CITY APARTMENT THAT’S ALL ABOUT THE GARDEN
A massive apartment balcony has been transformed by a high-tech green wall that merges with the view of leafy Auckland streets
Lush and green aren’t words often used to describe Auckland’s inner city. But when you’re gazing out from the deck of Nicola and Peter Jeffares’ apartment, they’re exactly what comes to mind. “If you sit here [in the apartment’s kitchen] and look out that way, it’s like you’re in a forest,” Peter says.
It’s a leafy illusion created by the living wall that wraps right around the couple’s 130sqm deck and merges into the views of the mature treetops of some of Auckland’s most well known green spaces – Victoria and Western Parks, Ponsonby’s Franklin Road and Freemans Bay’s Howe Street.
The sea of green is a result of the Jeffares’ wish to still have a special outdoor space after they sold their family home, which backed onto Cornwall Park, and relocated to the inner city.
The couple weren’t downsizing… they were side-stepping. Both avid travellers, Nicola and Peter wanted a lock-up-and-leave lifestyle. “We’re doing our OE at this end of our life as we didn’t do it at the beginning,” Nicola says. The pair are just back from two weeks in India, and have booked another six trips this year.
With world travel and a change of lifestyle in mind, Peter and Nicola were instantly interested when they heard in 2016 that the old Telecom building was being converted to apartments. >
Located on the corner of Auckland’s gritty Karangahape Road and Hereford Street, and close to Ponsonby’s cafes and shops, it offered the ideal city location. The couple snapped up three of the apartments and, as the conversion was still in the planning stages, were able to reconfigure the 400sqm to suit.
The balcony space was a huge bonus, leaving them with an outdoor area similar in size to their previous garden.
But what to do with it? “During the build we spotted another garden and knew we didn’t want that – a large deck with a scattering of pots,” Peter says.
Nicola has always loved green walls, so asked Mark Read, principal designer at Natural Habitats, for ideas. He suggested capitalising on their 180-degree view by creating a green wall that works as an “infinity edge”, borrowing the view of Auckland’s inner-city trees.
Designed at just the right height to blend into the treescape beyond, it’s planted with only four varieties, judged hardy enough to withstand the conditions on the balcony and fed and watered regularly via a high-tech system woven into the wall.
At one end, three rolling planters filled with birds of paradise separate a floating deck with a water feature, Peter’s one must-have. “I grew up in a house with a tin roof and hearing the sound of rain was soothing,” he says. “The brief was to make it as noisy as possible, to hear it over the city noise.”
Inspired by the Grand Park fountain in Los Angeles, Natural Habitats asked a sculptor to design a miniature version, with water splashing onto rocks on its lower level. While Nicola and Peter were away they turned off the water feature, and on their return a neighbour called from above: “I really missed that fountain.” That was a relief for Nicola. “We have it running for nearly 12 hours a day and the whole idea is we hear it at night when we go to sleep, so obviously they were enjoying it as well,” she says.
The couple also enjoy their outdoor room, which includes a barbecue, fireplace and television – where Peter enjoys watching sport and visitors gather most weekends
Nearly a year after moving into their apartment, the Jeffares say city living suits them more than they imagined. “Once a week we head out the front door, walk off and see where the city takes us,” says Nicola, who loves the easy-care nature of their new home.
“Our daughter was incredulous when we told her we were going to sell our Cornwall Park house. She’d always imagined she’d get married there,” Nicola says. “She was sitting here yesterday and said, ‘I thought I’d never forgive you for selling the family home, but this is pretty good.’”