Auckland

Fernie house’s sun and views are situated at the back of the house, and so then are the most important rooms. This is a plan that echoes many of Hooper’s South Island homes. Unlike those however, Fernie house includes a diamond-shaped window, a motif Hooper only used once in the South Island but became one of his hallmarks on his North Island homes.

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Some might say that Hooper’s Auckland houses lack the assured unity of his pre-war Dunedin homes. Alternatively, he was able to adapt to the simpler standards of domestic design in the 1920s. The house built for A.D. Lambourne is typical of Hooper’s Auckland domestic work. It is built in weatherboard and is much more simplistic in roof and plan than his earlier designs.

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Pollard house is emblematic of Hooper’s pared down Auckland style. The details of the roofing and bay windows a typical of Hooper but the design is almost anonymous.

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Johnson House is Hooper’s most striking large Arts and Crafts design in Auckland. Hooper was not the Johnson’s first choice of architect and was only approached after a dispute with another architect they had already employed. The Johnson House design is based on that of one of Hooper’s Dunedin buildings chosen by Mrs Johnson, though the plan appears an amalgam of the Dunedin ‘Harptree’, Thorp House and Orbell House of Timaru, among others. Recently Johnson House has undergone major alterations including extending the living room, replacing the porch with a garage and modernising the kitchen.

Click for Ground Floor Plan   Click for First Floor Plan

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Takle House is a medium-sized brick building that follows a common 1920s architectural design trope, a four-room (ground floor) layout with bedrooms above. This essentially English plan form signified discrete good taste amongst the city’s professionals. The roof of Takle House is similar to that of Oldin House and the scale reminiscent of 1909 ‘Harptree’, the 1912 Throp House and the Grindley House.

Click for Ground Floor Plan  Click for First Floor Plan

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There has been some discussion among Hooper scholars about whether the house on Seabreeze Road is definitely a Hooper. It is a simple bungalow with few stylistic flourishes apart from the lozenge window by the front entrance. Rough and Hooper placed a tender for a dwelling at Narrow Neck for Edith and Gilbert Lewin and it is most likely this house. See comment by Chris Baughen at the bottom of the page.

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Unknown House, Gorrie Avenue, date unknown.

There are a number of domestic Auckland buildings that trigger debate between Hooper experts as to whether they can be attributed to the architect or not. The house on Gorrie Avenue is a weatherboard, two storey bungalow, the upper floor appearing to have been extended reasonably recently. The building features common Hooper hallmarks such as bay windows, front verandah and ornate brackets.

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The Campbell Road house is less typical when compared to known Auckland Hooper houses. The residence does have similarities to Dunedin staples, the use of Marseilles tiles and large bracing chimney stacks are not generally seen in Auckland but are in a few Dunedin examples.

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Unknown House, Shore Road, date unknown
Image taken from Google Street view, accessed 2015.

Shore Road house is again disputed, the more complex roof pattern and optimal use of  a sloped site are reminiscent of a number of Hooper’s Dunedin houses, particularly Grindley House.

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Shaw House, Ranfurly Rd, date unknown.

The home Hooper designed for J. Shaw has been altered dramatically since its initial construction, now more closely resembling a modern or Neo-Georgian country house than any of Hooper’s domestic buildings.

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