Westmere House - Auckland, New Zealand

With the extension and renovation of a 1940s brick bungalow in Westmere, Jon Smith and the team at Matter Architects have created a low-maintenance, light-filled and spacious home for a family of five.

The original home included a 2009 addition of a garage with bedroom above, which had the appearance of being tacked on without much thought. The homeowners, with three young daughters, wanted a cohesive and modern look with more space and better connections with the pool and garden.

To achieve this without losing any of the garden, the architectural team looked upwards rather than out. They removed the roofs of the two structures and created a new roof enveloping both. This leads to the house having another level and also works to flood the lower levels in natural daylight, which enters through skylights and double height voids.

The resulting home fronts the street at three levels with the exterior clad in Abodo Vulcan Cladding in a deep black (Nero finish), creating a contemporary aesthetic that is strikingly juxtaposed against its more traditionally styled neighbours. Abodo Vulcan Screening adds to the clean lines of the home while also ensuring privacy.

The choice to use Abodo timber lowers the need for maintenance on the cladding, difficult on a building of this height. Abodo timbers undergo a thermal modification process that increases the durability and stability of the products. This is especially important for exterior claddings, which can be subject to many different kinds of weather events and climates throughout New Zealand.