Andrew Patterson, Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand, 1991
239. Andrew
Patterson /// Summer Street House /// Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand /// 1991 OfHouses guest curated by Matheson
Whiteley: “The house is located behind the service yards of shops fronting Ponsonby Road
(Auckland’s heavily gentrified Rive-Gauche), but the street as a whole is
characterized by sought after turn of the 20th Century wooden villas. The
battered sheet iron cladding felt unremittingly tough in 1993; a fortified
chapter house for the local biker gang. Now the house is easily overlooked
behind planting: the single sign of occupation is a 24-hour tow away notice
riveted to the wall. Suburbia has reclaimed an architectural miscreant. This
outer toughness always belied an interior courtyard straight out of a lifestyle
supplement: swimming pool, peach quarry tiles and stretched awnings. A recent
refurbishment updates the look, and ramps up the chintz.” (Text: Giles Reid. Photos: © Patterson Associates.)
