Kahn House

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.	Designed & Built: 1940-41 Location: 53 Trelissick Cres, Ngaio, Wellington The Kahns were personal friends of the Plischkes. 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: 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
Reference Number: 35mm-35607-2-F. Object #36837 Exterior view of the Kahn house. Photograph taken by Irene Koppel between 1965 and 1969	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
Reference Number: 35mm-35604-25-F. Object #39928 Interior of the Kahn house, Ngaio, Wellington. Photographed by Irene Koppel in 1941	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-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.
The Kahn house today. Photo: Tony Richardson 2009