Down
the long
driveway,
you’ll see it
This is a book of pictures of modernist New Zealand homes.
These houses aren't new, they’re old and lived in. They can be a little dusty, slightly worn around the edges and all have what antique dealers like to call “patina”. But they’re perfect in the minds of the people who live in them because of what they represent, which when designed, was a better way of living.
Design
The International Office
336 pages
230mm x 300mm
Down the long driveway
Henderson House 1950 Ernst Plishke
Einhorn House 1950 Helmut Einhorn
Lang House 1953 Ernst Plischke
Sellars House 1954 Guy Sellars
McKenzie House 1958 Cedric Firth
Ballantyne House 1959 Warren & Mahoney
Manning House 1960 Jack Manning
Sutton House 1961 Tom Taylor
Alington House 1963 William Alington
Fletcher House 1964 Hall & Mackenzie
Orr-Walker House 1965 Mark Brown and Fairhead
Munro House 1968 Warren & Mahoney
Martin House 1971 John Scott
Wood House 1974 Ted Wood
Down the long driveway,
you'll see it
Photography, Mary Gaudin
Text, Matthew Arnold
Design, The International Office
Hardcover
336 pages
230mm x 300mm.
Helvetica Neue
ISBN 978-0-473-29961-3
65 NZD
Free shipping worldwide.
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The idea for the project wasn’t so much to document the houses in purely architectural terms, but to give an idea of the way these houses were and are lived in, as well as showing details of the designs and the materials used in their construction. The use of native timbers throughout these houses has given a unique feel to the interiors. In the Martin house, for example, John Scott used rimu for cupboard doors and matai, a wood which darkens with age, for the handles.
I also wanted to look at the way these houses fitted into their surroundings. All of the Wellington homes are connected to native bush, attracting tuis, fantails and bellbirds amongst other native birds. The owners of the Einhorn house, which backs onto the Karori bird sanctuary, sometimes see rare hihi feeding in their garden. The front of the Manning house is surrounded by an enormous pohutakawa tree which, from inside the house filters views out towards Auckland’s harbour bridge.
The title of the book comes from a phrase in an email from Bruce Martin giving directions to his home at Bridge Pā. Filled with a lifetime’s of pottery both from Bruce and Estelle’s work, together with gifts from potter friends, the Martin’s home highlights the particular mix of craftsmanship and design which is reminiscent of all the homes shown in this book.
Mary Gaudin is a New Zealand photographer living in Montpellier, France.
marygaudin.com