CoLab Architecture

CoLab Architecture is an architecture practice in Christchurch, New Zealand. Its Lunchbox project, Urban Cottage, grew from an appreciation – shared by the client and architect Stephen Goodenough – of the charm and scale of the workers' cottages left over from the city's early colonial period.

Those cottages were small in scale but rich in volume, built from basic materials that were readily available, usually square in plan and often extended with lean-to additions over time. Urban Cottage reinterprets the type in about 80 square metres: black and sleek, like the silhouette of a traditional cottage, with timber cladding outside and plywood, raked ceilings and built-in joinery within.

See Urban Cottage on Lunchbox below.

This Charming Home Is Inspired by Early Colonial Workers' Cottages

Dubbed the Urban Cottage, this modern take on a workers' cottage feels fresh and contemporary in-spite of its early colonial roots.