Btech-DesignMedia

Architects: Sarah Scott Architects Ltd
Location: Wanaka, New Zealand
Design Team: Barry Condon, Sarah Scott
Area: 440 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Mickey Ross

Structural Engineer: Spiire NZ (formerly DWK)
Builder: Tony Quirk Builders Ltd

From the architect. The site is located on Roy’s Peninsula on the shores of Lake Wanaka approximately 15km North of Wanaka. The building platform is located at the toe of a glacial escarpment on a naturally occurring terrace. It is surrounded by a broad panorama of the NZ Southern Alps, with views North to the head of Lake Wanaka and West to the mouth of the Matukituki River.

On its chosen site, the house follows the contours along the toe of the hill allowing it to sit into a naturally occurring hollow. The axes that generate the plan begin in the landscape, flow through the house becoming corridors through the building and re-emerge as views into the landscape.

The plan form of the house is respectful of its immediate surroundings, particularly the rocky outcrop to the rear of the building, changing direction to avoid conflict with this naturally occurring feature. This change in direction breaks the plan into three separate entities consisting of a main living space, with two attached bedroom wings.

The individual pavilions are further broken up by the low angled split pitch composition of their roof planes. This eliminates large expanses of roof being visible from a distance. The plan composition is a narrow linear arrangement of rooms connected by a rear corridor. This keeps the width of the building and consequently the height of the roofs to a minimum.