Bend & Stretch

Project Minor dwelling

Architect Pat de Pont, SGA

Location Mt Eden, Auckland

Brief Build a secondary dwelling for rental, no bigger than 65 square metres

- Claire Mccall

Sixty-five is a magic number. It brings certain freedom: the opportunity for reinvention and self-expression. And while some might wait for the age when NZ Super kicks in, others jump the gun. Sixty-five is still a magic number.

When Mt Eden residents Neil and Jill heard that the parameters of the Auckland Unitary Plan for their neighborhood included an as-of-right minor dwelling, they wondered if they could live well on a 65-square-meter footprint. The couple, now in their mid-fifties, moved to the suburb in 2011, to a house they called ‘The Tardis’: a 1920s bungalow with a monstrous basement and four double bedrooms.

“We loved the area, its proximity to town and Eden Park, and being near so much amenity,” says Neil. Although giving up work was not imminent, they wondered if building here could be the answer to an active retirement. They consulted a planning friend, stood on the elevated platform at the rear of the section and dared to dream.

When they spoke to Pat de Pont of Strachan Group Architects, he flipped the go switch. “He gave us a lot of comfort from the outset,” says Jill. She’s referring to de Pont’s calm-mannered, no-nonsense approach. But she could easily be talking about what he has massaged into the limited space. Faced with such spatial mastery, Neil put away his own preliminary sketches. “Pat came up with the opposite of a square box and looked at how to use light and natural energy,” says Jill.

A concrete path to one side of the original bungalow leads to a set of floating timber stairs at the entrance to the new home. Where once a few fruit trees dotted a lawn gone wild, there is now the ‘top’ house, a domestic world in miniature.