When interior designer Alex McLeod of at.space was thinking about the direction the interiors of a mid century inspired home for her family in Auckland’s Mount Eden would take, she kept returning to thoughts of her grandparent’s residence. “I held very dear memories of their home,” she recalls. “And I wanted to create something similar that our kids would have a similar feeling about. I wanted to capture the mood of their house but in a contemporary way.”
Materiality was always going to be a defining feature of a mid century inspired home that was looking back while being firmly grounded in the present. Cedar panelling and stone form the backbone of the material palette, working together both internally and externally to create a cohesive whole. McLeod applied Eco Outdoor’s Luca Crazy Paving for the flooring throughout. “We chose the Luca because it is such a wonderful material to use from the inside to the outside,” she says. “It also has a lovely warmth and tactility.”
The textural nature of the flooring is echoed in Eco Outdoor’s palely elegant Pendell Batons, which were used for internal walling in a mid century inspired home. Light streaming into the home through large-scale glass highlights the limestone’s imperfect texture. “The batons are such a beautiful contrast to the Luca Crazy Paving,” says the designer. “They feel a little more structured and we used them in a dry-stack application to keep the look quite modular.” Eco Outdoor stone also appears in the bathrooms in the form of terrazzo-look Novara Technifirma, which “includes all the colours of the rest of the material palette.”
Both stone and timber help to ground a mid century inspired home in its locale, a suburb with an abundance of mature trees and views of Maungawhau, Auckland’s tallest mountain. Embracing those views was a priority for McLeod. “We really wanted to connect the house and the site to the mountain. The idea was to create and capture views that look outward to the community and the landscape beyond but, at the same time, create internal views and a sense of our own haven.”
A mid century inspired home occupies a long, narrow block and McLeod was determined to use the site in its entirety. “Although we didn’t want to do that all with buildings – we wanted to connect to the outdoors through a series of courtyards.” The arrival point is itself a kind of internal courtyard, a double-height atrium surrounded at the top by windows. “It’s a key area to bring light into the house, and it allows the adjacent spaces to have a sense of ease and connection.”
One of the family’s favourite spaces to gather and connect is the main courtyard, which comprises a spacious undercover sitting area and an organic-shaped pool, lined with Eco Outdoor’s Nacre glass mosaic tiles. The space represents the designer’s desire to make a mid century inspired home a comfortable, relaxed haven with a deep connection to the outdoors. “I think we’ve created a family home that feels warm and ambient and easy to live in,” she says.
00:00 – Introduction to the Mid Century Inspired Home
00:59 – A Simple Material Palette
02:31 – Mid-Century Family Inspiration
02:57 – The Exterior Layout
03:20 – A Walkthrough of the Home
04:32 – Favourite Aspects
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Photography by Sam Hartnett.
Architecture by MAUD.
Interior design by at.space.
Build by Faulkner Construction.
Landscape design by Babylon Gardens.
Stone and tiles by Eco Outdoor.
Filmed and production by The Local Production.
Edited by Cadre.
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
The Local Project acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations peoples, and honour their history, cultures and traditions of storytelling.
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