Urbis

Courtyard dreams

When Nick and Clare McIntosh and their two primary-school-aged children moved in to their new home in the Auckland neighbourhood of Grey Lynn, they already knew the house. “We had lived [two doors down],” says Clare. They also knew what changes they wanted to make.

UK-born Clare was inspired by the work of designer John Pawson – the consummate minimalist – whose ideas she came across as a child. “My grandfather and father were both builders,” she explains, “so we had lots of architecture books around the house.”

Later, when she worked

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