Mai Mai house: 'nest' perched above city became canvas for distinctive images

Once, quite magically in Freeman's Bay, a free light show played on a blank house and garage wall.

Where most people might see nothing much except a bare house surface presenting to the street, the architect who designed that house saw a blank canvas.

The empty, yet highly patterned, textured white surface was where Andrew Patterson's imagination came alive.

At night time, distinctively New Zealand images were projected on the Mai Mai house facade for all the neighbourhood to see: a pīwakawaka perched on a branch, close-ups of bright green and orange feathers, duck-hunters silhouetted against a dawn sky, a lone hunter in camouflage sitting among swamp grasses, close-ups of the tawny, wispy feathers on a kaitiaki cloak, that pīwakaka again but this time among pine tree branches and black and white images of a bird's nest in a tree.

Patterson told of the strange circumstances where it was possible to create such a show. It all dates back to tight urban living and the owners' need for a garage. They had a property across the street for car storage and that sparked the idea of bringing the facade to life when their new house was designed.

"There was a projector from a garage that came with the house over the other side of the road," Patterson explained. That allowed the images to be thrown across the road, with the projector protected from the elements, inside another building.

"We sourced the images and transitions, a slow-changing show of feathers in the land where birds were king. It ran pretty briefly, just after the Franklin Rd Christmas lighting tradition started."

Patterson doesn't feel sad the display no longer plays.

"The house will well outlive me and I am only in my 50s. You never know, during the next 100 years somebody might reinstate the lighting. It's the same with interior design - a building's furnishing changes over and over during the life of the structure."

A page of nine glossy full-colour images from the projector feature in a new book, Patterson: Houses of Aotearoa, published by Thames & Hudson.

"The home is situated in the city's restaurant precinct and at night its white carved feather facade is illuminated by projections telling the story of its occupants," a caption says.

Last decade, that property won an Institute of Architects award and made the shortlist for a World Architecture Festival award in Barcelona as one of the best 15 houses globally.

A few years ago, the architecturally significant house passed into a second pair of hands after interests associated with Auckland's wine-making Babich family bought it.

The design was originally commissioned by Roger and Sue Wall and one of its most visually striking elements is its textured street-front fibreglass facade and garage door,

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Patterson Associates said, of the original design concept: "This is a home for a couple. It reconciles two individual personalities, hunter and bird, and creates a singular sense of place. A feathery motif referencing traditional Māori feather cloaks is used on the exterior white fibreglass walls. Inside, a small footprint incorporates many spatial experiences, including wide city views, a leather-lined den and an interior courtyard."

Mai Mai is a term for the shelter used for hunting or bird watching, Patterson notes, yet this house and the glass-surrounded sitting room sits like a private perch to enjoy viewing the city.

The Herald reported businessman Roger Wall saying in 2012 that he was selling and property records show the home changed hands six years ago for a net sale price of $3.1m. Andre Babich said he didn't wish to discuss ownership details but that he appreciated the home's architecture.

The steep site is just 353sq m and the home's floor area 237sq m. Patterson designed stacker car parking, with one car above the other via an internal electric hoist.