LOFT ABOVE GARAGE
MAHANA

This conversion to a nearly completed garage/rumpus room building, designed by others, involved sliding the upstairs rumpus room portion back over large steel frames to allow afternoon sun to reach the outside living areas of the house below. At the same time the rumpus room was converted to create guest accommodation. The owner was keen to showcase his extensive collection of contemporary New Zealand art and engage local artists in the fabric of the building as well.

The stance taken was to keep the large space as open as possible with the bedrooms being separated from the living area by walls to stud height only and glazing above so that even though the space was divided it read as a single space with the existing trussed roof visible from the bedrooms too. The hierarchy of spaces is further defined by using matchlining to the exterior walls and painted gib. walls to the interior divisions.

Colours and lighting have been chosen to highlight the art collection. The kitchen and interior doors are works of art in their own right while the bathrooms use a mix of raw materials and contemporary fittings.

Completed: 2003

Design Team: Min Hall, Sophie Steele, Nick Reeve

Interiors: Rita Virtama

Builder: Mead and Martin Ltd
Kitchen: Glenn van der Leij
Steel work: Mark Healey and Glenn van der Leij
Carved doors: Tim Wraight
Photographs: Elspeth Collier