The Claude Megson blog

Good House – Claude Megson

2009-11-16T01:24:00.000-08:00

NZ House and Garden magazine just featured this 1969 Megson house on their website. The commentary starts provocatively:

“Today’s building code would never stretch to accommodate the ideas of renowned architect Claude Megson. Some might say that’s a blessing but others would argue it is genius lost.”

I would be one of those others.

That’s not to say Claude’s ideas always worked out precisely as he hoped – one of his clients once told me that “Claude always floated about six inched off the ground” – but as the son of a builder he was always grounded in what could be done, and it allowed him to understand what should be done.

Designed in 1969 for an artist and his landscaping wife, this house at Waiatarua in West Auckland is on just 0.4 hectares of land overlooking the city.

“Heart rimu ceilings and floors make the home warm and hospitable. The exterior is clad in vertical board-and-batten cedar and there’s a long-run steel roof. It ticked all the boxes for family living, with a separate cubby hole for the couple’s three children to play in and a world outside the windows to explore.
“Tucked into a lush landscape, the home enjoys supreme privacy, with no need for fences between the neighbouring properties. The kids roamed the bush as if it was one big park, their only complaint that there was no dairy handy.”

Read the whole article by Claire McCall here.
[Cross-posted at the Claude Megson Blog. Photos by Patrick Reynolds]

152 Cemetary Rd, Maunu, Whangarei

2009-02-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

I was inspired over the weekend by a visit to this small Megson unit in Remuera I posted the other day. Claude used to talk about the “big-souled” feeling that architecture should inspire. This small unit certainly delivered – its 95 square metres feel immense, as does one’s spirit when sitting in its light-filled spaces.

It’s being sold by its owners now their circumstances have changed. They’d love to move to a larger Megson, they say, now they’ve outgrown their little beauty.

As it happens, a larger Megson house is also on the market … up at Whangarei. A reader visited over the weekend and sent me the news, along with this short report:

“I just went to the open home for the Megson designed home at 152 Cemetary Road, Maunu, Whangarei, MIND BLOWING! Very very original and totally delightful. I want it.”

No wonder. It’s another delight.

From the Allens Realty’s site, from whence you can get details and Open Home times:

An Internationally known - Claude Megson Design - A Residence that Symbolises Individuality.
If you want to rebel against the 'status quo' and satisfy your drive for distinction, you need to inspect this property and appreciate the opportunity this fascinating home has to offer.
Almost the country equivalent of a modern day Don Quixote and nestled privately amongst native bush this unique 3 level 374m² Megson designed home features 2 lounges, 2 snugs, 2 dining rooms, 3 fireplaces and a large courtyard and swimming pool.
To be sold as a going concern with approximately 120 mature avocado trees in full production, including a large implement shed and orchard equipment. There is a stable and horse truck complex plus 2 small grazing paddocks.
A highly individual property that is everything but ordinary.

You can read all the sale details here.

(Cross-posted to the Claude Megson Blog)

3/64 Hapua St, Remuera

2009-01-27T01:52:00.000-08:00

A Megson townhouse is on the market - one that came on the market a year or so back, was 'renovated' unsympathetically, fortunately onlny on a small scale, by a graduate architect who had no idea what she was looking at, and is now back on the market and able to be rehabilitated.

Sale details are here. Agent's blurb reads:

Remuera - Writers, Artists, Architects.
3/64 Hapua St
Open Homes: Sat 31 Jan 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Sun 01 Feb 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Auction at L4, 50 Kitchener St, City on 25/02/2009 at 11:00am
Unless sold prior

Architect Claude Megson created this sublime artistic retreat in the 1960s. Fitting like a glove into the Remuera hillside just below Arney Crescent, it's within easy walking distance of Parnell & Newmarket. Despite a compact floorplan, you'll be amazed how light & airy it feels. You'll discover several private spots perfect for reading & relaxing. Although every house-hunting single or couple should see this, the next owner is more likely to be someone who appreciates the architectural significance of a Megson.

Cross-posted at NOT PC.

