TRY FOR A MINUTE TO RECALL THE
childhood sensation of climbing a tree: the shadows at the base giving way to light, the thrill of being so high, the bird’s-eye view of the world below. Pass through the dusky blue entryway and up, up, up the steep central staircase in the house Francine Smith and David Cunneen built, and you get a similar sense of floating on air.
This house is nothing short of spectacular: five beautifully crafted levels scaling a Titirangi hill. “Our architect, Hamish Stirrat of Fabricate Architecture, is young and passionate about design, so we gave him the artistic freedom to surprise us with it,” says Francine, who relocated to Auckland with David and their sons in 2012, after the 2011 earthquake changed life forever in their previous home of Christchurch. “We were working within council height restrictions and, as well as creating a great family home, wanted to step lightly on the earth. The end result works so well. There’s an overall connectedness about it where every corner is utilised.”
Clad in cedar that has been left to “silver off” and blend into the surrounding natives, and with American oak underfoot and angled birch ply ceilings overhead, the house is conceived as a series of distinct living areas (a summer room, a winter room and a kids’ •
lounge) linked by a 2m-wide hallway comprising 42 stairs that lead from the ground-floor entrance to the kitchen high above. “And they all work,” says Francine, “from sitting in front of the fire watching a movie with the kids, to us hanging out with friends upstairs, to the kids playing with their mates in their living area.” Each child’s bedroom is on a different floor, with the couple’s master suite separate again.
Arriving in the eye of a storm, homestyle watched from the open-plan kitchen/dining area as clouds rolled across the suburb below. Throughout the house, cleverly arranged windows draw the eye out to the Waitemata and Manukau harbours, through Cornwall Park and over the Bombay Hills.
“To help us finalise the orientation of the windows, we brought a chair into the shell of the house and sat in each room to gauge the best vantage points for the light and views,” says Francine, an interior designer who regularly joins forces with builder David on projects. They also paid close attention to privacy, requesting oversized windows on the plans, then downscaling them visually while sitting inside the home’s framework to ensure maximum seclusion from the neighbours.
It might appear sprawling, but in fact the rooms are modest, every inch serving a •
purpose. The décor is a mix of old and new, with a focus on the functionality that’s a hallmark of Francine’s style; she believes a home should be an expression of your best self and embody the Danish hygge ideal of human connection, warmth and pleasure. “We love Scandi, modernist and minimalist design, so our finds are a bit eclectic,” she says. “But combining ideas and looks is what makes a house a home.”
The material palette incorporates complementary textures and fittings throughout; the couple used natural materials wherever possible, including Hemptech curtains to soften the living areas, leather for the window seats and sound-absorbing cork in the kids’ lounge. All the glass includes argon gas to minimise heat loss and the concrete blocks on the entry level’s exterior also retain warmth.
The blown-glass pendant lights in the dining room were a previous purchase from Matisse and dictated the colour scheme. No one in the family needed convincing to make bold choices such as in the kitchen and on the front door, which is painted in soft pink Dulux Dunedin.
“The kids are interested in design and colour, so it’s something we encourage, and this experience has reiterated the importance of being true to what you want,” says Francine. •
“For years we’ve seen things we’ve liked, and we were able to bring it all to life in this house.”
At the very top of the ‘tree’ is a multi-level courtyard with a fire and barbecue area and the pool David made from the container used to transport the family’s possessions up from Christchurch. It’s been such a success, he’s keen to branch into making more. “I’d been tossing around the idea for a pool made from a shipping container for a while, before it became ‘cool’,” he says. “It’s cost-effective and a great upcycling idea that we made work by creating our own conversion and design process to create an awesome family pool that we can also take with us if we move.”
Having weathered the upheaval of the earthquake and a subsequent short-lived shift to the Gold Coast, the couple reason that home is not a thing but where the heart is. “If you’ve got your family, it doesn’t matter where you are,” says Francine.
That doesn’t stop them being rapt with their latest creation. “When we walk in the door, we feel at home,” says Francine. “We all have our own space, yet can easily gather together – the house accommodates everything. Dave has said it’s a gentle and relaxed house, and it is. It’s beautiful but not precious. It’s soft but with some hard edges, warm, unique and comfortable in its own skin.”