Age Of Enlightenment

Sixteen years on, Daniel Marshall reworks an early design with a fresh new perspective.

- Simon Farrell-Green

In some ways, 2003 doesn’t seem like such a long time ago – until you count all the things that have changed. Sixteen years ago, the world was still reeling from the aftermath of September 11 and George W Bush’s subsequent invasion of Iraq; Helen Clark was New Zealand’s prime minister. Finding Nemo was released at the box office and the best-selling cellphone was the Nokia 3200. The October/November cover of New Zealand Home & Entertaining – the predecessor to HOME – meanwhile, featured a crisp, urbane house in Remuera, Auckland, by a young architect called Daniel Marshall.

At a time when the fashion of Auckland’s eastern suburbs ran to French country or faux-Mediterranean – and the leafy street this home sits on has plenty of that – the house, designed for former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick and his family, was something of a departure. Accessed down a long right-of-way, the recently subdivided site was sloping and north facing, with some beautiful established trees and a fabulous view over Hobson Bay and out over the harbour to Rangitoto. “It was extraordinary,” recalls Marshall. “It was just a paddock, a farm with fence posts and grass in the middle of Remuera.”

Marshall’s response to the site was driven by concrete, which came to define many of his houses in the intervening years. The home featured tilt-slab concrete walls and lots of glass, arranged in an L around a sheltered outdoor living area and pool. About the time he designed the house, Marshall spent some time in Bali, and while the materials are different, you can see the influence of the Bali villa. “I loved the landscape quality of how they do houses – villas around courtyards, and the relationship with the ground,” he says.