Cocker Townhouses in Wood St, Freemans bay, Auckland

2007-08-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

Featured at the back page of the Aug/Sep 2007 copy of Home and Entertaining magazine is the My Favourite Building feature. Seleting his favourite this month is architect Ken Crosson--winner in 2005 of Home and Entertaining's Home of the Decade award for his distinctive Coromandel bach --and he's chosen Claude Megson's Cocker Townhouses in Wood St, Freemans bay, Auckland, designed in 1969 and competed in 1973.

Click on the pic to enlarge, or here to see a PDF of the page [5.5MB].

Says Crosson in the article:

“Claude Megson was one of my lecturers at architecture school and I was always fascinated by his work. These townhouses are one of his finest projects. They are a grouping of four town houses in an existing Victorian suburb. The design is fundamentally different to its neighbours, but is totally respectful of them. Megson was a master of context. He extended the existing street patter, into the site. He re-interpreted forms, elements and details in a modern context.

“I was lucky enough to live in one of the town houses in the 1980s. More recently when another of them was damaged by fire, we helped restore It. Bill and Finola Cocker commissioned Megson to design the houses in the early 70s. Bill was an artist who had a vision of adding something beautiful to the city. It was built as per Claude’s wishes. “Each unit is an individual, with its own courtyard and different views and a different floor plan and all are spatially rich. The top floors have amazing views of Auckland’s central city — they remind me of the main character in Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart, who is inspired and empowered by the energy of the city.

"These days everybody is talking about sustainability and density. The unit I lived in had a site area of 215 square metres. These houses show how successfully Megson was grappling with these concepts back in the early 70s — good living isn’t about the size of plots, but about the quality of design.”

I love that pointer to Atlas Shrugged.

1A Warrington St, Remuera.

2007-08-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

What looks to be an unfortunate recladding job mars what seems to be a typically playful spatial delight within.

From AllRealEstate's site come this description:

Situated amidst mature native trees and bush along a quiet right of way sits this immensely valuable architecturally designed home; which steps down the beautiful northern slopes of Remuera over three levels, and captures the most uplifting views imaginable!

The interior enjoys four lofts and voluminous entertaining areas all with polished floors (family, dining, formal living with fireplace, plus extra lounge), which flows out to big sun soaked decks, great for entertaining on any scale.

The multi level living and five fascinating bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, connect with dramatic spaces to create a relaxed ambience of excitement and character. An ideal home for a teenage family with more than enough room to spread out. A tranquil oasis in a north facing environment, enjoying privacy on a 1095 m2 more or less site.

Imagine waking to the sound of the Tui in this beautiful bush setting whilst being only a short drive from Downtown Auckland, Newmarket, Remuera shops and motorways are at your doorstep.

Double garaging, extra parking, Grammar Zoned.

Janet Lambert
Mobile: 0274 736 023
Megan Jaffe MREINZ
Ray White Remuera

Property Summary:

Category:
House
Bedrooms:
5
Bathrooms:
1
Garage:
Double
Land:
1095.00sqm (approx)

More pics. Click to enlarge.

Megson House - Claude Megson

2007-02-21T03:25:00.000-08:00

Here's architect Claude Megson's own house, above Dingle Dell in Auckland' St Heliers. A simple looking exterior concealing an awful lot of living within.

Writing about Claude's house a few years ago, John Dickson said of it, "It is impossible without the process of Megson's imagination to connect the cluster of small, confined rooms of the house as it was (right) to the expansive, multi-levelled, vertical-fissured, spatial-phantasm that it has become." And English architectural critic Professor Geoffrey Broadbent, writing after a 1992 tour of Claude's Auckland houses had this to say:

"This," I said to myself, "is work of a very high
international standard indeed." ...One is constantly struck by the surprise around the corner, the bright shaft of light penetrating from above into the softer glow of the main living spaces -- especially in Megson' own house -- that
give his work such very special qualities...
There is an essential "rightness" about Megson's spaces, for pleasant occupation by ordinary, normal human beings. Such things, says Dickson, have gone out of fashion with today's students. Well, so much the worse for the students [and their clients!].
Perhaps it hasn't occurred to them that if they design real spaces for human
comfort and pleasure, then even those anguished souls overwhelmed by post-Heideggerian "problematics" about the nature of their existence might, given spaces like Megson's to contemplate that nature of their "Being," come to more positive conclusions! Because that's the point about Megson's spaces; they are life-enhancing.

