| 89 T T Virginia Wright Design with a capital D Four Walls Architecture designed the refit for an apartment in Herne Bay which was first stripped out from top to bottom and side to side. Four Walls Architecture ARCHITECTURE Based in their office on Jervois Road in central Auckland, architects Amy Hendry and Claire Paterson specialise in new houses, large renovations and multi-residential development as well as interiors. Amy set up the practice 15 years ago and was joined in 2011 by Claire who’d been a good friend since they both studied architecture at Victoria University in the early 2000’s. Together with their two staff their ethos with all their projects is delivering a truly beautiful bespoke solution to a client’s brief says Amy. “And that will be so different in every single project. We don’t like to follow trends. We want each project to be designed specifically for the client and their site, or for the house that they’re renovating, in response to how they live and how they see themselves being in that space, as opposed to any of our taste or current fashion.” The feedback they’ve had from clients and from awards they’ve won celebrates the sense of calmness that they achieve in the spaces they’ve designed, although Amy is clear that it’s not something they’re consciously thinking of when they’re working but comes through from the way they use lines and forms and the geometry of the spaces they create. “Our job is to come up with design options to achieve what our clients want which may be a design approach they’ve never thought of. We think very carefully and very clearly and put a huge amount into our designs and then pare back every single project to find its essence which always seems to be communicated in the end result.” A look at one of their recent projects makes it easier for non-professionals to understand what this means in real terms. Four Walls Architecture designed the refit for an apartment in Herne Bay which was first stripped out from top to bottom and side to side. The clients were clear about what they wanted but left it up to the architects as to how to achieve it. They were looking for spaces which flowed and sophistication without following fashion, they wanted warm tones whereas the last 10 years has trended to cool tones. “So no grey,” says Amy with a laugh. “We tried really hard to find the perfect timber finish, we used natural stone with beautiful warm cream and beige tones, brass highlights which added more warmth, and very careful detailing to add luxury and finesse to the scheme.” They left nothing to chance taking care to match the tones in their cabinetry and paneling with the calm rich tones in the engineered oak flooring. “We worked really hard with our suppliers to get that match. We had about 10 different samples we kept going with until we found the best one and we chose the cut of the timber being used for the veneer on the cabinetry too, going with quarter cut rather than crown cut to get the grain that we wanted,” says Amy. The attention to detail as they create beautiful forms is characteristic of Four Walls Architecture whatever the project, and their work on multi-residential developments is no exception. Aware that many such developments leave a lot to be desired their focus is on how to do it well. “How can we do terraced houses that we would want to live in rather than focusing on the price point of what people can afford. I really enjoy meeting that challenge of designing something that will make a positive addition to the streetscape,” says Amy. As with all their work Amy believes that sticking to design fundamentals such as clean lines, strong forms, a reduced palate of materials and “Design with a capital D”, gives exactly those results. Add in careful attention paid to taking advantage of what the site offers in the way of sunshine and space, and Four Walls Architecture’s multi-residential developments look set to achieve their goal of adding to their neighbourhood’s appeal. Matt Munro 021 973 041 Josh Dickson 021 025 70808 Info@steadfastconstruction.co.nz
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