We're in the Southern Lakes region of New Zealand,
it's proximate to Queenstown but sort of set away from the main sort of urban centre of Queenstown.
The project sits on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, it has proximity to the remarkable mountains.
It's set on a plateau that is sort of elevated from the lake edge,
it sits within a broader curtilage of land, there is no proximity of any other structures.
So when we're designing in these landscapes, the landscape is incredibly powerful.
When you're trying to develop an occupation at a scale that feels
comfortable for the occupants, there is a balance that you're always playing with,
and so the house in our mind had to have a sense of opportunity for that view and and
capturing that view, but then there's also areas where we wanted to have a sense of
removal of the view or reduction of the view and it needs to be moderated and it needs to
be sometimes taken away and then re-presented for its its its impact to be fully understood.
We developed themes that were integral to sort of how we sort of see the building developing,
those included the landscape and the importance of a building that sort of merged with the landscape
and the other strong theme was a sense of ruin, a sense of potentially historic occupation, we liked
the idea that the building didn't get read as a strongly new structure, we liked the sense that
it was embedded with the landscape and potentially was something that had been developed over time.
Opportunity of the reflected landscape, the sort of the green roof, has a sense of being
grounded at both ends. We loved the idea of translating the landscape and lifting it for
the internal occupation but we were very mindful it had to be anchored and brought
down and connected to the ground as well, and the opportunity with doing that externally was
to also internally create volume and a sense of variety to the different spaces and occupation.
So the client brought to us the the concept of Shaker design, the idea of these functional
components of interiors that could be integrated within the building and that theme was something
that we we loved, there was another opportunity to explore an interior occupation that had
its own opportunities beyond the architectural strategies, the discussion on types of furniture
that would sort of be the the backbone of how the internal occupation would sort of develop
was a really strong thing that we enjoyed through our collaboration with the client.
The main living space is considered as a peninsula, it is one space wide that wraps around
a protected courtyard. The courtyard has a strong centre of gravity for the overall composition
of the building on the land, it is the axis to which the public wings of the building are set
and is also the separation from the private occupation of the upper levels.
So the opportunity of taking the bedroom into this elevated position was also to enjoy the
aspect over the roof as a sculptural landscaped form was something that we wanted to enjoy.
The palette of the building externally is really to reflect the landscape, the selection of the
sort of final masonry colour and tone has been influenced by the the rocks and the landscape.
The specification of the planting to the roof has been influenced by the surrounding topography.
The building in essence, looks to its perimeter and its natural environment
for its key ingredients and I think in landscapes like this it is a sense of
comfort that you can occupy something that feels as remote and barren as, you know,
the perimeter of the building but still have a sense of sanctuary and occupation.
The aspiration for the building has been very strongly to integrate it with the landscape,
the project in our mind has been achieved recently
but its development over time is one that we want to track and follow.