Broadbent, for once, is exactly right.

LINKS: The Claude Megson Blog

RELATED POSTS ON Architecture.

20 Walton Street, Remuera, 1974

2007-02-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

This house is also known as the Norris house. A two-zoned house, it was one of Claude's own favourites. Description is from the Auckland Architecture Association site.

This Claude Megson designed home was winner of the 2005 Enduring Architecture Award.

- solid concrete construction/steel joinery
- offering poetry of light and space
- formal and informal living
- magnificent north western aspect with views to Hobson Bay and harbour.

Townhouse, 4/57 Wood Street

2007-02-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

Auctioned Bayleys, 2PM, Wednesday
11th October, 2000

NO PICTURES AT PRESENT

Details from Taupo Property site

Residential Town House

4/57 Wood Street
Suburb: Freemans Bay
Area: Auckland City
Region: Auckland

Landmark Architecture.

Classic Claude Megson Architecture brings poetry of space amongst traditional Freemans Bay villa norm.
These 1975 townhouses brought fresh spatial relationships integrating the abstraction of design with the elements of place and aspect overlooking the inner city skyscape and harbour views.

Accommodation consists of lounge with fireplace, dining and kitchen opening onto courtyard garden.
Next level has two bedrooms and bathroom.
Above the bedrooms via a trap door you will find an abstract minaret or turret with small study and huge panoramic city/harbour views.

Features include:

Covered car parking
Large courtyard style garden
spa

Residential Townhouse
4/57 Wood Street
Freemans Bay, Auckland

2 Bedroom plus Study
108 Sq meters

Buyer enquiry range
Upwards of $300,000

54 Hapua St, Remuera

2007-02-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

Auctioned 7 march, 2007.

This is part of a project in north-east Remuera, which included three connected ('semi-detached) townhouses. From memory, this is the largest of the three. Here's Barfoot's description:

Every now and again, an architecturally outstanding home comes along that is simply unique. Designed by the revered architect Claude Megson in 1974 with high ceilings and voids it presents an uplifting sense of volume and light filed spaces. This solidly built home on its own freehold 306m² site enjoys a quiet, leafy setting. Features 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, separate living and dining areas which open to private courtyards and garden; including many original 1970's features. Perfectly positioned for optimum sun in winter and shade in summer, this could be your very own private sanctuary. A perfect natural setting just five minutes to the city.

What Architecture Is All About.

2007-02-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

Claude Megson quoted in this article by Peter Cresswell: What Architecture Is All About.

Now we're at the halfway point of our architectural debate over at my main blog 'Not PC,' here's a brief meditation on what architecture is all about. In five words or less: giving meaning to our lives. To quote the late Claude Megson, "If it doesn't have meaning, then you're just wanking."
Read on now for the thousand-word meditation...

29 Whites Rd, Broomfield Peninsula, Whitford

2007-02-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

From the Open2View site:

Suburb: Whitford Area: Manukau City Region: Auckland

Rooms: 5 bedrooms 2 bathrooms

Floor area: 220m² (2367 Sq. Feet) Lot size: Built In: 1

Broomfields Peninsular Location.

A private & spacious Claude Megson design home positioned beautifully for sun in sought after Broomfields Peninsular location. Sweep down the fabulous tree lined driveway past 3 grazing paddocks & enter this character filled 5 bedroom home with native bush outlook.
Peace & privacy assured on these magical 5 acres

Frankly, I don't think the furniture does much for the house.

Model of Megson's own house used to promote NZ architecture exhibition

2007-02-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

Text and picture is from an article on an exhibition of models of NZ architecture, modelled with neither context nor landscape, which unfortunately is the way many see their architecture.

The picture selected to highlight the exhibition (above) shows Megson's own house, which was sited above Dingle Dell in St Heliers.

The article comes from University News, May 2005:

If you take away the conventionally defining characteristics of New Zealand residential architecture – site, response to surrounding landscape, orientation to views and sun, materials like weatherboards, corrugated iron, concrete blocks – what are you left with?

