Geoffrey Richards. Architect.

The openness, uncrowded foreshore, and estuary expanses of the North Island’s largest river, the Waikato, is what attracted Russ and Anne Marie to “The Port”. 

There is a benign microclimate here with a near-subtropical ambience in the summer months.

The original dwelling was a DIY construction completed in a number of stages over the past 50 years. 

Much of the original building appeared very solid, having been built in concrete by the previous blocklayer owner. Our engineers disagreed, as exploration of the existing structure revealed little steel reinforcing by today’s standards. 

The original concrete block walls were retained as non-structural walling and only part of the ground floor remained due to excavation for the new footings.

The new building’s first floor and the curvilinear roof are supported on a series of steel portal frames on deep foundations cast into the compacted sand that forms the subgrade at this beachside site. The top of these portals carry the 300x100mm curved glue-laminated beams. A new concrete slab was poured over the existing one and this reinforced-concrete element connected all the new footings and substructure.

We selected asphaltic tiles for the roofing on a plywood substrate. Due to the exposure to salt-laden air, metal roofing was not considered reliable enough. The new cladding is weatherboard on a cavity.

The first floor is one long curved-roofed gallery opening out to a deck and the Tasman Sea at the western end. The view from the eastern end of the gallery is to the surrounding bush-clad hills. 

The continuously glazed, 4m-high and 20m long north wall is sheltered by the curved roof and looks out to the estuary expanses of the Waikato River. The owners selected 20mm thick eco-sourced, Akwa timber overlay flooring fixed to the new ply diaphragm flooring.

Russ and Anne Marie lived and worked overseas for much of the build and work took place without the usual physical presence of the owners on site. Communication was by all the means available. Regular photography emailed up to the owners’remote South East Asian home proved invaluable, while some 480 emails were exchanged between architect and client during the progress of this work!

Deep foundations cast into compacted sand

This was a classic leaky building that had leaked nearly from the day the owners moved in. 

As with most buildings that have this problem, it was a combination of the building system used, the building work, the materials, the checking of the work, and the design. 

We were asked to solve the problem, which was not of our making. The owners had already been through a difficult process with all parties involved and received some compensation for the cost of remedial work.

There was only one way to accomplish this process.

First, all the cladding had to be removed, most of the linings removed and the windows taken out. 

All the rotten timber framing was cut out and the remaining timber treated with timber preservative. 

Roof parapets were removed and the roof extended to form eaves. 

The building was then reassembled to the highest standards, with sheet cladding formed over a cavity. The result: a warm and dry home.

Historic renewal,
Grey Lynn

The restoration of an important part of Auckland’s history

This is a large heritage house in central Auckland built in the late 19th century for the family of the then Mayor of Auckland. 

The unreinforced concrete house sits on nearly half an acre of north-facing land. 

We removed all the internal walls on the ground floor, supporting the concrete walls above on steel beams. The ground floor now opens out through glazed doors to a new, 200 square metre, suspended, concrete-tiled patio, which includes a new twenty-metre x five-metre swimming pool. 

To one side of the patio is a rustic 50 square metre outdoor kitchen and dining area adjacent to an outdoor fireplace and chimney. 

The new 250 square metre open-plan ground floor is tiled throughout and incorporates a new kitchen, bathroom, wine storage, laundry and underfloor heating.

 In this project we rebuilt the entire timber north face of the house with the addition of extensive areas of glazing to allow light into the ground floor, and designed a magnificent timber curved stair using Tasmanian Oak. 

We refurbished and extended the verandah on the first floor, and built a new bathroom, including a spa bath, in this area.

The grounds were newly landscaped, retaining the ancient pohutukawa and adding a 10 metre long stone waterfall and pond. 

The project was completed over three years, including a four-car garage partly excavated into the ground on the western side of the house, with a large home office above.