NZ’s Best Homes with Phil Spencer Ep 4: How much for a classic Bay of Islands lair or architects’ luxury Ponsonby pads?

The homes in episode 4 of NZ’s Best Homes with Phil Spencer are (clockwise for top left) Motorua in the Bay of Islands, Echelon and Tree Villa, both in Auckland’s Ponsonby. Photos / Supplied / Simon Devitt

And so, Phil Spencer has left the mansions of schist of the southern lakes behind and returns to the north for more luxury location, location, locations. The final three episodes of the second season of New Zealand’s Amazing Homes with Phil Spencer will remain in the Auckland and greater Auckland
holiday home zone. Which might say something less about the quality of the architecture in the rest of the country, and more about where the country’s biggest show-offs live. Maybe.

In episode three, Spencer starts out back in the Bay of Islands where he finished up in episode one. Like the gargantuan sprawl of the “Fold House” in that season opener, the place on Motorua Island was designed by Bossley Architecture for Craig Heatley. It’s just 3km across Te Rawhiti Inlet between them. Or to put it another way, it takes longer to get the chopper out of the hangars at either place, then it does to fly between them.

The episode’s other two architectural wonders are both not far apart in Ponsonby. Normally, it would take about three minutes to drive between them, unless of course you got caught in traffic, or have to capture the sponsor’s vehicle in a drone shot. That’s seen between shots of Ponsonby Road attempting to make it look as fabulous as Spencer’s script suggests it is: “It’s a hot spot for the who’s who!” Just out of shot, the KFC drive-thru.

The value of tonight’s three properties is just on $23,000,000, relatively modest for this series. But one is an apartment, and another began life more than a century ago. And while the Motorua Island has that whare waka topatopa, which doubles as a gym, games room and extra accommodation, it appears the property has just the one golf green. Into which Spencer sinks an impressively long putt.

Motorua, Bay of Islands designed by Bossley Architects. Photo / Supplied

Motorua, Bay of Islands

The original timber house was an award-winner now legendary in architectural circles for the way it sits mimicking the slope of the land in a tiered series of rooms looking east to the boats moored in the place’s own bay and the islands beyond. Access to the property from the island’s jetty in the next bay involved having a 35m tunnel was dug through a ridgeline. Additions to the property have included a guest house, the aforementioned hangar, a media room with a golf simulator, a caretaker’s cottage and a subterranean boatshed. The additions were opposed at the time in the Environment Court by watchdog groups, the Far North District Council and the Department of Conservation at the time and unsurprisingly that isn’t mentioned in the episode or by the architects telling the history of the place. The most Thunderbirds of the properties this season, so far.

Originally designed by Pete Bossley and completed in the late 1990s with many additions designed by Finn Scott since.

What Spencer says: “I’m told native Kiwi roam the garden at night, the birds, I mean, not the people.”

What the architects say: “The houses are light pavilions which promote the concept of ‘roof’ as the predominant element of shelter. The monopitch roofs float above and beyond the spaces, supported on exo-skeletal structures beautifully detailed in wood. Exterior walls are taut joinery frames, offering minimal interruption between inside and out. The boatshed is totally underground, to reduce the visual built form in the bay, with the guesthouse above.”

QV: $12,600,000

To see more go here

Phil Spencer visits Echelon in Ponsonby, where there are unique design features and stunning views. Photos / Supplied / Simon Devitt

Echelon, Ponsonby, Auckland

The show features one of two mirror image penthouse apartments in a relatively new building on Ponsonby Road, which sit above the offices of the architecture firm which designed it and street-level retail space. It’s the home of the practice’s principal Ken Crosson, who’s an advocate for urban intensification in the city. The building replaced a century old villa on the site and has views to city and the harbour to the east and to the Waitakeres to the west. The two-storey interior mixes industrial elements like concrete and steel plate bridges and a spiral staircase, with timber and tiles. There are extensive outdoor decks on both levels.

Designed by Crosson Architects and completed in 2023.

What Spencer says: “This is a geometric wonderland, triangles, rectangles, lines, beautiful curves … everywhere.”

What the architects say: “The form and elevation of the Echelon reference the existing heritage buildings in and around Ponsonby,” Crosson told the NZ Herald earlier this year. “It’s designed to be a new version of the colonial structures. It’s a modern building but it’s not a loud, noisy building. The intention was for the apartment building to be contemporary while being respectful of its context.”

QV: $4,540,000, while the other apartment of the two in the building above Crosson offices and street level retail has a QV of $4,420,000 and according to this website it can be rented for $6000 a week, personal chef extra.

To see more go here

Tree Villa, once a dilapidated 1896 square-front villa, is now a light-filled family home. Photo / Simon Devitt

Tree Villa, Ponsonby, Auckland

The radical transformation of a once dilapidated 1896 square-front villa on one of the streets running to the west of Ponsonby Road. A multi-level extension was added to the sloping back section involving heavy use of brick, glass, and steel. At street level, one of the original front bedrooms was turned into a car-stacker garage, disguised by retaining the old window features as the automatic garage door and a sliding picket fence outside.

Designed by Jonathan Smith of Matter Architects originally for himself and his family and since sold, after being completed in 2017.

What Spencer says: “Whoa, now you’re freaking me out. You are freaking me out.”

What the architects say: “Garaging provision in the traditional sense was impossible – requiring the controversial decision to install a drive-in garage and car stacker in what was originally the front left bedroom. While maintaining the character and streetscape presence of this home, we created a multi-level sculptural extension to the North. Old brick retaining walls pepper potted throughout the neighbourhood were referenced. Post construction the villa looks untouched from the front, contributing to the strong aesthetic and heritage of Ponsonby homes.”

QV: $5,610,000

To see more go here

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