entry sequence to be created from a new front gate, as well as cleverly screening the addition from the street.

The linear arrangement of living spaces has added a semi-enclosed outdoor room and sun-bathed pavilion below the floor height of the villa, which visitors pass before they arrive at the fully glazed entrance-the point at which new and old intersect in a lowered link. A concrete boardwalk, raised above the sunken lawn on one side and bordered by a narrow pond fringed with papyrus on the other, sets up a relaxed approach to the new entry. But, by the time visitors reach this point, they may have been tempted to step across to the outdoor terrace or enter the sitting room directly via one of the sliding doors, such is the relaxed blurring of outside and inside realms.

Stretching the length of the addition is a fine, white-painted timber pergola that helps to stitch together the historic and contemporary parts of the house in a particularly easy and unpretentious way.

Perhaps unconsciously on the part of Meiring, there are echoes of Vernon Brown’s mid-twentieth-century houses in the dark-stained cladding, white-painted joinery, exposed rafters, and generous openings that contribute to the connection to outdoors.

More deliberately, the dark shingles that Meiring has used to clad the addition reference slate roof tiles on the villa, which were replaced ahead of the alteration. The white-painted timber joinery takes its cue from the villa’s sash windows, and the rafters in the sitting room continue the rhythm of the battened ceilings through the original house.

Materials chosen for the new parts of the house anchor it to its location on the side of a volcano. The rock that clads the garage forms a backdrop to a fireplace in the outdoor room, which is paved in lava stone tiles. Naturally occurring lava bombs were found during excavations for the project.

Major structural work involved 7-metre-long piles being driven into the bank behind the garage and addition, to stabilise the hillside and the load from a neighbouring house above. Meiring has cleverly grabbed the area left in front of the retaining wall for a covered passage that runs from the garage to a rear entrance, where a cloak room and laundry are tucked behind the kitchen.

But while the ground works may have been extreme, the villa has been treated with a gentle hand. Inside, it has been made to feel lighter, with a portion of the

roof removed to accommodate a skylight over the dining area and central hall to counter a gloomy core. Below the skylight, original roof trusses have been left exposed, in keeping with a focus on revealing rather than concealing the house’s history.

Instead of smoothing over imperfections caused by more than 130 years of wear, any chips and knocks to skirtings and architraves have been left visible and painted over. Kauri floorboards were sanded back and oiled, and timber wall linings that had been covered up, including a dado in the central hall, are once again on show. Significant structural work was also required to shore up the doublesided chimney in the villa, where the Victorian-era fireplaces have been restored.

As part of the process of modernising the villa, radiators were added throughout and two bathrooms created, including an en suite that now enjoys a view up into the house’s distinctive turret. What was previously an inaccessible-and rotting-folly can now be appreciated inside, and especially from the bath below.

While this sympathetic approach to the heritage villa has brought its historical features to the fore, Meiring’s unassuming addition has provided living areas bathed in sun and light, and introduced much-needed outdoor flow. It is an entirely respectful response to the challenge of adding something new to a heritage building in such a public location.

Reference to the book
Architecture at Home – Houses for New Zealanders to live, work and play
By author Debra Millar