Kiora

Kiora

The client’s “forever house”, Kiora is a contraction of the Maori greeting “Kia Ora” meaning “be healthy and well.” The building is one house in a line of identical historically significant brick bungalows built at the beginning of the last century in North Sydney. All work to the original building was strictly limited by the local Council. The client said “I want to come into this house through time to today. Like Alice into the rabbit hole.” It needed to be contemporary, but also flow into the historic. The house is very compact with a lot of different rooms and at the same time feels spacious. The neighbors’ homes are a meter away and so it was important to bring light in and preserve the privacy of both. The new floors are of reclaimed “black butt” indigenous to Australia. The roof discretely sports solar pv panels and evacuated tube hot water heater which offsets the energy usage of the house by over 80%.