Mid-century Group Architects masterpiece awaits its next custodian

Monday, 16 February 2026

Aucklander Catherine Parker wasn’t in the market to buy a house when she saw 10 Violet St, in Auckland’s Mount Albert, for sale. Although the retired project manager was quite happily living in an apartment in town, something about the 1960-built home, with its concrete block construction and long, sloping timber roof, caught her eye. She went along for a look.

'I was just like, 'Well, that looks like such an interesting place'. I brought a friend back, and as we left, she said, 'Do you realise you’ve been referring to this as your home?'.'

Parker went along to the auction, and was surprised to find no one bidding on what was, she’d discovered, a Kiwi architectural treasure. Designed by Ivan Juriss of the fabled Group Architects, the home even had a name: Mann House.

When the home was passed in, Parker began negotiations with the vendor to buy the home. 'We struck a deal that night, and I came home and went, 'right, I really need to sell where I’m living'.'

The home spoke to her on a very deep level. When she was about 10, her family moved into town from the country and lived in a rental that had been designed by Group Architects. That home had all the elements the design movement would become known for. She saw them reflected in Mann House.

'I was like, 'this reminds me of something that makes me feel safe’. There must have been that connection with the construction and the way the house flowed and the materials used. It's a beautiful place to live in.'

The home was completed in stages. The first section, completed in 1960, included a bedroom, and the core of the home. A master bedroom, second bathroom and study were added in 1976, again designed by Juriss.

The Mann family lived in the home for 30 years. Several other owners followed, and at some point an owner hired architect Marshall Cook to help bring more light into the living room, without damaging the feel of the home. He designed the floor-to-ceiling timber-framed glass pivot door that opens the living space to the garden.

This door also gave better access to the rear of the property, which was previously only accessible by going down the side of the house.

'Adding that door just added a new dynamic that could be explored,' says Parker. 'I took that further 10 years ago by building the guest house out the back and adding outdoor living and just bringing the whole sort of compound together using the space as much as I could.'

The guest house became home to her son and his wife. Parker’s granddaughter was born while the family was living there.

That the design of the guest house mirrors the main house was “very intentional”.

'I was very clear to not just go rogue on what I could do in the backyard. I wanted it to look like it had been there as part of the original, with an ode to the 1960s look.'

It’s not a pastiche of the 60s style, however. Instead it feels timeless, like it could have been built any time in the last ten years, or 60 years ago. That sense of modern-vintage is even more pronounced in the main house, with its juxtaposition of cool, textured concrete and warm smooth timber.

'I often get people coming in here saying, 'Oh, when did you build the house?' And I look at them and say, 'Well, I would have been two at the time'.'

She thinks it feels so fresh, because architecture in New Zealand started to create “works that were an ode to group architects”, with studios like Herbst and Steven Lawson being inspired by those early modernist homes.

'I hate using this word, ‘timeless,’ but it is. It's a property that you don't get tired of living in, and you don't want to change it.'

What changes she has made, she has consciously made sensitively, such as with the kitchen tiles, and the fireplace, which had been a classic 60s-70s brown. When it needed to be replaced, Parker sought out a Kiwi company that made funky retro fireplaces that she felt would be in keeping with the home. The effect is that the new fireplace looks as if it’s been in place for 60 years.

The home is such an architectural gem, it has appeared in architectural historian Julia Gatley’s seminal history Group Architects: Towards a New Zealand Architecture (2010).

When the book was published, Gatley asked Parker if she could bring some students across to tour the home. Parker agreed. Gatley turned up with a busload.

It will be hard for Parker to part with the home she’s loved for 21 years, however she’s ready for an adventure. Her family’s original plan was that her son and his family would eventually move into the main house, and Parker would “retire” into the guest house behind. Now, however, her son and his family have moved to Europe, so Parker is selling up to join them.

'It's going to appeal to a cross-section of people,' Parker says. 'It’s a very easy house to live in. It's a home you can actually move around a lot and try different iterations of how you want to live in. Especially in the lounge space. But I think the joy of this house is that it's clearly designed to open out to the outdoors, but also it's just beautifully comforting to be in in winter. It is an all-season house.'

With four beds, three baths and two reception rooms, Mann House goes under the hammer on March 5 at 6pm. The listing is with Caroline Daniel for Kellands.