ALISTAIR WATT ARCHITECTURAL LIMITED

Hi, I’m Alistair Watt from Alistair Watt Architectural. I’ve been designing residential dwellings for 31 years now, from Kerikeri down to Invercargill. I’ve been involved with Maddren Homes since 2012 and had a very good relationship with them working on residential projects, mainly through the Auckland area.

Q: The off-centre design of the house is quite unique and really eye-catching from the road. Was that design difficult to achieve? Did it create any challenges for you? It doesn’t look like it would be easy!

When I first started designing this everything was traditionally at 90 degrees. Of course that ends up being the same as everything else down the street, so I decided to put a little bit of a twist on it and see if that would work. What that twist did, it allowed me to cover the alfresco area and the front entry without too many columns and posts that are traditionally used covering those spaces. So there was a bit of an engineering challenge thinking it out, but I’m really happy that the twist has occurred.

The thing is once you start putting twists in, everything else gets twisted somewhere in the floor plan, so we had to think carefully about how that was going affect the various rooms and flow through the spaces.

Q: And did you have a particular focus on the use of space within the home?

Most definitely open plan. Because the sites themselves aren’t large you’ve got to have good flow inside and outside, and the pull-back corners that we have here on these rooms really allow that to happen. To keep that sense of space but it also allowed flow from the dining area through to the family room while not compromising room function or closing off spaces too much.

The fireplace acts as a divider between the spaces but also creates a focal impact as you come in the front door. Summer and winter the first thing you see when you come in the front door is the warmth of the fire, but that fire there will also allow the heat to go anywhere throughout the house, up the stairs and warm the upper level too.

Q: Was that fireplace challenging from an engineering perspective?

It was not easy! There are a few beams just above it. So yes, the engineers had some fun on this project. But all the beams are hidden in the floor. What we don’t want is a beam protruding down through the ceiling. It doesn’t look great, so we try to hide all of those and the engineers did a really good job on that, in conjunction with the Maddren QS team and myself.

Q: Is there anything else you wanted to add?

This is my first impressions of looking at it completed and I’m really impressed. The colours are great, there’s great expanses of windows so light’s going to flood in. We’ve gone for the extra stud height as well so it doesn’t feel pancaked when you have large spaces. It’s very functional and it will work so well for a modern family. We like the lounge being separate at the front. People can entertain there while others watch something in the family room, or have a party in the family room and others can still watch something in the lounge, so the house is going to work for everyone involved.