Manhattan via Matakana
Room of the week
In search of a bit of rural zen, an Auckland couple have built a loftstyle home on a Matakana hill.
When Cathy Gould and Roger Donald first set eyes on their property in Matakana, north of Auckland, it was nothing but a rough paddock high on a windswept hill. But it had big, empty skies and sweeping views of the Whangateau Harbour. Cathy had a vision for a house there with the essential feel of a barn. ‘‘A contemporary barn,’’ she clarifies.
She wanted no hint of the rustic or the country cottage about her new home. The result, designed with the help of good friend and architectural draughtsman Martin Harnish evokes a kind of Manhattan loft. It’s a feeling heightened by a series of dramatic sculptural light fittings, which, says Cathy, are really an extension of her and Roger’s collection of edgy artworks.
The enormous 16m x 8mliving area, which incorporates four spaces in one – hallway, living room, dining room and kitchen – is the epitome of Cathy’s vision and required much time and skill to achieve the finished look. ‘‘Tongue-and-groove bandsawn timber was hand-sanded to achieve the right degree of roughness, the rumbled villa bricks were ‘uncarefully’ laid to give an old, uneven finish,’’ says Cathy.
The floorboards were laid by CTC Flooring and were sanded to achieve an uneven finish that’s smooth to walk on, then stained. ‘‘The whole process took a month, but we have the most easy-care, beautiful floor I have ever walked on,’’ says Cathy. ‘‘The feel under bare feet is amazing.’’
The room also functions as a gallery space, featuring some of the hottest names on the New Zealand art scene. The couple’s extensive collection reflects such a strong sensibility you might think it had been selected by one person, but that’s not the case. ‘‘Roger and I just seem to get drawn towards the same things. That’s why we have so much fun with it.’’
Now at full capacity, there’s pressure to begin shuffling works around to create spaces for new works – an activity Cathy’s not very good at, given the time and effort she puts into creating a harmonious juxtaposition between objects. Is this perfectionism? ‘‘Totally! Probably to a fault,’’ she says with a laugh. ‘‘It’s my downfall. Especially spatially; everything has to be balanced.’’
What was your vision for this room?
A large, elegant space that would be versatile enough to cater for many different occasions, including family entertaining, dining, parties, events and tours. It needed to cater for both big, grand gatherings and small, intimate dinners.
What are the key features of the room?
The Raimond by Moooi light, from ECC, which hangs over the Spanish dining table, and is the main cohesive element for the whole room. Mark Whyman handcarved the stone mantel, which provides a focal point in the sitting area. The draped sofa is from Studio Italia.
What was a challenge you faced when working on this room?
Building the ceiling. Five 8m-long macrocarpa beams needed to be lifted by sky hooks to span the width of the room. I still don’t know how the builders did it. The rafters and sarking were then built from the inside out.
Were there any ‘‘musthaves’’ when designing this room?
We needed large walls to display our art and be able to enjoy it in a room of scale and size with a gallery/loft feel. I also wanted a corner of my own with a secret hidden TV.
If you had to save one piece of artwork, what would it be?
The lightbox by Anna Delany, my son Tom’s partner. I love the capturing of street life, of real life and moments of other people’s lives. I also love my other lightbox by Emma Bass. I have two arms so I could carry both!
Start picking miner’s lettuce
Miner’s lettuce is at its best this week – at least it is here in Southland where we’ve been enjoying the best spring on record: warm days, clear skies and occasional, light rain.
Miner’s lettuce, which grows in the gardens of those of us who love unusual salads that feature chickweed, French sorrel, broad bean tops, linden tree leaves and other crunchy treats, makes a delicious addition to the bowl.
Miner’s lettuce can be found growing wild in surprisingly hostile habitats, looking healthy and appealing despite the difficult conditions. My favourite wild crop of miner’s lettuce grows on the edge of a pine plantation among the deep carpet of pine needles and is ridiculously healthy, despite not being managed by humans; not fed or watered, weeded or in any way fussed over.
The vibrant green leaves taste lovely and there’s no end of them.
Something in that environment suits them perfectly. If you leave the harvesting of miner’s lettuce too long, the flowers form and while they can be nipped out, I believe the leaves taste much better before they flower.
Start a roof-top garden
Looking for a new gardening challenge? Try growing your own roof garden. I don’t mean for you to clothe your home’s corrugated iron with flowers and herbs; that requires engineers and consents from the council, but you could start small, as I have done, with a lesser roof. Mine’s protecting my cob oven from the rain and is the perfect size to trial a garden that’s up off the ground.
I’ve built my clay-oven cover from slates and added compost as a medium in which to grow the sorts of plants that can survive exposure to the elements with only a thin slice of soil to nourish them.
Thyme and stone crop do well in these conditions, as do sage and iris.
A French thatcher once told me that he plants the ridges of his roofs with irises and that encouraged me to try them myself, with great success.
Give roof-top gardening a go. It’s not at all difficult and quite romantic.
Keep your garlic plants well fed
By now, the garlic cloves you planted during the colder months of winter will be reaching for the sky, and they are very hungry plants. If you’ve grown them in compost, they will be looking spectacularly healthy now, but there’s no harm in adding to their vigour with a good feed of liquid manure. Harvest a watering can (or two) full from your liquid manure barrel – you do have a barrel of horse apple/donkey dung/seaweed soup, don’t you? – and then drench your garlic plants with it; don’t hold back, they can take it all, voracious feeders that they are.
Pick off rhubarb flowers
At this time of the year, rhubarb will try to do what many other perennials are doing: flowering in order to reproduce and spread their kind near and far. If you have a mind to grow rhubarb from seed, by all means leave these emerging spikes alone and they’ll flower and seed in the way nature intended, however, you’ll reap a lesser harvest of stalks as a result.
A good deal of the plant’s energy has to go into producing seed, and that has to come from somewhere.
Most gardeners multiply their rhubarb plants by dividing the crowns during winter and it’s an effective way to increase the crop. Growing rhubarb from seed requires a great deal of patience, but is worth doing at least once, just for the experience and the satisfaction.
Apply the hoe to your broad bean patch
Keeping your broad beans free from any kind of competition will greatly improve the harvest of this favoured crop – plus they look so good against all that weedless soil! Broad beans can be planted across several months, and those going in the ground now will grow quickly – at least with the conditions we are enjoying here in Southland. My broad beans were started in pottles in the tunnelhouse and are vigorous and healthy, and made the transition from indoors to outside successfully and without any growth being checked. – Robert Guyton