Christchurch Modern

Thank you, Maurice Edward Mahoney.

admin — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 22:28:42 +0000

Bad news. Sad news. The great architect Maurice Mahoney has died in his 90th year. When Maurice teamed up with Miles Warren in 1958 to establish New Zealand’s greatest 20th century design partnership, the two architects were unstoppable. They revolutionised architecture in New Zealand, developing the distinctive ‘Christchurch Style’ which, let’s face it, was the Warren & Mahoney style.

The pair were hugely influential, much imitated and, when all is said and done, unambiguously the best modern architects New Zealand has produced.

Maurice was known for his quiet, calm, determined demeanour, exceptional drawing ability, his Citroen DS, attention to detail, unfailing modesty and Shenandoah beard (not pictured). He was a family man, ceramicist, carpenter, designer and Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM). But above all he was an architect, responsible for producing many of New Zealand’s best 20th century buildings – a fact he would politely deflect, shrug his shoulders and change the subject.

Our sympathies to the Mahoney family, Maurice’s colleagues and to his friend, Sir Miles, who says in his autobiography, “Maurice was much better organised and practical than I – a born maker. I initiated most of the early designs, but Maurice led the making of them; the one process cannot be divided from the other. We were a true partnership.”

Top image
Left: F. Miles Warren; Right: M E Mahoney

M E Mahoney House plans 1966

68 Merrin St. Macaulay House. Don Cowey

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 02:12:18 +0000

A low-pitched survivor built in ’69 from Canadian Oregon and trusty concrete blocks in the modern ranch style. The interior is a masterclass in spatial arrangement with Don using partial-height walls, glass partitions and his trademark sliding shoji screens.

Thanks to Melissa for the tip.

127 Major Hornibrook Rd. Cowey House / O’Neill House

admin — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 08:17:38 +0000

Don Cowey designed this Mt Pleasant house for his mum in 1953, He was straight out of architecture school, aged 25, and built it together with his mates Allan Mitchener and Allan Wild. Sixty years later it was sadly demolished due to earthquake damage and lovingly reimagined by Bridget and Duval O’Neill.

Here’s the story from Duval, it’s a good one:

Despite the obvious deterioration, and a series of alterations that the house had been subjected to, there was something about this house and the site that just felt right. Having moved from living on the hills in Wellington, we also liked the elevation and views. Discovering the house had been designed by Don was a bonus, and led us to becoming friends with him and his wife Jocelyn.

The house faired reasonably well in the February earthquake, a true testament to Don, however it was deemed uneconomic to repair.

Sadly, the earthquake was to claim Don’s life. When the earthquake struck, Don was in the back garden of his recently completed Redcliffs home, picking raspberries for his beloved wife Jocelyn.

Don had designed the original house around 1953 when he was only 25. He and a friend also built it, as you did back then. Don was proud of his design and explained to us the way he wanted to unveil the views as you walked through the house. He positioned it to preserve those views. He also created a private rear garden that was accessed by a small stone bridge that his father built. As the years passed, both house and garden evolved to suit the changing needs of the various occupants.

I don’t know how many alteration concepts we created, dating back to when we first bought the house in 2005. Some were dream-schemes and there was always the ongoing struggle as an architect to formulate a final solution. The earthquakes added a further dimension to this, and of course another level of constraint was working with the insurer. Once we had the decision to rebuild, the design strategy was largely an initiative in maintaining the essence of the original Don Cowey design, while taking the opportunity to adapt it to more modern living, whatever that has come to mean. We didn’t want a big house, despite having a pretty constant flow of family visiting us. Excluding the enclosure of the carport as a garage, we added just 36 metres over two levels.

In many ways this project was an alteration, the restriction being the original house, the opportunity being the unique solutions that arose from working within those restraints. I think Don would have approved, he was after all a modernist architect, a very generous man, he would have embraced it.

Thanks to HMOA for the tip and Russel Kleyn for the new pics.

15a Garden Rd. Peter Beaven.

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 10:34:42 +0000

Oh dear. This abandoned, sad-looking orphan was once a striking, modern home with a mix of vertical and horizontal timber weatherboards and a great big Oamaru stone fireplace at its heart. C’mon, look into those big, pleading eyes (or windows) and say it’s not worth saving!?

