Model Making

Patterson Architects design a penthouse apartment for a family of six who moved from the suburbs.

- Jo Bates

There’s a confusion of buildings in this tightly packed pocket of Parnell, Auckland. The dense concentration of predominantly residential properties – some faux-Victorian, some a little undecided – is interspersed with offices and one or two warehouses. There’s very little common language between them. But, like the row of heritage-listed 1899 Dilworth terrace houses it overlooks, this stitch in the pocket has a little more to say than some of the others.

Within the brick shell of the old Ford factory, which used to pop out a Model T every 20 minutes, Pattersons has inserted 11 apartments over four discreet, receding levels. Known as the Ford Residences, they share a cobbled courtyard with the neighbouring Ford Lofts. The latter is an extensive refurbishment by Cheshire, the building’s heritage readable in beautifully cross-braced brick walls. From the street, the black cassette aluminium cladding that bookends the Residences is clearly a new chapter in the building’s life.