Light years ahead in Stanley Point

33a Stanley Point Rd, Stanley Point, Auckland. Photo / NZ Herald

33A STANLEY POINT RD STANLEY POINT

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SIZE: Land 751sq m, house 350sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected $2 million and above. Auction 12pm, Thursday, July 7, Bayleys Auction Rooms, 28 Northcroft St, Takapuna, unless sold prior.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 1.30-2pm.

ON THE WEB: bayleys.co.nz/101681197

SCHOOL ZONES: Stanley Bay Primary, Belmont Intermediate and Takapuna Grammar.

CONTACT: Winston Kidd, Bayleys, ph 021 970 444 or 487 0730.

FEATURES: Six-year-old architecturally designed house with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and multiple-living areas. Interesting use of materials combined with a complex arrangement of angles and planes lifts it out of the ordinary. Gold Medal Master Builders Award winner and featured house in NZ House & Garden, too.

When Lynne Hattie moved to Devonport five years ago with her four children, finding the sort of modern house she wanted in this most traditional of suburbs was not easy.

In fact, it was so difficult she had all but given up. "I had looked and looked and even though villas can be lovely, I just hadn't found one that worked for us so we'd finally discounted Devonport as an option," remembers Lynne, "but the agent didn't give up and out of the blue he rang up and announced, 'I've found your house'. I took one look and agreed, and have never regretted buying it for one moment."

Architect Bruce Macfarlane, from local architectural firm Mac & Co, agrees that stylistically it is unusual in this neighbourhood of traditional housing and points out that its eco-friendly design is a point of difference as well.

"It has a lot of concrete in it, both in the flooring slabs on both levels and the exposed concrete block internal walls. These act as heat sinks when the sun is low in winter, so once the house is warmed up it hardly needs any of the gas heating to stay at that level. It's beautifully built and was a Gold Medal winner in the Master Builders awards so it's a very easy house to live in," he says.

Lynne couldn't agree more. "We have four children and even when they were all living at home it worked very well as a family house. It has one of those layouts where the children's bedrooms spread out along a passageway in one direction with their own bathroom, so we all have our own privacy and space."

The fifth of these bedrooms could easily now be used as a media room as, like all the bedrooms, it is fully wired as one.

The master bedroom is stunning. Swooping ceilings conceal a clerestory window to draw in the evening light, while a balcony over the garden, a multitude of custom-made cabinets and a wall of east-facing windows create the impression that this is a floating light box, somehow simultaneously private and open.

As in many modern homes, the casual living room downstairs links to the centrally located kitchen and dining hub, but this is not a mere series of interconnecting square boxes. Again Bruce explains why the angularity that marks this house came about. "We wanted to open up the site to maximise the light from the east for the master bedroom upstairs and as this is situated on top of the formal living room, it did the same for the ground level as well.

"The triangular battens on the rough-sawn painted ply were a continuation of playing one element against the other. The shadows they cast at different times of day are all part of it."

Lynne loves the kitchen, with its easy use of space and the clever little details that make it a pleasure to work in.

"It has all sorts of unusual things about it. There're concealed lights just where you need them, the roll-down cupboards that hide the small appliances and, of course, the storage.

"We're quite a big family but you'd never know as it's so easy to work in. It's both a lovely house and a very practical one. Living here you can tell that everything has been so well thought out. That's what good design is all about I suppose."

Despite being very happy in their home in this loveliest of suburbs, Lynne and family are moving offshore.

"It's the right time for the children to experience something new. We'll miss this house but we're moving on."