An architectural style that “is and isn’t” typically New Zealand, says
Architecture senior lecturer, Charles Walker (pictured above) who with
help from two recent University Architecture graduates, Minka Johnson
Ip and Elizabeth Seu Seu, has curated models for living 1905-2005,
currently on at the Auckland Museum.
Surveying 100 years of New Zealand residential architecture and
timed to mark the centenary of the New Zealand Institute of Architects,
models for living features 50 exquisite scale-models (1:50), built
from original plans by students and recent graduates of the School
of Architecture.
Hand-crafted out of white paper and white painted cardboard, the
models show iconic houses – the Group Construction Company’s First
House, for example, and former University lecturer Claude Megson’s
1983 Auckland home – stripped back to their elemental bones and
artfully displayed in solid glass cases.
“If they refer to the particularity of detail, these white fabrications
also strive for universality and anonymity,” writes Charles in the
exhibition catalogue. “Unlike the architects of the real projects, who
have generally sought to imbue each project with an individual identity
that only rarely refl ects that of the occupant of the house, the models
display the authorial reticence of Islamic miniatures – an art form in
which to reveal one’s stylistic idiosyncrasies is to court dishonour.”
Beginning with workers’ dwellings designed in 1905 by the Public
Works Department and fi nishing on a futuristic home designed by
Auckland graduates Dominic Glamuzina and Ernie Lau, the models
offer a compelling timeline of New Zealand architectural style.
Tauroa, a country mansion designed by colonial architect William
Gummer for a site on the rolling hills of Havelock North, is re-fi gured
back to its 1916 skeletal beginnings here, as are houses by architects
like Rotherham and Hackshaw (members of the renowned Group
architects who after World War Two began to merge modernists’
principles of simplicity, clarity and structure with a New Zealand
history of working in wood).
Viewers can peer through the glass at a model of the monumental
1957 Blumenthal home – the fi rst New Zealand house to be widely written about overseas – or they can ponder the three-dimensional rendering of Ken Crosson’s award-winning 2003 Coromandel Beach House. “When people talk about New Zealand architecture, they always
talk about the site, the landscape and the materials as if those were
the things that defi ne it,” says Charles.
“What’s interesting here is that in all these models you can see
international infl uences. Even though they’re typically New Zealand
houses in response to site and landscape, they’re part of a much
wider discourse.
“The architects of these houses have all been overseas or have
studied overseas architectural trends. They are quite urbane,
sophisticated people – even though in the case of the Group they
presented their work within the rhetoric of a Kiwi vernacular.”
Historically, New Zealand architects haven’t used models very much
so this exhibition offers a chance to see three-dimensional volumes and
proportions of houses that most won’t have seen. “Even architects know
most of these houses only through photographs,” says Charles.
More than 50 architectural students have spent hundreds of
hours making the models and Charles says it has been a very good
pedagogical exercise. “The students have had to study the buildings,
plans and drawings very, very carefully; because they knew the end
result was going to be seen by the public, it’s kept the standard very
high – they’ve really sweated blood for these.”
And there are more to come. This year students will be constructing
another 40-odd models that will be photographed and feature alongside
plans and drawings in a book, working title 100 New Zealand houses,
which Charles is currently writing for publication later this year.
Once all the models have been exhibited and photographed, some
will be distributed to architects, but many will be retained in the
Architecture School’s archive. Future students will be able to access
them as Charles concludes in his catalogue essay, examples of “intimate
investigations and engaged understandings of scale, proportion,
generative ideas and in most cases, good old-fashioned room planning”.

1/14a MacMurray Road, Remuera, Auckland

2007-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Description is from the Auckland Property site:

1/14a MacMurray Road
Suburb: Remuera
Area: Auckland City
Region: Auckland

Land area: 335 m² (3604.6 Sq. Feet)
Built in: 1975
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2

Strong clean lines, soaring open
spaces, minimalist in style yet light and functional.
This 2 bdrm townhouse situated in a quiet Remuera street is a fine example of Claude Megson’s 70’s modernist architecture.
The ground floor open plan living, dining and kitchen areas are set in private courtyard landscaped with tropical and native plants. There is an open fire and underfloor heating for winter warmth and french doors to throw open in the summer for cooling breezes. Upstairs are two double bedrooms, master with adjacent study/3rd bedroom and two bathrooms.
With parking for 2 cars, ample storage spaces and situated just moments from Newmarket and Remuera and motorway and public transport access, this architectural iconic home offers a lifestyle of comfort and convenience

PRICE GUIDE: Vendor seeking offers in the region of $700,000.

