Trends New Zealand Trends Volume 31 No 13 New Zealand | Page 53

Out of the past
This comprehensive makeover has banished the dark and compartmentalised,
creating instead a modern spacious home with links to its heritage past
Terraced houses are famously long, narrow
spaces with small, dark rooms, poor ventilation,
and a general absence of natural light. The trick
is countering all these shortcomings while still
retaining a sense of the home’s historic past.
For this project, the owners asked architect
Richard Archer of Archer + Wright to reinvent
their historic, facade-protected terrace house as
a contemporary, light-filled entertainer’s home.
“The front facade was completely reinstated
with a closed-over upstairs balcony restored,
the downstairs railings, stonework and windows refinished, and it all given a more modern,

monochromatic colour scheme – a taste of the
transformed, contemporary interiors to come.”
Inside, the two-level house was completely
gutted with only the staircase retained. The clutter of internal walls and small rooms was swept
away and the ground floor bedrooms removed.
“In their place, we created a long, open-plan
space with rooms flowing one into the next.
Floating wide-plank engineered floors run the
length of this level, accentuating its openness.”
Much needed natural light was brought into
the interior in several ways – including via an
internal courtyard opposite the new kitchen.

Preceding pages and above left:
Black living room walls, stained oak
floors and mirror panels contrast
a generally white decor in this
dramatically reworked terrace house
by architecture firm Archer + Wright.
Facing page: The original facade was
completely restored, though with
more contemporary paint tones.
Plan: Long and narrow, the terrace
house was a challenge in terms of
light penetration and spacial flow.

search | save | share at trendsideas.com