An eye-catching new garage redevelopment in the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn seems to qualify for the oft used descriptive 'small but perfectly formed'.

The stylish combo of garage with compact apartment above brings together a collation of contemporary design elements with a sharp edged, street-side impact usually only reserved for full scale residential projects.

Careful colour control blended the main components — a random-laid cedar cladding system stained in black, a black standing-seam steel roof and artfully incorporated ThermalHEART windows and doors from Vantage in Matt Black powder coat.

The project, a collaboration between the clients and architectural designers, Intelligent Design of Lower Hutt, skilfully combined two objectives: the need to replace a dilapidated garage and the opportunity to provide a small city pad for country-based parents. A total reconstruction recycled only a part of the original concrete slab and added a 60m² apartment with kitchen/living area and one bedroom with ensuite.

"We wanted a design that blended in with the existing timber fence and large stand of Pohutukawa trees," said the client. The tandem garage footprint, with two cars parked end-on-end rather than side by side, was chosen in order to minimise the width of the structure and save a very old Pohutukawa on the property. Environmental good intentions seem to have earned an architectural reward in both scale and aesthetic 'fit' that local residents have commented on admiringly.

With generous glazing throughout, it was decided to have a thermally broken window suite with Metro Series' ThermalHEART to ensure that warmth was retained in winter. Wide sliding doors were installed to maximise the view to the western hills. Further colour coordination with the aluminium joinery was provided by Plantation’s bamboo floor boards painted black.

Other Metro Series products included raking and standard fixed lights and awning windows.