Over 10,000 homes have been rebuilt in Christchurch since the earth roared under the city a decade ago. This is the tale of the architectural rebuild of a home in the heart of Fendalton.
Before February 2011, a charming brick and timber house with a slate roof and impeccable joinery sat on the same site. But the earthquake that devastated the city wasn’t kind to the 1920s beauty, and she never saw her 100th birthday. Instead, she was condemned for demolition, and her owners requested a managed rebuild from their insurers.
I was one of three architects recommended to the homeowners. They recall the process that led them to select me to design their rebuild.
We shortlisted three architects and gave each the same brief and budget to come up with an initial concept for our replacement house. Graeme’s submission was clearly superior and very much in line with our approach. He really listened to our vision for our home, took that onboard, and translated it into a design that appealed. We also liked him as a person. We felt we could relate to him. He was not only on our wavelength but also flexible when it came to accommodating our quirks and difficulties.
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After
The insurance company would only manage the rebuild if the new house was built on the same footprint as the old home. If homeowners wanted to build a different sized house, insurers paid them out and left the project in their hands, making the rebuild more complicated for them. The homeowners saw advantages in building on the same footprint. They explain, “The size and layout of the house worked well for us. We saw the rebuild as an opportunity to refine what we had, to make a more modern, comfortable version of our old home.”
One idiosyncrasy of this project was it had two budgets, and I managed both. I managed the budget for the rebuild directly with the insurers. The rebuild was funded on a like-for-like basis, but as we were replacing a 1920’s brick and timber house, elements of the new build weren’t direct replacements. It was my job to negotiate satisfactory substitutes with the homeowners and the insurers. At the same time, when the homeowners wished to upgrade any elements of their house, they paid for those changes themselves. I managed that budget as well.
The homeowners valued my budgeting skills, saying: “Graeme was good at working within budget, managing both budgets, and keeping us informed. I think he’d be great if you were working with a tight budget for your build.”
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My role as your architect is to make your building project manageable and enjoyable. I guide you through the process, help you manage decisions and anticipate risks. When I do my job right, the whole project flows smoothly. Building your house should be fun.
Our Fendalton homeowners remember how their project felt. “It's a daunting prospect to start a house from scratch. But we were also excited because we hadn’t been able to live in our house since the day of the earthquake. We had to move into a motel that same day, and we were in rented accommodation for four and a half years. So, we knew that we had to get on and build, because we needed to move into our home again.”
“Graeme certainly made our project easier. He's one of the most knowledgeable architects we know. We used to come away from meetings with him and comment on how experienced and wise he was, because he’d answer all our questions, and come up with other options.”
“The architectural design process took a while. Once we had the initial concept there were a lot of tweaks and Graeme was very open to this. We had regular meetings, and if we suggested something Graeme didn't think was a good idea, he would say it in such a kind way. There was a lot of give and take, and he was very good to work with.”
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It wasn’t possible or desirable from a geo-technical perspective to rebuild the original brick house. The homeowners said that they liked the idea of a plaster-clad house, but one that didn’t look like every other modern plaster house in New Zealand.
Plaster homes in Europe are built by rendering plaster over stone. This gives a pleasing sense of solidity and organic lines. Plaster-clad houses here in New Zealand are built with timber framing, and as a result they can feel flimsy and two dimensional.
By using plaster over 100mm thick polystyrene and adding gently sloping windowsills to showcase the depth of the walls, we added substance and character to the home. At the midfloor level we recessed the walls 40mm to give a defined band. We rendered the bottom floor of the house in a sandy tone as a memory of the brick, and the top floor in white is a visual reference to the old weather boards. The textural qualities of the plaster combined with the slate roof and copper spouting, give a timeless quality to the build.
Floor plan
I oversee your build to ensure you get the quality you deserve. The homeowners explain the value this added. “We were lucky that Graeme was not only the architect but also the project manager. He knew exactly what he wanted, and he had a high expectation that his standards would be met. He was quite firm about that.”
“Right at the very end of the build, Graeme went around and checked everything. He had a list with dozens of tiny little meticulous fixes, things we would never have noticed. It was a reflection of his personal commitment to the project. Certainly, we had the feeling that he had a vested interest in the project. It never felt like it was just another house that he’d designed.”
“Graeme was on site a lot, keeping an eye on progress. He had a good relationship with the foreman and the builders. He wasn’t there all the time, he knows when to keep away, but he was there when he needed to be. We recommend employing Graeme to manage your build as well as design your house. Certainly, he went above and beyond for us.”
Almost every building project has its challenges to overcome, and the Fendalton House was no exception. I do my best to plan for everything, but in complex projects with thousands of variables it’s inevitable that things will get sticky somewhere along the line. So, I focus on being a nimble problem solver.
The homeowners recall how their challenges were resolved. “Our house was a like-for-like rebuild and the dimensions of the house had to match our old home. However, the old house had been demolished before Graeme started to design and nobody knew what the height had been, so we had to estimate it based on photos. We counted the number of bricks and weatherboards and calculated the height of the house based on their width. We thought we’d got it right. But the peak in the roof turned out to be just above the regulation height.”
“Graeme had to solve that fast. In the end he simply reduced the pitch of the roof, and that gave us enough leeway. But at the time we were concerned, because it's quite a large house, and we didn't want the roof to look squat. However, Graeme reassured us that wouldn’t be the case, and he was right. We never noticed the change.”
Building a house can be a steep learning curve, so I asked the owners of the Fendalton House what advice they have for others preparing to design and build their home.
“It's really important that you have a good rapport with your architect. We’d never built a house before. We knew what we wanted in the broad sense, but Graeme came up with lots of things we would not have thought of. So, you definitely have to be prepared to listen.”
“Then your architect must be a good listener. And Graeme was. He really listened from the beginning. He didn’t force his opinions onto us. And if he did suggest something and we weren’t sure it was us, he wouldn't push it. He'd mention it, then move on.”
“Part of having a good rapport, is not feeling like you’re imposing on your architect. If you feel like you’d really like to ask your architect something, but you also feel as if you’re taking up their time, that's rather a shame. And we never had that feeling with Graeme.”
“Graeme recommended making decisions about accessories like taps early in the design process rather than waiting until the day your plumber is putting you on the spot, asking what you want. You have hundreds of decisions to make about fittings when you build a house, and it makes sense to cover that ground in a disciplined way well before your builders arrive.”
No matter how enjoyable the design and build phase is, the proof of my work comes when my clients get their keys and move into their newly built home.
The owners of the Fendalton House are happy living in their new home. “It's lived up to our expectations and the vision on Graeme’s drawing board. We can say with confidence, we don’t look at anything in our house and say, we wish we’d done it differently. That reflects the care we took with Graeme over the whole exercise. The whole process was unhurried. It's been golden. We can’t recommend Graeme enough. As an architect and a project manager, and everything that goes with that, he's simply great.”
“It’s also lovely having a warm home. Our previous house was a beautiful old home, but it was cold. Whereas in our new home with the double glazing, the insulation, and the underfloor heating, the warmth is one of the lovelier things about it. We moved back in July, so it was the middle of winter. The builders turned the heating on so that the day we moved in it was warm. We just couldn't believe how pleasant it was moving around from room to room.”
As you leave the Fendalton House, you pass a model the homeowners had made of their old house. The 1920s beauty sits in miniature under glass, on a wooden table built from her own rimu floorboards. She looks at home there.
