Fred van Brandenburg was approached by Chinese fashion label Marisfrolg two years ago to build a fashion house like no other.
His design, which includes 4.8ha of gardens, a boutique hotel, catwalk, factory, water features and a 35m-high lotus leaf tower - mainly made of stone and glass - has been approved by the label owners.
Known for his work on Millbrook Resort and several luxury lodges, Mr van Brandenburg, who emigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands more than two decades ago, said he "was a modernist, but now I am moving to structural art".
"The concept for this came quite quickly and I was given free rein to do what I want."
The exact cost of the Chinese building could not be divulged but it was hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.
Work on the fashion house, which was expected to be completed within five years, had begun in an industrial park at Shenzhen, in Guangdong province in the south of China.
The design was influenced by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, famous for the uncompleted Sagrada Família Catholic church in Barcelona, Spain.
He was an architect influenced by nature rather than traditional architecture, Mr Brandenburg said.
With no architectural software capable of replicating his "bird in flight" design, the architect discovered the Otago Polytechnic product development centre had specialist software which would enable him to replicate his creation.
"If we can make models of this, then builders can build it."
Otago Polytechnic product design graduate Griff Humphreys moved from Queenstown to Dunedin to work with Mr van Bradenburg and his son, Damien, who is also an architect.
"Designing something like this in Dunedin has been very easy."
Otago Polytechnic Evolver Design Innovation director Pat Maguire said it was exciting for the polytechnic staff and students to be involved in the project.
