3.48 O J Morgan House, Waihi 1953

Job No 64

In 1953, Waihi was adjusting painfully to the loss of the massive goldmining operation that had dominated the town’s economy for decades. The closure of the Martha mine meant development in the town was stalled, land was cheap and plentiful. So it was that Owen and Rosemary Morgan, when they decided to build a home in Waihi, had the luxury of choosing an elevated site with extensive rural views at an attractive price. They commissioned a bold and radical house with flat roof, glass curtain walls and an electrically heated concrete floor pad. When Owen became Mayor of the town, the residence became a popular venue for community functions and musical performances. The design had some limitations – the lack of ceiling insulation made the house hot in summer and cold in winter, and an insulation layer had to be added to the roof, and in due course the bitumenised fabric covering was replaced with long run steel. The choice of cork tiles for flooring unfortunately coincided with the growing fashion for stiletto heels, and required the floor coverings to be replaced.

Especially noteworthy is the use of borrowed light from the kitchen to illuminate the hallway, achieved by the use of internal windows, and the use of the dining room as a central node connecting the four main spaces: lounge, kitchen, utility and sleeping areas. The lounge has a feature wall of Huntly brick, emphasising the symbolic and practical centrality of the family hearth. External cladding is predominantly vertical board and batten.

The house has since been extensively extended, although the original structure is still largely intact. The garage was never built in the location shown on the plans, but was instead oriented at an acute angle to the house to provide access from the side of the property rather than the rear. Owen Morgan, a metallurgist by trade, was a competent handyman in his own right, and he personally built a series of new rooms onto the house as his family grew. He was careful to preserve the structural character of the building, even to the extent of replicating the coffered lounge ceiling in the new extensions.