Situated in the leafy suburb this brief asked for a life of garden, family and food.

The homes plan centres around the utility of two big rooms, a big farm house kitchen and a working garden room all surrounded by greenery to give the senses a sophisticated feel of rambling country house. A long, double-ended upstairs hallway is in New Zealand’s colonial tradition and the house has a parlour, used as a study, off the front door.

Inspired by the symmetry and severity of the late 1960s Italian modernist buildings the buildings steel frame structure sets up a pattern in which windows alternate with panels of glass-reinforced concrete: it is industrial in a classical way.

We hoped for a piece of romantic countryside in a big city.