TIMELESS, SEAMLESS
A kitchen in an architect’s heritage apartment is opened up with crisp simplicity and generous storage.
Did the heritage listing complicate the project? Alterations required consent from Heritage New Zealand – a relatively painless process and a necessary one to ensure our built history isn’t destroyed. How did you make the renovation sympathetic? By reducing visual clutter and trying not to compete with everything around it. With limited space and an established architectural language, we designed the kitchen to be as seamless as possible, integrating appliances and incorporating complementary elements of brass and timber already in the apartment. Why choose Corian for the benchtop? For seamlessness – we could match cabinetry fronts and powder-coated handles, and keep the benchtop slim so as not to dominate. It can also be site-welded to ensure an uninterrupted surface and it’s easily restored if scratched or dented over time. You’ve wrapped the cupboards? Yes, there’s a resonance between them and the benchtop. It’s also a tidy way to mask cabinetry ends, which are visible from the living room, and a LED strip was recessed into the Corian against the wall. How did you maximise the small space? Believe it or not, we now have at least twice the amount of storage with the 2.8-metre ceiling height and cabinetry along one wall. Maximising bench space was a priority and by putting all the larger elements in this area we were able to free up the rest of the kitchen. We also worked with an excellent cabinetmaker – Lindon Harris from Johannes Erren – to ensure we maximised every bit of available space.