1940s domestic planning does not always match contemporary 21st century lifestyles and, as such, the young-family who purchased this brick bungalow in Hamilton’s Claudelands area commissioned a complete reconfiguration of the internal spaces along with the addition of new living and study spaces.

The renovation provides the existing house with warm and modern amenity areas while maintaining the original character (including the intimate scale of interior spaces) and privileging existing materials, such as matai and rimu flooring. The addition, a distinct form built at the front of the original house, maintains a connection to the existing building through the scale, texture and colour of the vertical cedar cladding. A key move has been to welcome light into the new space through clerestory windows and wide sliding doors.