New Zealand pharmaceutical scientist and inventor Sir Ray Avery is selling his house in Mount Eden to move to Australia with his family.
Sir Ray calls his five-bedroom home at 17 Matipo Street, which is being auctioned on August 17, a cross between a museum and art gallery.
The entrepreneur, who is not averse to hitting headlines, is best-known for his work with the Fred Hollows Foundation providing life-changing cataract operations in Nepal and around the world, and, more recently, for his economical LifePod incubator for premature babies and as a judge for the James Dyson innovation awards. He was Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year 2010 and awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit Knight of the Grand Companion in 2011 for services to philanthropy.
“I’ve been working on the house for 40 years, it’s a blend of science and art,” he told OneRoof.
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Sir Ray Avery used the garage in his Mount Eden home as a laboratory to create products such as the LifePod baby incubator. Photo / Jason Oxenham
But during Covid when lockdowns prevented international travel, he and wife Anna realised the family needed to be in the same city as her “big fat Greek wedding family” as he affectionately calls them, so they are relocating to Sydney with their daughters, aged 13 and 11.
“I’m travelling all over the world, so my kids are blessed with our extended family. We've got a house in Sydney, but we might look for something overlooking the water.
“I’ll be sad to leave this, it’s a legacy of love,” he said.
Sir Ray said the home started as a typical brick and tile three-bedroom bungalow until he briefed international architect Jeff Bonner to transform it.
Two years in Kyoto inspired Sir Ray's love of Japanese design. He created the teahouse (far right) and barrowed the rocks into place. Photo / Supplied
“I wanted paradise, I’m an artist and I built a lot of it myself. I collaborated with Jeff, who does many luxury hotels, to make the building a piece of art itself.”
The addition of a garage and a new two-storey wing, added the 80sqm principal bedroom and 60sqm of offices.
That bedroom was based on the presidential suite from his favourite hotel in Kuala Lumpur, although Sir Ray jokes that since Anna came into his life 18 years ago, his beloved mini-bar has been transformed into a more practical sock drawer.
Sir Ray commandeers the kitchen for his food science, and loves cooking for his wife and daughters. Photo / Supplied
Not surprisingly for a man used to constant travel and 15-hour work days, Sir Ray’s house is a full-time incubator for his ideas: the double garage is a fully fitted-out laboratory, while the open-plan office upstairs houses up to six staff for his social enterprise Medicine Mondiale. A more conventional family could convert this to more bedrooms or family rooms, Sir Ray notes.
“To relax, I’d do artwork. I made a lot of the furniture, the sculptures. Before we did the build, I’d gutted the bungalow to a kind of art warehouse and neighbours would see flashes of the welding arc at all hours of the night,” he said.
Two years at a university in Kyoto inspired Sir Ray’s love of Japanese design, which permeates both house and garden. Over 20 years he transformed his yard into contemplative gardens of gravel and rock, carting and placing the rocks by hand and even fashioning the lanterns himself out of concrete. The backyard teahouse – now dedicated to sake, he laughed – was built without nails, as were the extensive decks.
The enormous principal bedroom suite was inspired by Sir Ray's favourite hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Photo / Supplied
Sir Ray and Bonner curated every detail of the house, starting with the exacting sequence of the front entrance to create a moment of pause between the outside and private worlds, carefully placing the windows to frame garden views, even specifying where the couch sits in relation to the television that is best for the eyes. His love of science extends to specifying lighting colours based on psychology, a security system that can be viewed from wherever he is in the world, and over-engineered steel underpinnings.
The kitchen is Sir Ray’s domain, a place where he can – of course – practice food science, as well as nurture Anna and the girls.
“That’s my act of love. My ‘customers’ seem to enjoy it,” he said, adding that he believes environment affects who you are.
“I’ve invested millions in the house, I wanted it to last a lifetime,” Sir Ray said.
The upper floor office for Sir Ray's enterprise can be converted to a more conventional bedroom or family room. Photo / Supplied
“Home is where the heart is, and I needed it to feel safe. People are getting a work of art, not just a house.”
Ray White agent Rick Mozessohn, who is selling the property with Chanelle Yu, said the property is “one of one”.
“You’re not buying bricks and mortar, every inch of this house has been fastidiously attended to by Sir Ray.”
He added that it was hard to quantify what price the property, which has a CV of $2.85 million, would go for.
“It’s an art project, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
