Buying and renovating a house of architectural or historic merit can be pretty scary as you balance the different spaces we live in these days with the need to preserve the features that make the house significant in the first place.

One of the residential properties in the Open Christchurch programme is an excellent example of getting both right. The Lucking House was designed by renowned Christchurch architect George Lucking in 1951 as a family home and home office.

It was built as a modest three-bedroom rectangle but George Lucking designed in future additions, some of which were done in 1967, including a new main bedroom and a garage and entry.

In 2020, new owners enlisted Tobin Smith of Common Architecture to update and enlarge the house for modern living. For Tobin, the challenge was to give his clients the modern, open-plan spaces they wanted for their growing family while at the same time honouring the original architect’s intent through sympathetic design.

In an example of great minds thinking alike, after Tobin had completed his drawings for a much-needed addition to family living space, George Lucking’s original drawings resurfaced. They show a planned addition in the exact same spot.

The new living-room addition adopts the strong mono-pitch roof of the 1967 bedroom wing. That addition pitches high to the east, with high-level glazing for morning sun, while the new addition mirrors this to capture afternoon sun and tree-canopy views.

The project excited Tobin from the start – a rare chance to contribute to the legacy of one of the city’s foremost architects and at the same time updating a home for generations to come, thus giving it a future.

“It can be scary looking at buying a house like this, with lots of history and sometimes constraints on what you can do,” Tobin says, “but when it all comes together as it did with Lucking House, the results are worth it, both for the homeowner and the public.”

common.nz