Modern look, colourful history

18 VISTA CRES, GLENDOWIE

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SIZE: Land 1330sq m, house 435sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Larger properties in the area have sold for between $2million and $3 million. Auction February 19.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 11-11.40am.

ON THE WEB: uprealestate.co.nz/UPR13228

SCHOOL ZONES: Glendowie School, Glendowie College.

CONTACT: Alison Jackson-Mee, UP Realty, ph 021 410 101.

FEATURES: A Pip Cheshire/Malcolm Taylor- designed renovation. Superb Trish Bartleet garden.

You never forget your first child: months of preparation and speculation, the trauma of the birth, the beautiful reveal. For any architect, their first house project is pretty much the same. But Malcolm Taylor's first project - a remodel of a 1950s house which he carried with last year's NZ Institute of Architects' Gold Medal laureate, Pip Cheshire - turned out to be particularly memorable: it was for the parents of a cute young teacher he'd just met and was soon to marry.

Malcolm has overseen more stages of development on the house: a complete garden installation with landscape designer Trish Bartleet and a recent refurbishment of kitchen, bathrooms and decor. He remains excited about the house and his client, mother-in-law Brenda.

"Brenda has the courage, she's not afraid of colour. She's worked with Nanette Cameron and the Design Guild, so she completely got what we were doing with the whole post-modern, Memphis approach. Pip blew out the space, we detailed the bejesus out of it and Brenda went for the joyful colours," Malcolm recalls.

Malcolm's wife Tracey laughs that her dad's more modest brief was merely to get a decent garage he could drive into, as he couldn't get down the steep drive to a tiny 1950s space. That is now a deluxe ground floor workshop, sometimes used as a gym. While the architects delivered the requested smart double garage at the street level, it was the rest of the remodel that caused the excitement.

They connected a solid U-shaped brick and tile main floor with a double height, steel-framed structure that created a dramatic entry, and airy casual sitting room off the kitchen. The post-modern exterior paint, Japanese metallic tiles and a reflecting pool in the entry courtyard that continues into the lobby, suggests that this is a house way ahead of its time.

It was with the upper floor of the atrium that Malcolm had the most fun. Using industrial steel flooring, a material much-loved by post-modernists, he fashioned the staircase, a bridge walk to a teeny captain's nest balcony that hovers over the whole site. An open sitting room here is used as an exercise space, drawing sun from cleverly placed windows and lights.

Image 1 of 9: 18 Vista Cres, Glendowie. Photo / Ted Baghurst

For the most recent remodel, Brenda collaborated with Daniella Norling, of Trove Design. To Malcolm's new kitchen they added adventurous wallpapers and luxurious textiles, but retained the best of the 1989 paint effects.

The downstairs family room and bedrooms have dramatic wallpapers, mirrors and cabinets to suit their current uses - playrooms and media room for visiting grandchildren.

The couple have realised that they no longer need the space, so they are moving to a smaller apartment, freeing up their house of 36 years for the next adventurous family.