Megson quoted in 'Architecture, Art & an Architectural Top Ten'

2007-02-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

Megson quoted in this article: Architecture, Art & an Architectural Top Ten

Architecture is primarily about making spaces for human beings to inhabit, and in doing so expresses what it means for man to inhabit this earth.
The work is utilitarian, but not primarily so - in the words of the late New Zealand architect Claude Megson: "The architect is creating, not merely an object, but a whole universe for ourselves to inhabit." The architect creates an integration of structure, function and ornament according to the architect's own implicit values in order to make a home for man. The stuff with which the architect works is space - human space. To paraphrase Protagoras, man is quite literally the measure of all architecture.

Megson NZIA Regional Awards in the press

2007-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

NZIA Regional Awards in the press, from the University of Auckland Architecture Archive.

1968 Merit Award Claude W Megson Jopling House St.Heliers, Auckland Star June 1, 1968; letter (SF)
1978 National Award Claude Megson. Norris House, NZArchitecture 1978 p25

Megson quoted in article about Group Architects' house

2007-02-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

Claude Megson quoted in this NZ Herald article on a Group Architects house in Takapuna (pictured). Says the current owner:

"I remember lecturer Claude Megson [at the University of Auckland's school of architecture and a member of the group] talking about things like site orientation to the sun, ventilation, functionality and the flow of a house," he says. "Its neat that those ideas really matter now and they were so on to it then.

Incidentally, I'm not sure that Claude would have recognised himself as a member of The Group. Anyone have any more information on that?

NB: This house is by Group Architects, not by Claude

LINKED ARTICLE: Takapuna: Back to the Future

7/79 Shelly Beach Road, St Marys Bay, Auckland

2007-02-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

Doesn't really have the Megson look, to my mind, but was nonetheless sold under his name. Details from the AllRealEstate site:

ST MARYS BAY

These are the views that define Auckland! Designed by renowned architect Claude Megson as the answer to a secure, super low maintenance lock-up and go lifestyle, or as an apartment/penthouse alternative.

Built to commercial grade with a steel frame and premium cladding system, the floor plan includes 4 bedrooms, 4 luxury bathrooms, gym, sauna and garaging for at least 5 cars. Enjoy the latest acoustic technology, air conditioning and design trends. There is also a half share in the floodlit championship size tennis court.

Property Summary:

Category:
Apartment
Bedrooms:
4
Bathrooms:
4

Tony Watkins on Claude

2007-02-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Megson house in Taupo mentioned in a 1996 article by Tony Watkins on the late Graham Robertson:

During the Papatuanuku Conference Graeme stayed with a cosmopolitan group of students, lecturers and architects in a Taupo house designed by Claude Megson, one of his colleagues in the Department of Architecture. Few knew at that time that Graeme's body, like Claude's, was being consumed by cancer. Both were generous, positive, and compulsively creative. Both had to be wrenched away from their students, because their bonds were much more than academic.

'DEGREES OF FREEDOM' Giles Reid on Claude Megson

2007-02-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

Article on Megson referenced at the British Library:

Article details
Article title	DEGREES OF FREEDOM Giles Reid on Claude Megson
Author
Journal title	ARCHITECTURE NEW ZEALAND
Bibliographic details	2000, JUL/AUG, pages 84-97
Publisher	AGM PUBLISHING LTD	Country of publication	New Zealand
ISBN		ISSN	0113-4566
Language	English
Pricing	To buy the full text of this article you pay: £2.16 copyright fee + service charge (from £7.45) + VAT, if applicable

A 'pavilion within a clearing' -- House in Whangarei

2007-02-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

A 'pavilion within a clearing' -- House in Whangarei by the late Claude Megson. As I recall, it was a house designed for a work-from-home doctor. [Taken from the Not PC blog.]

Megson in the Auckland Architecture School Archives, (1-35)

2007-02-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

120 Records for Megson at the Auckland Architecture School Archives.

Megson in the Auckland Architecture School Archives, (36-70)

2007-02-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

Megson in the Auckland Architecture School Archives, (106-120)

2007-02-05T20:33:00.000-08:00