The spectacular coastal home built by Block winners Corban and Alex Walls before they were famous is back on the market.
The four-bedroom house, which the couple designed using reused shipping containers and sold for a reported $1.24 million, is perched on a hillside in Auckland’s rural west coast, and is set to be auctioned on May 5.
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Auckland designer Hannah Gordon and her partner picked up the 12,354sqm property at 71C Taiapa Valley Road, in Muriwai, in 2014, just as the Walls were moving onto their next project – The Block NZ.
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Gordon told OneRoof her family was won over by the house’s eco credentials when they bought it.
“We wanted a lighter footprint,” she said.
“The way the home was constructed from reused shipping containers to the self-sufficient elements of the home - the double glazing, the tiles that retain the heat from the day, and the water systems which collect water from the roof and into the tank which additionally irrigates the land – they were all a massive bonus,” she said.
Corban Walls spent three years building the house, working with his architect friend, Fraser Horton, with Alex adding the finishing interior design touches.
Gordon described the house, which includes an outside bath, as a “striking piece of architecture that engages the landscape in every way”, offering “grand and sweeping views over a Kauri forest, immense rolling hills and native bush”.
She noted that the design perfectly captured the Kiwi desire for indoor/outdoor living. “The home allows you to embrace that to the fullest. You know what’s happening throughout the day; you live with the environment around you,” she said.
The house comes with an outside bath. Photo / Michelle Hyslop
The listing agent for the property, Bayleys’ Simon Spiller, says: “This is not your ordinary contemporary home. This is a home for people who appreciate something different. It’s simple and streamlined, without being sterile. I haven’t experienced anything like it.”
Corban told the New Zealand Herald in 2014 that he dreamt up the concept of the home long before he found the land on which he built it.
He happened to mention to Horton that he liked Muriwai as a surfing spot and suggested: "I could get a couple of containers and build a house."
Alex Walls brought her interior design skills to the house. Photo / Michelle Hyslop
Corban and Horton constructed the house from six 12m-long High-Cube containers and shipped them from a warehouse in Silverdale to the section at 71c Taiapa Valley Road.
Shortly afterwards Corban met Alex and she used her skills with colour and fabrics to help with interior design. "It was a real joint effort," he told the Herald. "It was a lot of hard work, and pretty ambitious, but I couldn't be happier with the end result."
The couple had envisaged staying "forever and ever" in the house but sold up to be closer to family and work - and to take part in the third season of The Block, which they ended up winning.
The couple have recently finished building a new dream home in Auckland's North Shore. That house is equally ambitious in its design and utilizes sustainable building techniques and blends into the surrounding natural environment.