299 Lake Terrace Rd. Peter Beaven.

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:07:31 +0000

Interesting. An early Peter Beaven design -prior to his Scandinavian phase and long before his jaunty ‘gothic’ modernism – uncharacteristically riffing off the international style with a flat roof and living room wall of glass. Sweet, original condition too.

31 Newbridge Pl. Messervy House. Allan Mitchener.

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 07:12:03 +0000

This house is FOR RENT. Just saying. It sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, in a pocket of what must be the city’s highest concentration of homes in the Christchurch Style, yet Mitchener’s 1964 design stands apart as a great example of the breed and one of Christchurch’s best small houses of the time.

London N6. Tile Kiln Studios. Peter Beaven.

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 07:48:50 +0000

Peter Beaven was never conventional: in 1975, aged 50, he disbanded his successful Christchurch practice, packed a suitcase and moved to London where he worked alone from a bedsit. During that time he designed these six houses in the Christchurch Style, evolving ideas he developed a decade earlier in Christchurch’s Tonbridge Mews and Wellington’s Habitat Housing. Bravo.

Tile Kiln Studios was featured in the Cement & Concrete Association’s magazine in 1982. It wrote:

“One of the points that the New Zealand architect Peter Beaven has made so well in this group of studio houses in Highgate is how effectively white-painted blockwork can achieve a sharp and satisfying clarity of modelling. The white blockwork, repeated inside and out, is built up into a series of intersecting vertical planes capped by gables and variously pitched roofs… The effect – appropriate enough for studio houses – approaches an abstract composition of black and white sculpture. This is obviously a technique that the architect fully understands: he has used it before in New Zealand, notably in the Chateau Commodore Hotel and the 1974 Commonwealth Games Stadia, both in Christchurch. It is an attractive architectural medium and one that fits many contexts in Britain.

“There are, of course, other interesting ideas behind this housing as well. It is… a co-operative venture built by six people who bought the plots in the approved scheme and worked on the finishing themselves. Not the least interesting aspect is the architect himself. Peter Beaven is an individualist with a sense of humour and perspective. He must be, otherwise how could he have made the break with his own country New Zealand, where he was one of the best-known architects in South Island, together with Miles Warren with whom he was a student. This housing scheme in Highgate… would seem to be a reflection of a strongly held personal ideology, rather than of conformity to any fashionable mainstream of architectural thought. The simplicity and clarity of form displayed in these studio houses no doubt reflects to some extent the architect’s preferred lifestyle. The gables, variously pitched roofs and strong vertical rhythms are very much in the grain of local domestic building, although the site is in fact one of those where no special architectural character was dictated.”

60 Panorama Rd. Flint House. Ernest Kalnins.

admin — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 04:37:48 +0000

Ernest Kalnins is a man for whom we have scant information. He was an Austrian designer, artist and (non-registered) architect who designed this family home on upper Clifton Hill for Dulcie and Tom Flint, owners of a large Stationery shop on Manchester Street. In the 60s, the top of Clifton Hill was a sparsely populated, almost agricultural, bohemian suburb with some of the best views in Christchurch.

Photographs by Brian Swale.

The house was recently redesigned by HMA and features in Jeremy Hansen’s essential Modern book.

Paul Litterick mentions it in the in the New Zealand Listener

The Clifton Hill House in Sumner, designed by Ernest Kalnins in 1965, has been given a fashionable stone garage and a stockade fence. It stands as a commentary on our times: the original house is open and full of light, welcoming and looking out to sea; the external additions on the landward side are like a fortress. Ours is a more frightened society than theirs.

Conway Flats. Wilding Farmhouse. R D Harman.

admin — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 10:20:33 +0000

Huh? A 1937 reinforced concrete farmhouse with clear Corbusian and Bauhaus influences, hidden on the coast south of Kaikora? The Wilding property, now an Angus beef farmstead called Te Mania, was built by some pretty hip graziers.

Thanks to Tim for the tip. Old pic by Peter Sheppard

Not sure about the design architect as Richard Harman died in 1927.

45 Chepstow Ave. Willis House. Gavin Willis.

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 08:04:48 +0000

Gavin Francis Willis is an architect still active in Christchurch. He designed this beautiful house for himself back in the 60s and still lives here (and who can blame him). It’s a crisp, modernist Scandinavian-style family home, clearly much-loved and an excellent, intact expression of the Christchurch Style. The design owes a lot to Miles Warren and Holger Henning Hansen, but if you’re going to steal, you may as well steal from the best.