Surgeon's luxury home cuts a dash

John and Rose Dunn's Herne Bay house is nearing completion on its $8.1 million harbourside section. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Construction of one of New Zealand's most significant new houses, surrounded by water on three sides, is almost finished.

Endoscopic surgeon John Dunn and his wife Rose are having a landmark Herne Bay house built on their $8.1 million site and plan to shift in this winter.

The huge grey minimalist three-level house was designed by Jeff Fearon of Fearon Hay Architects and Mr Dunn said Lindesay Construction was the builder.

Art will feature strongly in the interior and exterior.

"We've got an artist, Tui Hobson of Maori and Cook Islands descent, to do a motif around an external upper parapet," Mr Dunn said. "It's about 1m deep and a bird motif, quite Pasifika.

"There's also art on a smaller half-metre parapet on the exterior. It's all fairly minimal but a unique aspect of the house and will soften it. It's all part of our interest in aesthetics. Rose and I are very keen to support local artists."

The new house, near Home Bay Reserve, faces north towards Watchman Island, the Harbour Bridge and opposite the Chelsea Sugar Refinery. It stands in an area once nicknamed the Herne Bay Sultanate after the Sultan of Brunei bought houses there.

A former Dunn house took a top national architecture award so the new place is drawing strong interest from the design sector. The neighbours are also watching the site closely, many relieved that the place which drew graffiti and street kids is being developed.

Mr Dunn is delighted with the project.

"A big feature of the house is a central courtyard and there's a separate building at the back, a tear-shaped sculptural building which is principally garaging with two bedrooms.

"The thing about this is getting the right people - the best architect and best builders. Rose is very involved in the project, particularly the interior design and it's her project as much as mine."

For decades the site was home to an abandoned concrete shell, once planned to be a grand house. Before builders shifted on to the land, the Dunns invited some of the city's top graffiti artists to "bomb" the derelict shell of a 1970s house on the site. Last year those walls came down to make way for the high-tech house.

Mr Dunn was New Zealand's first surgeon to perform a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 1990 but more recently developed dedicated laparoscopic gastric banding for obesity sufferers. He was a founder of Endoscopy Auckland in Epsom's Gillies Ave.

Mr Dunn's brothers are Catholic Bishop Patrick Dunn and City Sales boss Martin Dunn, who specialises in selling inner-city apartments.

John and Rose Dunn are significant Auckland art supporters and patrons along with Rod and Gillian Deane, Sir Eion and Lady Jan Edgar, Dame Jenny Gibbs, Fran and Geoff Ricketts, John Todd and James Wallace.

The 2007 purchase of the Herne Bay property sparked the sale of the Dunns' former Remuera house in Arney Rd to an Auckland businessman and his family for $8.1 million - the same price they bought the derelict Herne Bay house for.

The Herne Bay deal in 2007 was said at the time to have set an Auckland land price record. The site is almost half a hectare.

When he bought the site, Mr Dunn said he planned to improve the land and predicted his house would become an asset to the neighbourhood.

The Dunns' Remuera house was built in 1973 and won an Institute of Architects award in 2007, being one of 28 properties in a field of 119 entries named national award winners.

The Dunns commissioned a major extension and renovation of that house, also from Fearon Hay, a collaboration which proved so successful that they asked Jeff Fearon to design the Sentinel Rd house.

Judges praised the Arney Rd house for its elegance and the skill with which it was updated.

"Awe-inspiring from the first, this re-invention of a Ron Sang house skilfully integrates the tectonics of the original with the intentions of a new generation," the judges said in 2007.