Projects Auckland City Apartment - Stephen Marr

Stephen & Lucy Marr loved what PatinaForm did in their Newmarket Salon, so they wanted to feature it in their city apartment. The Marr's bought a stand-alone apartment site in a complex at the corner of Pitt and Hopetown Streets in Auckland.

"We were quite restricted with what we could do with the actual layout, but we were able to purchase the house as a shell and do whatever we liked with the interior," says Stephen.

PatinaForm composite concrete panels have been used on the indoor and outdoor walls throughout, to give the space a cool, airy feel that perfectly reflects its urban setting.

Stephen worked closely with PatinaForm on the poured concrete wall panels, bathroom floors, cantilevered staircase and cast concrete benches in the kitchen and bathrooms.

I really love the feeling of cast concrete

 

"We first used PatinaForm in the Newmarket Salon. I really love the feeling of cast concrete. It's totally different to plaster; it's a lot more solid and it shows construction detail, so you get more of a feeling of rawness."

PatinaForm is about 30 per cent lighter than normal concrete. It's stronger and more flexible and it sets really fast. You can get it in any pigment you like and it works for either indoors or exteriors."

The couple chose concrete to create a spacious feeling within the house. "We wanted to get away from painted walls to something that was a bit more austere and linear, more of a statement," says Stephen. "We continued PatinaForm panels right through, upstairs and downstairs, and leading through from the kitchen to the courtyard to create a flow from indoor to outdoors and bring it all together."

Although the house is not huge, the three-metre ceiling stud, long panels and huge ranch-sliders make it feel expansive. The cantilevered concrete stairs with a hanging hand-rail, rising along one wall of the living room, seems to float, adding to the feeling of lightness.

Considering the line of work the Marrs are in, it's no surprise the main bathroom is an oasis. Large mid-grey PatinaForm tiles with an aged look anchor the room and add to its restful feeling. A cast concrete bench with a long mirror above it is reminiscent of their salons.

If you're looking for Stephen, you're most likely to find him in the downstairs media room, his favourite place in the house. "It's a male thing," he laughs.

The room is packed with reading, viewing and listening material, with books and CDs packed along floating glass shelves cantilevered from the PatinaForm panels.

Lucy, a self-confessed food nut, loves the kitchen space. The substantial PatinaForm bench gives plenty of room for cooking up a storm. Light box cupboards in the upper third of the kitchen continue the line of the concrete panels.

Kindly reproduced from Urbis magazine - summer 2004/2005 issue.