- An iconic two-bedroom concrete home in Herne Bay is for sale.
- It was designed by Ross Bannan, whose concrete craftsmanship featured on Grand Designs New Zealand.
- Fearon Hay transformed heritage-protected stables into a studio, while later owners added a self-contained apartment.
A striking home built by New Zealand concretologist and Grand Designs star Ross Bannan is up for grabs in Auckland’s wealthiest suburb.
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The two-storey, two-bedroom home at 1 Albany Road, in Herne Bay, has attracted the attention of serious architecture fans over the years.
Previous owners include rich-lister property developer Ben Cook and fashion importer Roger Wall, brother of luxury real estate agent Graham Wall, whose sons Ollie and Andrew have the listing this time around.
The current owners, who asked not to be named, bought the home in 2023 for $6.575 million, when Cook was selling off his New Zealand property portfolio.
Ollie and Andrew haven’t put a price on the property but are telling buyers the market has barely moved since it last sold for $6.575m.
The two-storey house was built in 2002 by renowned concretologist Ross Bannan. Photo / Supplied
Architects Fearon Hay refurbished the heritage-protected stables in the back courtyard. Photo / Supplied
The brothers see a lot of great houses in the course of their work, but both told OneRoof that 1 Albany Road was their dream house.
Their uncle Roger’s contribution to the property was to commission architects Fearon Hay to turn the then untouched heritage-protected brick stables on the back of the property into a studio. The current owners then added a steel kitchen by IMO to make a self-contained apartment for their daughter.
“You’re in this ultra-modern house full of light and minimalist to the extreme,” Ollie said.
“Then you’ve got this beautiful kind of European-feeling courtyard in between that and the original horse stables. Fearon Hay kept all the charm and everything beautiful about it but put in this glass and steel and marble bathroom.”
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One of the vendors said she and her husband had always lived in villas, and had wanted an apartment-like home when they came across 1 Albany Road in 2023. They were instantly smitten.
“I was like, ‘This is what our next step is’. It was perfect. I just knew that everything we needed it to do, it would do,” she told OneRoof, adding that there was an air of mystery about the house.
“Lots of people have said to me, ‘I didn’t even know what was behind that door’.”
The house has no internal doors, apart from a steel one to the garage and a sliding glass door to the guest toilet. Even the master bathroom, entered through a suspended catwalk over the lower hallway, is door-free (the toilet is discreetly tucked around the corner).
Architects Fearon Hay inserted a glass, steel and marble bathroom into the heritage stable block. Photo / Supplied
From the street, the concrete and steel house is impenetrable. Photo / Supplied
But despite its open-plan layout, the home is full of surprises. Light pours in from unexpected sources; glass walls completely slide away to the pool and courtyard. Beside the guest toilet is a sunken marble bathtub, where glass walls fold back to an outdoor shower and stepping stones to the pool.
Upper rooms have London-like views of the back of the Victorian brick buildings lining Jervois Road. But there is also birdsong, calm and huge sky views.
“You need to see the place in the evening,” one of the vendors said. “When the lights are turned on, the lighting plan, even though it was done 20 years ago, is so beautiful. I didn’t know that until I was here the first night.
“I remember sitting amongst all the boxes, popping open a bottle of wine, exhausted, and I was, ‘Oh my God, it is actually so beautiful at night time’.”
Andrew said the house has plenty of wall space for art, but the poured concrete could be serene enough to stand on its own, empty. The stainless steel and marble kitchen and marble bathrooms are timeless, with just the right amount of patina after more than 20 years of use.
The architectural designer for the project, Mark Rantin from MRA Architecture, said he had worked with Bannan on several projects before getting a call to help out on Albany Road.
“[He] wanted something industrial, almost like a dairy factory. Wanted it modern, but didn’t want it trendy. And didn’t want any doors whatsoever,” Rantin said.
“It’s all concrete inside, a suspended concrete slab. It’s a simple house, but it has got a very powerful dynamic because it has got these huge block columns.”
Bannan and his work made a memorable appearance on Grand Designs New Zealand in 2016. The builder created a large three-storey house from concrete poured entirely on site in Point Chevalier and was temporarily blinded after a concrete pipe exploded.
Rantin said Bannan was one of the best in the trade, and it showed in the finish of 1 Albany Road. “Ross was an absolute craftsman, and he did a fantastic job. And [the owner] was brilliant as a client. He was very happy. Literally the first design I came up with, he loved.”
- 1 Albany Road, Herne Bay, Auckland, is for sale, price on application
