REBUILD UPDATE

The interiors of the flats have now been stripped in preparation for replacement concrete floor slabs. The fittings have been carefully stored away, ready for restoration once the work is complete. The new slab work will also allow for underfloor heating to be installed in the ground floor flats, which will be much appreciated by the new occupants!

Deconstruction has thrown up a few interesting finds, including this inscription on the underside of one of the shower bases, dated 28 January 1957. The name refers to the original building contractors, Cecil & R. Davenport & Sons. Sir Miles Warren wrote of the contractors:

"The builders were Cecil Davenport and his brother Snow, both rather dour and humourless, and a pesky apprentice. About halfway through building, Davenport, exasperated by my attitude, demanded to know why I looked so critical and unhappy with the work. He had misread me: I was being hard on myself and was worried about my design and detailing, not about his good workmanship."

Given how radically new the form and structure of the buildings were at the time, it is hardly surprising if there was some friction between a young idealistic architect and his older and more traditionally-minded builders!

Modernism revival in Christchurch, but it never went away
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Kiwis love Mid-century Modern architecture – increasingly we appreciate this as part of our architectural heritage, and such properties have become highly sought-after.
We owe it all to a devoted group of architects who forged ahead with Modernist designs in the mid 1900s to leave us a legacy of properties that still resonate today.
But these architects haven't been assigned to history – their work lives on to influence architects today, including the team at Herriot, Melhuish O'Neill Architects (HMOA) in Christchurch.

Duval O'Neill and his wife Bridget have a particularly close association with the past, having bought a house in Mt Pleasant in 2005 that was designed in the 1950s by celebrated Modernist architect Don Cowey.
"Don designed the house for his parents, but it was a while before we found this out," says O'Neill. "And when I did, I just looked up the phone book and rang him up. We had a great meeting. He was able to tell me all about the house and we developed a really nice friendship. He was a lovely, lovely man."

"We were deeply saddened by his death," O'Neill says.
The same earthquake damaged the O'Neills' own house, which was subsequently deemed uneconomic to repair. But its legacy was to live on. Cowey had already pointed the architect in the direction of the Macmillan Brown Library at the University of Canterbury, where he found the original plans for the house.

"Don had designed the house around 1953 when he was only 25," says O'Neill. "He and a friend also built it, as you did back then. Don was proud of his design and explained to us the way he wanted to unveil the views and the sun as you walked through the house. He positioned it to preserve those views.
"Once we had the decision to rebuild, the design strategy was largely an initiative in maintaining the essence of his original design, while taking the opportunity to adapt it to more modern living. We didn't want it large, and we didn't want to totally mimic his design.
"We like to think that he would have approved of our moves to bring it more in line with the way we live now."

WHY MID-CENTURY RESONATES

O'Neill says there are several reasons why Mid-century architecture is still loved by New Zealanders.
"There's a heightened interest in design generally. And Mid-century design has struck a chord with Kiwis, partly due to the critical mass of that type of architecture – people are noticing we still have a good quantity of these homes.
"We appreciate there is a real craft involved in the planning of these homes. There's a generosity of space and a (strong) relationship to the outdoors and capturing key views. More often than not, it's the simplicity that carries through to the built-in joinery that works so well.

"These houses reflect a real consideration given to the way the spaces will work in the house. The houses are often quite frugal; they are not usually massive houses, but they have been carefully planned to be efficient."
HMOA has worked on numerous other projects, including the award-winning restoration of the Clifton Hill House designed by Austrian architect Ernst Killnan in 1965.
Originally a holiday home, the team transformed the tired holiday house into a permanent home, dealing with the challenge of the two major earthquakes along the way.
O'Neill also restored and enlarged the 1957 Pascoe House at Sumner.

New owners Dan and Emily Park had never heard of Paul Pascoe, the "father of Modernism", before they bought the house, which was in the same suburb as the renowned architect's own home, the Piano house – a Christchurch landmark.
With three young children, the Parks were in desperate need of space, so they engaged O’Neill to sensitively add onto to their home. Duval worked closely with builder Dave Owens and with landscape architect Craig Pocock on a design for the large garden.
The owners say they love the sense of space, the light, and the way you can’t tell from the street that this house is really something special.

"The house is super-comfortable to live in – wide eaves to keep out the hot overhead sun in summer, floor-to-ceiling windows on the garden side to let in the low winter sun, small windows on the southerly side, black cedar and Halswell paving to act as a heat store at night. It’s fully central-heated – coming from the UK, where central heating has been fairly standard for over a century, this made us feel at home.
"When we moved in, the house was filled with fantastic mid-century pieces. None of our old country-cottage furniture worked at all."

The couple didn’t want the renovations overwhelming the original house, so they’re in keeping with the style. "We’ve used the same cedar boards, copper nails, door handles, rimu flooring (sourced from an old hospital), window frames, eaves, interior and exterior colours, proportions and so on.
​"It takes a keen eye to spot the join between the old and new; many visitors can’t tell it’s been extended. We’ve maintained the sense of scale and the garden views from the kitchen."
And it's that last sentence that sums up the holistic design approach that characterises Modernism – the house is at one, not only with itself, but with the immediate outdoors, the views beyond, and of course the path of sun throughout the day.


Colleen Hawkes, The Press, 04 June 2020