Step Into The Light

Four mid-century enthusiasts resurrect an original design by Allan Mitchener.

- Jo Bates

In a cul-de-sac in Ilam, Christchurch, there’s a pocket of six architecturally designed mid-century homes. This unique window into the city’s design style of the time is the result of a 1960s development by Fletcher Construction. Carved from former farmland, the intention was to create a premium subdivision with covenants – the proviso being that the houses would be architecturally designed. But the property market hit a rough patch, the land parcels didn’t sell well and Fletcher’s Utopian mid-century architectural dream was never fully realised. However, the intent did birth a concentration of homes by leading architects, with neighbouring houses and flats by Minson, HenningHansen & Dines, Warren & Mahoney, Don Cowey and Hall & Mackenzie.

And it did give the Messervy family an architecturally designed home, which they may not have otherwise opted for. One that has been preserved thanks to the dedication of Matt and Kate Arnold and its current custodians Prue Johnstone and Nick Cowdy.

The Arnolds had long admired the ‘Messervy’ house before buying it. Kate has family who live directly across the road and, over time, she and Mattbefriended the owner Biddy (Elizabeth) Messervy, who shared the original plans and drawings with them over cups of tea. Biddy had raised her daughters there and was in her eighties when she sold the house to the Arnolds.