216 Centaurus Rd. Tony Athfield House. Ian Athfield.
Now heavily disguised as a shit house and hiding right under our noses is this very early Athfield design, sketched for his brother in 1963 whilst Ath was studying in Auckland. To see it today, painted yellow with a second storey and portico, causes acute intestinal gas.
The house is mentioned in Julia Gatley’s book Athfield Architects:
Concurrent with his university work, Athfield produced sketch designs from Auckland but did not have time to do anything more and Tony used the Canterbury Draughting & Design Service for the developed design and working drawings. Some changes were made to the initial design before construction started.
A separate studio (Tony is a musician and photographer) was designed by Ath and built out back in 1975.
August 8th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Hi
As a child I lived around the corner from this house on the other side of Huntsbury Hill in a Warren & Mahoney house (21 Parklands Drive). We often visited this house and I remember how much it looked like our house (brutal modern architecture). I also remember the hellish drive up to the house! I used to walk past your house everyday on the way to school.
We also visited with the owners of the other Ian Athfield house, just around the corner from Huntsbury Hill, on St Martins Road (on the bend). My best friend lived at the other end of St Martins Road in either a Beaven or Athfield designed house. It’s great to see this house, our old house and the Jones’ Athfield house in St Martins Road being restored and loved again.
Good on you. So many of these house have suffered in the quakes and many are gone for good. We absolutely have to save as many as we can.
Just thought that you might like to know that a kid who was in your house in the 70s remembers the place as it was, and is looking forward to seeing it restored
P.S. I now live in a Darren O’Neil of O’Neil Architecture house in Rolleston. When you have only known good design, it’s hard to go back! Good luck. Geri