Contemporary meets classic in Remuera
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When George Niuhulu immigrated to New Zealand from Tonga at the age of 17, he was determined to do well here. But he found it hard at first to get to grips with the New Zealand way of doing things. “In Tonga, if you want to build a house you just built it. No council approvals, no resource consents,” he laughs. “It's very different here of course.” George certainly got to grips with the reality of running a business in New Zealand. The painting business that he and his wife Ana have built up employs up to 50 painters during peak periods and has won major commercial and residential contracts. When George and Ana decided that they needed a bigger home for themselves and their five children they didn't want to compromise on quality or on the location. “We wanted to be in Remuera or Epsom and we wanted about an acre of land,” says George. “That took us a very long time to find.” Finally, after much searching, George found an old derelict boarding house on a suitably big site and he purchased it at auction. Having finally bought the land, George was keen to get on with the building as quickly as possible. He approached his neighbour, Ron Bickley, a builder with a lot of experience in building quality houses at the top end of the market. “George was a great client,” says Ron. “His brief to me was simple - it had to be big and timeless. The family wanted seven bedrooms, heaps of garaging, a swimming pool and tennis court. I had built several homes designed by Simon Carnachan, so I recommended him to George.” Simon Carnachan has designed a home for the family that is right at home in this well-heeled neighbourhood which contains some of Auckland's finest early homes. At the same time there is a subtle Pacific Island influence which references the traditional architectural style of George and Ana's Tongan homeland. This is particularly evident in the upper story of the home which is clad in Linea® Weatherboards painted black. The Linea weatherboards work well with the cedar louvres, the wide shady eaves lined with HardieGroove™ Lining and the big rafters which extend out beyond the eaves, to create a relaxed island-colonial feel. “Two things were important to create a house that felt substantial and timeless,” says Ron. “Firstly, the design had to be right and secondly, we knew that making the right choice of building materials would be critical. We wanted materials that would be rock-solid with no weather-tightness issues and no maintenance hassles. Linea was ideal. It's a proven system, which is not going to leak and because it's so stable you get great paint life even when it's painted in a very dark colour like we've used here.” Read more articles related to this story: |
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