type='image/x-icon'/> Ernst Plischke Buildings in New Zealand: Kahn House

Friday, July 10, 2009

Kahn House

Plischke's first private commission in Wellington, the Kahn house is notable for its sparse framing and innovative sliding glass door, which had to be specially designed. The striking eggshell blue exterior colour scheme has been a feature of the house to the present time.


Designed: 1940/41

Clients: Joachim and Gertrud Kahn

Location: 53 Trelissick Cres, Ngaio, Wellington

Commission: The Kahns were personal friends of the Plischkes

Design Features:

Hilltop site, flat roof, first glass sliding door in NZ. Plischke compared this house with one he designed for his friend, the painter Walter Gamerith, overlooking Lake Attersee in Austria in 1933/34. This comparison, intended to show that the same house design works just as well in Wellington as it does in the Austrian Alps, was written up in his article "Two Houses", published in Design Review, available here.

Construction Details:
Built by H. Bradshaw between 1941 and 1942
Timber skeleton frame with glass infill (i.e. post and beam construction, rather than conventional timber framing)

Current status:
The house has remained in the Kahn family since its construction. It still includes much of the original furniture, and fittings, and is in close to its original condition.

You can see a photo of the building today here.

Heritage Status: Category 1
Registration confirmed BD2005/12/16 on 9 Dec 2005

Sources:
Dennis Sharp and Catherine Cooke, The Modern Movement in Architecture: Selections from the DOCOMOMO Registers, Rotterdam, 2000, p.188
Linda Tyler, "The Architecture of E. A. Plischke in New Zealand: 1939-1962"; University of Canterbury Masters Thesis, 1986
Linda Tyler, "The Urban and Urbane: Ernst Plischke's Kahn House", in Wilson, J., (ed.), Zeal and Crusade: the modern movement in Wellington, Christchurch, Te Waihora Press, 1996, pp. 33-38
E.A. Plishke, "Two houses" in Design Review 02/05 (Feb/Mar 1950), pp.93-95


Reference Number: 35mm-35610-20-F. Object #39929
Exterior view of the Kahn house, Ngaio, Wellington, New Zealand. Photographed by Irene Koppel in 1941
This and the following photos all from the Irene Koppel Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library


Reference Number: 35mm-35607-5-F. Object #39936
Exterior view of the front of the Kahn house, Ngaio, Wellington. Photographed by Irene Koppel in 1941.


Reference Number: 35mm-35607-2-F. Object #36837
Exterior view of the Kahn house. Photograph taken by Irene Koppel between 1965 and 1969


Reference Number: 35mm-35604-25-F. Object #39928
Interior of the Kahn house, Ngaio, Wellington. Photographed by Irene Koppel in 1941


Reference Number: 35mm-35602-14-F. Object #36831
Interior of the Kahn house, Ngaio, Wellington. Photograph taken in 1941 by Irene Koppel.


Reference Number: 35mm-35606-40-F. Object #36832
The dining room of the Kahn house, Ngaio, Wellington. Photograph taken in 1941 by Irene Koppel.


View of Kahn house today, taken from the road.

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