Project ThirtyTwo
Project ThirtyTwo, prior to 2023, was a humble 100m2, two bedroom, one bathroom state house in Lower Hutt. The design for a complete overhaul had long been the pet project of our in-house Architectural Designer and Licensed building practitioner Sylvia Main. State houses have many good attributes but can also make for awkward renovations. On the one hand, they are generally built well, the first half of the twentieth century was a time of generally good building practices and robust, native timber building materials. Old state houses often have full matai or rimu t&g flooring as well, which looks stunning when restored. On the other hand, modern tastes in homes favour open plan layouts, whereas the old state homes can be rabbit warrens of internal walls. Rarely was sunlight considered when old homes were set out and often the best light falls on the wrong rooms. Finally, the concrete tile, horizontal weatherboard, timber window state home has a distinct look. We know and trust it. Random additions often look jarring. Walk down any given street in the Hutt Valley, and you’ll see many examples of the great kiwi DIY spirit bolted onto the side of old state houses – ranging from the fairly decent to the deeply questionable.
The easy option for an Architectural Designer given the remit of the existing house would be to demolish it and start from a blank slate. However, this was a family home, and also retained many of the best elements of the old state home – great timber floors, original rimu doors, a high ceiling and a sound structure. Sylvia and SGB therefore took on the difficult task of integrating extensions at the front and back into the existing design.
The original house would form the four bedrooms and two bathrooms, while a large extension at the back would be the open plan living/ dining/ kitchen area. A spacious double garage would be added to the front of the house. The existing home would therefore still be at the heart of the build, both literally and figuratively, with the bedrooms retaining the feel of the warm, native timbers. This in turn influenced the material choices for the extensions, even down to the final fittings. High quality timber would be used to create features, such as two cedar soffits, a cedar garage door, garapa decking, and a smoked oak kitchen. The centrepiece of the extension is the marble kitchen top. All other material choices therefore were to be crisp but understated. Polished concrete floors, white aluminium cladding and brass hardware were chosen to accentuate the carpentry work and the marble.
Light and space was to be an important consideration. Sylvia designed two almost four-meter-long skylight to cut sharply upwards in the centre of the house, spanning both the corridor and the shower of the master bedrooms ensuite. Natural light fills the house from the inside out, complimenting the open plan design.
Where Project ThirtyTwo really differs from the afore mentioned, bolt-on state house extension is the meticulous design and execution in the details. All of the aluminium window joinery is full height, meaning the lintels are inline with the roof structure. Structural beams had to be integrated around the perimeter of the Posi-strut roof-frame. Most houses have a hundred little details that jut out from the line of the buildings form, light switches, skirting boards, curtain rails and door-stops. People are so used to our rooms having these minor deviations we barely notice them – until they stand in a house like Project ThirtyTwo where everything is recessed and flush. All electrical switches are ‘Zetr’ and set back into the walls, as are the smoked oak skirting boards. The curtain sits in a recessed ceiling track, and the cavity sliders disappear into the walls entirely. The irony is that so much time and energy go into creating a living space that feels effortless.
Project ThirtyTwo is unquestionably the high-water mark in SGB Construction’s portfolio, and a level of detail we look forward to having the opportunity to repeat again in the future. It can be difficult to know where to start when planning a forever home and worrying to think you may be contracting a builder who does not share your passion or vision for the project. If you are thinking of designing and building a home that you want to be out of the ordinary, please reach out and get in touch.
You can follow the build of Project ThirtyTwo on Instagram @project__thirtytwo
https://www.instagram.com/project__thirtytwo/?hl=en
