Early 1900s housebuilders in Tāmaki Makaurau – and many other cities around the motu – seemed to struggle with one simple issue: hills. Or more particularly, how to relate to them.

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So it was at the home of Al and Mariette in the inner-city suburb of Kingsland. The villa they purchased some years ago was in fine condition and renovated to a high standard by a previous owner, but it had no relationship with the back garden, and the living areas were cramped – though north-facing. The clients wanted covered outdoor living areas and a better connection to the garden.

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The funny thing was, the house had none of the classic lean-tos to deal with: it stopped at the back wall, then ran straight down to the land. There was a small deck on the western side with steps down to another deck, then steps down to the lawn, and more steps down to another lawn. “I’ve got photos from when we first visited,” says architect Dom Glamuzina. “And I just thought, ‘How the hell are we going to deal with this?’ Because you had to drop down, and then drop down, and then drop down again.”

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Essentially, Glamuzina’s solution was to build a square room off the back of the house for a new living area – a kind of suspended lean-to – and then create two decks: one upstairs, one downstairs, connected by a generous staircase.

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Now, you come down the hallway into a generous new kitchen, with a dining area off to the side. A few steps down is the new living area, with towering sliding doors that open the space up to the new deck. There’s a distinct step, and a distinct bulkhead, to mark the change. “We talked a lot about this edge,” says Glamuzina, “because it’s such a definitive frame. We wanted it to have a bit of compression as you stepped down.”

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The extension is clad with vertical cedar and a grid of battens, and there’s a cedar pergola over the deck. All this exists in contrast to what can only be described as a kind of ruin of a white-brick chimney. Downstairs at ground level is a covered outdoor living space, a fernery garden growing up against screens, and a big open fireplace. It’s a sheltered, generous space, with a lovely view out into the garden, as well as lighting and speakers built into the ceiling.

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The chimney is a striking foil to the timber-clad extension. It feels like a ruin – an existing structure lightly connected to the new room. In fact, it’s brand new, built from precast concrete and clad with elegant slim white bricks to reduce its bulk. “We talk a lot about this: the chimney is the one thing that sticks around. It’s almost a kind of relic,” says Glamuzina. “You drive around and look at old bungalows and villas and the chimney’s always the coolest bit.” Glamuzina designed this one to be faceted rather than smooth, with nooks and crannies on which to perch a glass of wine or lean up against it.

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While the whole project is modest, covering all of 30 square metres, its impact on the house has been huge. “You can have sun, and you can have shade,” says Mariette. “It’s everything we wanted it to be.” Continues Glamuzina: “It’s not a lot. But it is a lot. It’s just massively changed it.”

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