This remarkable renovation honours the home’s heritage status and opens it to the garden.
Ben Calvin says he and his wife took a big chance on this 1899 listed brick villa in Christchurch.
It was uninhabitable, damaged in the earthquake and stripped out ready to demolish. “We bought it as-is, where-is. It was uninsured and we couldn’t even live in it.
“The day we bought it, I sat down in a seat, looked around and thought, ‘Oh, no! Now I have to do it’.”
Calvin, who owns his own building company, and wife Lauren Keir wanted to open it at the rear to create light-filled living areas and a connection with the garden, making it the perfect home for their young family.
Undeterred by the size of the project and the home’s historic listed status, the pair called in architect Wulf Borrmeister of Borrmeister Architects to create a renovation that was sympathetic to the home’s history but freshened up for modern living.
Borrmeister says: “In 1985, the villa was listed with the Historic Places Trust with a Category B rating and in 1995 it was given a Group 3 listing with the Christchurch City Plan.”
The report from the time says it is one of a pair of “similar but non-identical brick villas built on adjacent sites to showcase the exemplary design and construction standards offered by the very first original owners — the Soanes brothers”.
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Advertise with NZME.The brothers, who were master builders and bricklayers, bought the site in 1899 and built two houses to showcase their professional skill. This home is a great example of the architecture of the time, a triple-brick return bay villa with plastered details and corrugated iron roof.
The existing 1899 villa had already been altered in the mid-2000s, but it was time to lovingly bring it into the present.
Having already done one villa renovation, Calvin says: “I liked the challenge of it — and it was a challenge! There was no insurance, nothing in place. But I loved the opportunity to develop out the back.”
Borrmeister says the idea of a ‘garden’ structure for the new alteration and additions grew from the owners’ love of the existing gardens, which have a view of a neighbouring park.
“The owners didn’t want to compete with the existing heritage architecture – instead complementing it with light, skeletal floating structures.”
The brief was to make minor internal alterations, refurbish the existing home and add a completely new section of the house.
This would be made up of a sitting room or “garden room”, laundry, guest toilet and storage room.
Calvin and Keir chose natural, durable, robust materials that would age gracefully without needing a lot of maintenance.
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A soaring extension of timber and concrete structures connects the garden to the house.
Timber fins, battens, a floating pergola and picture windows frame garden views and guide the eye outside.
The existing living area light well contrasts with rich dark timbers on the ceiling — changed from the original white.
The raw texture of the timber-faced concrete wall below is highlighted by a new light well in the garden room.
Borrmeister says the renovation has created a calming and natural environment.
Calvin and his family love their new home: “We’re still chipping away at the details but all in all, it’s basically finished. It’s a unique house, an amazing place to live and a great home for the kids to grow up.”
Renovating architect / Wulf Borrmeister of Borrmeister Architects
In association with Trends. For more photos of this house, see Trendsideas.com
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