The “forever home”. It’s a terrible cliché. Given that New Zealanders now keep their homes for around five-and-a-half years before selling, it’s also increasingly irrelevant. But this house in Ōtautahi Christchurch may be one of the few homes where this term actually applies. As Mitchell Coll of Fabric explains, it was “designed to outlast the site”. Coll says he always takes a holistic approach with clients, and spends a lot of time discussing long-term plans so that a house is able to adapt over time. This site is located on the fast-developing city fringe, so Coll felt any new home “would probably get demolished in 20 years, no matter how nice it was, simply because it’s not high-density enough”.

“As soon as we started talking about the site eventually being developed, it became a house they could take with them; a potential forever home,” says the architect. “It changed everything about how they looked at the project; they put more heart into it, they put a bit more money into it, and they’re way more connected to the house than any other client we’ve had.” The homeowners had been quite attached to their original villa, and looked at trying to repair it. “But it was stuffed,” says Coll. Instead, the earthquake rebuild was focussed on creating a contemporary house with the essence of a character building. The design employs the familiar roofline of the neighbourhood villas, but with an asymmetrical cutout and lack of visible gutters that create plenty of visual interest.

“There wasn’t a huge budget associated with the build, so we did look at what they could and couldn’t do,” he says. “The owners wanted a new drive and a new garage, but, we said, ‘What’s wrong with the existing drive and garage?’ The driveway was perfectly functional, and while it was cracked and had a few weeds growing out of it, it had a beautiful patina to it.” Embracing those elements, Coll incorporated the concept of wabi-sabi, or finding beauty in imperfection. A thread of Japanese influences runs through other parts of the house, too, including timber flooring laid to represent a tatami mat. “Everything they talked about, from the timber to the filtered light, the opaque screens in the entry, office and bathroom, the contrast between darkness and light… they didn’t say Japanese, but it pointed in that direction. We say it’s Japanese-inspired, but it’s actually just inspired by them.”

Coll says the couple took a leap of faith by committing to an architect, taking on the extra cost and following advice on certain things they were initially reluctant about. “They wanted a lot of privacy, but we pushed them to have a bit more street connection, and they’re really happy about that now. They have a better connection to their neighbours.” There are “different levels of privacy the deeper you go into the house”, Coll explains – from the open deck to the living room tucked behind a sliding partition. Meanwhile, moveable steel screens on the outdoor area provide a perfect protective layer, helping to keep the owners’ young son safe while he’s playing outside. They’re also beautiful to look at.

As the owners embraced the project, Coll says he and his team became more connected to it, recognising this as an opportunity to create something really special. While the clients were looking at installing a basic kitchen island, Coll designed a cost-effective custom unit, featuring galvanised steel piping. With this mindset, the clients say he and the Fabric team were able to fit everything they hoped for into a small, relatively low-budget house. In keeping with the long-term vision, they also arranged resource consent to develop the back of the site, which provides the option to build two units, move the house somewhere else and then develop the front. “We truly love our home, every inch and everything it represents,” says one owner. “We see how much they went above and beyond for us.”

It wasn’t just the end result they were happy with, either; 2023 was an incredibly difficult year. In addition to the build, the couple welcomed a child, farewelled a parent and dealt with illness. “Simply being able to talk to them about everything from structural challenges to wall colours to travelling and whiskey helped get us through days that were on the darker side,” says the client. With this building, Fabric has grounded the family – for a while, at least. No matter where the house ends up in the future, its creation is an experience both parties will presumably remember forever.