One of Auckland’s most important modern houses, designed by legendary Kiwi architect Claude Megson, is on the market for only the second time in its life.
The three-bedroom house at 7 Keretene Place, in Meadowbank, was bought by architecture buffs Hayley and Mike in 2016 from the original owners, Pat and John Barr.
The pair have spent the last six years carefully upgrading the home, known as the Barr House, without damaging the original architecture.
NZ Sotheby’s International Realty agent Kim Goodhue, who is selling the house by negotiation, said the meticulous result was appreciated by fans of the architect.
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“People are obsessed with the architecture, obsessed with Claude Megson. In the years they’ve owned the house, Hayley and Mike estimate they’ve hosted some 400 groups of architects and students, some walking through for hours,” Goodhue said.
“They’ve really opened it up to the architectural market. Hayley lives and breathes this house, she’s been very passionate about maintaining it. It’s immaculate.”
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It is too early to gauge buyer interest for the property, she said, but she is expecting to be busy with architects and architecture-lovers at the open homes.
When they finally came to sell their home of over 40 years in 2016, the original owners John and Pat Barr, then in their 90s, could still remember every detail of their relationship with Megson.
They told the Herald that they’d carefully paid off the £5600 purchase of their land before embarking on the build, picking Megson on the recommendation of the dean of the architecture school.
“I told him I wanted more than a square box. He said one of our senior people has been doing interesting things, and introduced us to Claude,” John Barr said.
The next day Megson took the Barrs to check out a few of his projects in Titirangi.
“We didn’t like any of them and went home thinking, ‘gee, how are we going to get out of this?’ Then we thought ‘it was those people’s appearance we didn’t like’. We decided to go ahead and brought him to the section,” he recalled.
The current owners bought the post-modern house in 2016 for just under $2m. It now has a CV of $3.45m. Photo / Supplied
The house retains the original flavour of Claude Megson's design. Photo / Supplied
The Barrs said they were the ideal customers, as most people interfere with their architect’s vision. Their only specification was no timber or brick, which Megson duly ignored: the entire interior is lined with wide Western red cedar boards, the ceilings battened with fine mate, and the exterior is a mixture of cedar and brick.
The yellow lacquer accents and purple doors are original Megson colours, as are the murals on the louvres that separate the entrance from the living room. Pat needed Megson’s approval to update the dining room curtains (the originals are still there, Hayley said) and every cupboard and storage detail was designed by the architect with bedroom closets and dressers tucked into the quirky angles, still in their original colours and window seats tucked everywhere. Megson also picked out the furniture and crafted every nook and cranny, the Barrs said.
The build took some two years.
Hayley admits that the 40-year-old house needed work to bring it up to modern standards, so they have refurbished the two bathrooms and toilets, insulating walls and installing under-floor heating.
The kitchen layout – complete with its ahead-of-the times island – remains the same, but the new owners painstakingly lifted and re-laid original tiles and repainted the cupboard doors in the original bright colours. There are new appliances in the kitchen, new central heating and hot water, and the basement floor rumpus room was lined and carpeted to make a bedroom.
The house is set against a backdrop of native bush. Photo / Supplied
Although much of the fittings and appliances are new, the interiors are very much 1970s in look and feel. Photo / Supplied
Outside, the couple replaced the deck, added outbuildings and landscaping and re-laid the courtyard brickwork. New paintwork returned the exterior louvres to their original bright yellow and doors throughout the house have been revived.
“All the renovations have been done to refresh and replace rather than modernise,” Hayley said. “Nothing has been done to the house to undermine the original architecture.”
In signature Megson style, the complicated house is spread over multiple levels, based on a series of interlocking hexagons in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. The architect worked with the same builders and always made a point of setting out the pegs for the house himself, the Barrs said.
From the street, Megson’s brick walls frame the entrance as visitors are welcomed by a circular driving court. The double height front door lets into the lobby, and the architect’s clever working of space is revealed: you look down to the dining space, left to the double height formal living, up to the bedroom corridors. Stairs wrap around at odd angles, vertical louvres can be opened or closed to reveal glimpses of further spaces.
Megson became part of the Barr family gatherings (their boys were 11 and 13 when the family moved in). Family photos show a dapper man in his three-piece suit, crowds mill around the ahead-of-its time kitchen island. The kitchen window overlooks the pool and spa area (more hexagons and bricks), there is a breakfast nook and casual TV room next door. On all sides, full-height French doors open the house up to the garden and windows frame glimpses of bush. Megson tucked built-in seats into the formal living room next to the fireplace, another to lounge in the master bedroom.
True to their confidence in Megson, the Barrs did not change a thing in the house in the past 40-plus years, and the current owners, who consider themselves custodians, have been careful to leave the heritage house intact.
- 7 Keretene Place, Meadowbank, Auckland, is for by price by negotiation
