94 | ARCHITECTURE Matt Brew Architect Beach house that blurs boundaries Virginia Wright to page 96 Established in the early 2000’s Matt Brew describes his architectural practice as being design focused, with a site based contextual design philosophy and working mainly on residential, light commercial and interior projects. Having successfully built up the practice of five in Auckland, Matt and his family moved to Australia for a change of scene in 2011, working between the two countries and commuting back to New Zealand on a regular basis. Six years later they returned, in time for his daughter Tallulah to start secondary school. He set up office again in Auckland, with an additional studio in the Far North, where he does a lot of his concept design work overlooking the Hokianga Harbour. Since returning, Matt’s business methodology has been to manage the number of projects coming into the office, keeping the practice at a scale where he can continue to do most of the design work and site supervision himself, rather than getting bogged down in the administration of a larger organization. Being backed up by a skilled team of documentation specialists and preferred consultants, the practice is still able to take on projects of any size and complexity when they present themselves. The Eastern Beach House is a case in point, named after the beach on Auckland’s east coast where it was built with views across the harbour towards Waiheke, it has been shortlisted for this year’s NZIA (New Zealand Institute of Architecture) Single Residential Awards. At the time when the project was started, Eastern Beach was relatively underdeveloped. And while there was plenty of room on the double section, Matt was conscious of not designing a behemoth of a building and the need to be sensitive to the site. In line with the client’s wish to take maximum advantage of the sea views, they located the house transversely across the site to face the view to the harbour and also create a large private garden and orchard at the back of the site. 021 803 604 neale@terrainlandscapes.co.nz www.terrainlandscapes.co.nz At Phoenix we design, manufacture, install and service a full range of bespoke lifts. We are an experienced team providing New Zealand and the Pacific Islands with a tradition of excellence in installation and maintenance of all lifts. COMMERCIAL • DOMESTIC • DISABLED EQUIPMENT | www.phoenixelevators.co.nz | 0800 823 030 | info@phoenixelevators.co.nz
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