Architect Roger Walker’s favourite ‘toy castle’ home has to go

Friday, 21 June 2024

Wellington based architect Roger Walker talks about his home he designed and the colours he chose as well as his art exhibition.

Poking up from amid the creamy villas of Wellington’s dress circle, architect Roger Walker’s former family home, 175 Grant Rd, Thorndon makes a bold statement.

A playful pink and green building, that looks a little like a deconstructed toy castle, the property has been a rental for almost a decade, and was the backdrop for a week-long exhibition of Walker’s architecturally inspired paintings in October last year.

Now, however, he’s hoping it will be a family home again. It is on the market for the first time in 30 years.

'It was my favourite house, which makes sense because I was the client,“ says Walker. 'I do feel a bit sad about it [the sale]. Every time I go over there I enjoy the experience.”

Wellington architect Roger Walker at his home on Grant Rd, Thorndon.

For many years, the home was a more demure terracotta colour. Prior to the sale, however, Walker, who is best known for such vibrant residential properties as the Britten house, and Haitaitai icon Park Mews, decided to return the home to its more colourful original state.

Made up of two distinct pavilions, the rear, with its steepled tower, faces the town belt, so is a corresponding leafy green. The front pavilion faces the city, so it’s “pink for people”. A soft pastel yellow ties the two together.

The home was a more demure terracotta colour for many years, but Walker had it repainted in its original scheme prior to the sale.

The colour choice and use of elements such as stainless steel and neon lighting at the entranceway was an “anti-suburban beige or grey” statement - Walker’s signature style.

Connecting the pavilions is Walker’s favourite part of the house, a double-height glass atrium. In order to get a view of Thorndon and in the city, the dining room had to have a straight view across a void, so Walker lifted the roof creating a double-height ceiling in the living room.

The glass atrium gives the dining area a view over the city.

“The only way I can really enjoy this house is to move back in. But it's like, 300m² and there's just me. Even the cat's died - it’s buried in the front garden. I think it’s just time. At my age, I need to get on with something else. Life goes on, you either use it or lose it.'

The kitchen and dining area are on a platform above the living area.

Floating above the living room is a playful comment on the height of the ceiling, a giant feather created by sculptor Neil Dawson, the artist behind the floating sphere Ferns, in Civic Square. It cost Walker $15,000 at the time and Dawson installed the piece himself.

'He was precariously balanced on scaffolding that I put up there to get up to the height. And somebody who was with me said, ‘look if he falls off and dies that feather will be worth a lot more. It'll be his last work’.'

The feather is part of the chattels.

Also “open to negotiation” is the purchase of the period-appropriate furniture used to stage the home.

The home was originally staged with contemporary furniture, however some time over over King’s Birthday weekend, the home was broken into and everything was taken - the home has since been alarmed and monitored.

In order to stage the home for sale in time, Walker offered pieces from his own collection, including a bright red sofa called The Lips. “They came and cleaned out the office here, and restaged it [the house]. I think it looks really brilliant. The furniture matches the house.'

Agent Alexia Stoddart of Tommy’s says unlike many houses in that part of Thorndon, Walker’s home gets amazing light thanks to that atrium.

'After I walked in to Roger's house for the first time I went home and said to my husband, 'We're moving'. We took all the agents through the house this morning and everyone said, 'We can see you hosting some great parties here, Lexi'. It's a great entertainer's home.

“There is nothing to compare it to, so we are not giving a price guide, except to say the RV is $2.45m.'

Playfulness is king in Walker’s castle home.

Walker has been railing against the 'stultifying boredom of housing' since his childhood in brick-and-tile suburban Hamilton, where it was “all so dull, and the houses were all the same”.

'Someone would come along on a vacant section and build almost a replica of the house next door,“ he says. ”All the materials were different, the bricks were different, I just wondered why people couldn't use them in different ways.'

The home was a rental for a long time, and more recently was a backdrop for an exhibition of Walker’s work.

At 175 Grant Rd, Walker gave himself free reign to “try different materials and ideas that you've always had bubbling away, but you've never foisted onto a client”.

The result is a distillation of Walker’s unique, home-grown architectural philosophy, one that centres playfulness alongside the realities of how we live.

The home is Walker’s favoruite, but it’s time to move on to something else.

The home has 3 beds and three bathrooms, as well as a separate studio that could be used as a bedroom.

Each space is the size and shape that best suits its use - an idea Walker picked up from legendary architect Frank Gehry - making the home versatile, and easy to live in. The 290m² house fills the 271m² site – the only bits that aren’t house are the deck areas, and the driveway in front.

When he built it, Walker knew the northern neighbours and was able to get them to sign off on the height plans. At the time, Wellington City Council was also encouraging the development of small sites in the innercity heritage areas of Thorndon and Mt Vic to stop developers buying them up and “building a bloody big block of apartments”.

Site requirements that would not allow a home to cover more than 50% of the section today did not then apply to a site smaller than 300m², so Walker was able to fill the site with house.

'It is a family home, it's got a lot of bedrooms,“ says Walker. ” I imagine the buyers would be a family. I imagine the person might be an art collector, and certainly involved in the creative industry. It'll be a professional person.

'Kids just love that house. The upstairs turret, my teenage boys slept up there and when the house was tenanted they had a teenage boy who slept up there. They feel as though it's their own special space. So I'll be interested to see who the buyers are.'

The home will be sold by tender which closes on July 11. The listing is with Alexia and Danielle Stoddart for Tommy’s.