A waterfront home on Auckland’s southwest coast is looking for a new owner, preferably with an addiction to architecture.
The three-bedroom glass, steel and timber house for sale at 130G Wattle Bay Road is tucked away in the bush above Orua Bay, on the Awhitu Peninsula, and has quite the architectural provenance.
It was designed by Gordon Moller, the architect responsible for Auckland’s Sky Tower and built for the former head of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 2000. Its current owners, Bentley de Beyer and husband Dean Sharpe, describe themselves as "architecture addicts", collecting houses with a great architectural back story.
“My husband is a fantastic designer. He’s designed hotels all around the world and I’ve been following along for the ride,” said de Beyer, who originally hails from Sydney and has worked for multi-national companies through Asia and New York.
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“Being able to commission the best people to build the most beautiful houses, living in a beautiful environment and sharing them with others, that’s what we do.”
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When de Beyer and Sharpe bought the Orua Bay house 12 years ago, they were still world citizens, but as Sharpe hails from Thames, the couple wanted a New Zealand holiday home to share with family and friends and decompress from their hectic jobs.
However, they’ve recently acquired another architectural gem, a Mike O’Sullivan-designed house on a country spread in Karaka, and so have decided to sell their bach. (They have also commissioned Fearon Hay to design their permanent home on the Crown Terrace near Queenstown.)
“We've been overseas a long time, but we’ve always supported and built with great Kiwi architects,” de Beyer said.
“It’s our real passion and profession. We’re selling now reluctantly, but it’s the rational thing to do.”
The nearly 25 year-old-house has a guest suite beside the main house, used for extended family and friends. Photo / Supplied
Architect Gordon Moller's timeless design needed little more than "elevating" with furniture and decoration. Photo / Supplied
Orua Bay, about an hour out of Waiuku, is not on most international buyers’ search lists, but de Beyer said he was addicted to combing through property websites for architectural gems, wherever they may be.
“We had friends who had a farm out there and we went to visit them and said, ‘What is this special place?’ It was so unassuming, a little secret. We’re not the Omaha type of people.”
Along with their amazing house, the couple also found an unexpected community of creative neighbours, including architects and gallerists from Auckland.
“There are these amazing people who have prominent lives in Auckland but go and escape there. We just lucked out with our neighbours and our life.” He added that plenty of those neighbours are also fisherpeople, so they are well supplied with Manukau’s famous seafood.
De Beyer said the building’s glass walls, held up by steel beams, bring a sense of being connected with nature, like being in the prow of a ship.
“We try not to have too many devices out there, we try and keep it very simple. It’s the long cooking, the long lunches, the sleep-ins and walks on the beach.
The house was used by its overseas owners to wind down from their business international careers. Photo / Supplied
The kitchen is original Moller design. Photo / Supplied
Views across Orua Bay to the Manukau Harbour and far shores. Photo / Supplied
“It washes over you and you can be relaxed in an hour of being there. And the bird life is insane,” he said. The house is one of the few accessible via road at the bay as much of Orua Bay is reached across the sand at low tide.
De Beyer said that they did little to the house. Sharpe "elevated" it with furniture and finishes, and they worked on landscaping to integrate it with the bush on the 2815sqm site. Moller’s timeless architecture meant no structural changes were made.
He said that they are looking for between $2m and $3m for the place, and hoped to hand it over to the next curator who was as passionate about the house and area as they have been.
“It would be impossible to build that house again, the build costs today would be at least twice what we’re asking,” de Beyer said.
Barfoot & Thompson listing agent Stanley Armon has been a promoter of this little-known corner of Auckland since he moved there 15 years ago. “This house is absolutely iconic and unique, there is none better,” he said.
The property includes a half share of the adjacent road-front property shared with a neighbour for road access, he added.
- 130G Wattle Bay Road, Orua Bay, Franklin, is for sale by tender closing October 29
