Three generations, two houses, one roof

WELL, WELL, MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN HAS BEEN up to architectural shenanigans, aginagain. Just when I thought I had his number attached to a frenetic canned design in Cass Bay, he goes back to the straight and narrow with Gustorob, a multi-gen family home landlocked on the Canterbury Plains. Indeed, if you discovered Gustorob and the Cass Bay house separately, you might reasonably assume they are the work of different architects, maybe in different countries (what’s that, Lyttelton and Christchurch are different countries?). But that’s the enigma of O’Sullivan. Just when you think you have him figured out, he peels back the onion and your eyes water all over, aginagain.

Let’s start with that name. I wanted to read it as ‘gusto-rob’ and imagine a particularly energetic thief at work nabbing new ideas. The actual etymology is far more lyrical. Gus is a toddler and Rob is his grandad,