House with Santorini villa flavour
A landmark house on a hill restored over five years retains its ‘Athfield quirkiness’, writes Colleen Hawkes.
Houses designed by the late Sir Ian Athfield and his company continue to make an impact many decades after they were built.
This five-bedroom house for sale in Southgate, Wellington, has many of the signature features – it steps down the hill and comprises numerous linked volumes that give it a feel of a village. But a fiveyear makeover has also given this house the look of a Santorini villa, which was precisely what Athfield had intended back in 1980.
Owners Nick Rowney and Lorraine Rowlands bought the house in a rundown state seven years ago, but they knew it well. ‘‘We’d been aware of the house for many years and a friend ended up buying it, so we went to a couple of parties here,’’ says Rowney.
‘‘I remember one perfect day where the sun was blistering hot; everyone was partying on the deck, eating and drinking. And we were so taken by the view, we thought ‘this is something very special’.’’
But Rowney says the house did not look like a Santorini villa at that point. ‘‘When Ian designed it, he proposed a membrane-over-ply roof, but the builder put on terracotta tiles, so it went from Greece to Italy overnight. I don’t think it pleased Ian very much.’’
Rowney and Rowlands lived in the house as it was for a couple of years, then embarked on a major restoration that continued for five years. For two of those years, Rowney worked on the project fulltime.
So what’s changed? Pretty much everything, but not the essence of the architecture. ‘‘We really wanted to retain that whole Athfield quirkiness, but modernise it for the 20th century,’’ says Rowney. ‘‘We also didn’t want to skimp, so we chose to go high-end with a lot of travertine. But once we started into it, it became an endless opening up of a Pandora’s box, with one thing leading to another.’’
In a nutshell, the roofing was redone; the textural plaster on the exterior was removed, and the entire house was replastered in keeping with the Santorini look.
‘‘Previously, it looked like 80s Hotel California, with lots of trowel marks. We wanted a clean, white finish with straight edges, so we re-rendered the entire house and Rockcoted it.’’
The pair also replumbed the house to remove unsightly ducting and plumbing, relined the interior and had the house double glazed.
‘‘We’re on a hill on the south coast, and it’s not absolutely still every day,’’ says Rowney.
‘‘In fact, the weather became a huge challenge. We have changed all the joinery, which was a complex job.
‘‘The concrete block structure also meant we needed to do things differently to meet the current building code.’’
But finish they did, and the house now has a 2020 Wellington City Council Code of Compliance.
They now have a new project in mind – they have a property in Wairarapa where they are going to rebuild a house converted from an old 60s shearing shed.
The house is being marketed by Craig Lowe of Lowe & Co. Inquiries over $1.595 million are invited.