Centimetres count

Eight viewpoints, a rugged cliff face and a need to move your family in sounds like a recipe for disaster. Instead, these challenges have been wrapped together and resolved with the Mills House located in Days Bay, Wellington, then later rewarded with a NZIA Resene New Zealand Architecture Award.

Every centimetre counts in this home with a lack of flat land and a cliff to contend with limiting the scope for horizontal extension. The harbour view is drawn into the house to enlarge living areas and de-emphasise the site limitations. Surprisingly, while the home is perched on the roadside, passing traffic goes by unnoticed.

Broken into three floors, the children occupy the lower floor, topped by family living and the master bedroom with a breakaway top floor designed as the adult and guest retreat. This vertical separation provides the eight family members with much needed breathing space and allows a getaway for the adults.

Mills Architects' homes are associated with strong use of colour and this home is no exception to the rule. Colours ranging from Resene Golden Bell (orange) and Resene Rose Bud Cherry (pink red blend) to Resene Christi (bright green) create contrasting moods in different areas providing visual breaks in the predominantly open plan layout.

Sun and sea, space and style, this home combines the best of them all.

Architect: John Mills
Painting Contractor: Ian Robinson Painter
From the Resene News – issue 3/2004

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