Napier Georgian Box Cottage

Chaucer Road, one of Napier’s first roads is listed as both a significant pre-1900 European settlement area, and for pre-European occupation, significant to Māori.   The house, a circa 1860-70 ‘Georgian Box Cottage’, was also architecturally significant since it had endured, relatively intact as one of the original Napier pioneer’s residences through 150+ years of depressions, recessions, wars, earthquakes, and floods.

However, in 2020, despite its rich heritage, still set (almost) on its original totara piles, the house was in a state of dilapidation and in desperate need of rescue.

F+D=A undertook the consultation with two local Iwi groups, Heritage New Zealand, commissioned a Heritage Report and required Site Observation from an Archaeologist, wrote, and submitted the successful Resource Consent Application that argued for the longitudinal subdivision of the site, that would be necessary to finance the venture.  We then documented for Building Consent, the renovation and relocation of the house back five meters on site, to allow for on site carparking, a priority in the 21st century, not considered as important in 1850 New Zealand.

The construction process was also not without its pressures, spanning both the COVID pandemic and Napier Floods of February 2023.

The result is one that F+D=A is proud of: the successful reintegration of a true architectural survivor into a modern world!