Architect Tibor Donner was mostly known for his public buildings: as the chief architect at the Auckland City Council from 1944 until 1967, he was responsible for some of the city’s most enduring modernist icons – influenced by international trends in high modernism, he devised the Parnell Baths, the Ellen Melville Centre and the City Works Depot.

But he also designed some excellent houses, including his own in Titirangi, and a house nearby for his close friends Harry and Edna Atkinson on the corner of Titirangi and Rangiwai Road. Finished in 1946, it displayed an international sensibility and a modernity that endures to this day.

Harry Atkinson was an optometrist and a classical music buff; his wife Edna was the gardening correspondent for New Zealand Home & Building. They were progressive, gregarious people – and the house Donner designed reflected their easy hospitality, designed in a boomerang shape with two mono-pitched wings set at a wide angle to each other. Donner’s domestic work often featured vertical weatherboards, large windows, low-pitched roofs and scoria rock walls – all of which featured here with simple but elegant detailing.

You approach the house from Rangiwai Road, turning into a drive that leads on to stairs that take you into the corner of the boomerang: bedrooms are to the left, on the northern side and living areas are to the right, in the south-west. Utility areas – kitchen, laundry, bathroom and a separate toilet – are in between.

Living spaces were great for entertaining – the Atkinsons often hosted 20 – and featured one of the first stereo systems in the area. Outside, Edna Atkinson established a garden that was widely admired – many of the established trees and plants on the property were selected and planted by her.

The Atkinsons raised their family in the home and Edna died in 1962, only in her late 40s. The family sold it in 1967 to the then Waitemata County Council, which used it as its offices. Later, it became the Titirangi Community House, hosting classes and community groups – many in the area have fond memories of the building.

After 40 years as a public facility, the house was deemed surplus to requirements, a heritage covenant was placed on it and it was sold to once again become a family home. Its present owner has maintained it and made sensitive updates where necessary. It’s now for sale with Robyn Ellson and her team of Ray White: a true modernist classic.

Atkinson House
1 Rangiwai Road, Titirangi
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
rwmteden.co.nz/EDN31938