This Wānaka property has been judged one of the best in the country, Kim Dungey reports.
Set near the lake in Wānaka, this holiday home was designed with family and friends in mind.
Architectural designer Sam Connell and his wife have a long connection with the area. Although their family home and his practice, Figure & Ground, are in Christchurch, they have holidayed in the region since they were young and Mr Connell regularly does work there.
With their children getting older, the couple decided it was time to create a holiday home of their own — buying the section from a developer, who had created five lots around an old homestead at the western end of Wānaka.
"There’s no lake views but it’s only 1200m into town and only a couple of hundred metres to the shore front," Mr Connell says, adding they considered buying an elevated site with a view but opted for something closer in so their daughters could easily walk or scooter to town.
The main focus was on creating flexible sleeping arrangements, ensuring ample room for guests to gather and stay. With five bedrooms and three bathrooms, it can comfortably accommodate 14 people.
Taking its cues from the Central Otago vernacular, the plan is made up of two gabled forms — one containing the living areas, garage and loft space; the other comprising bedrooms and bathrooms.
The two-storey bedroom wing is clad in locally-sourced schist and the living pavilion, in horizontal cedar with vertical cover battens.
Cedar also wraps around the covered outdoor area to the north, where couches are arranged around an outdoor fireplace. An extension of the main living space, this area has electric blinds to provide privacy from the bustling Wānaka-Mt Aspiring Rd.
Inside, the natural materials continue, with oak flooring, raked cedar ceilings in the main living area and oak veneer kitchen cabinetry.
Floor-to-ceiling windows create a seamless connection between inside and out, offering views of the tree-lined street and providing a sense of spaciousness, despite the home’s compact footprint.
The large trees on the street presented a challenge as the owners had to work with the Queenstown Lakes District Council on what would be an acceptable breach into their drip line. However, they give the section an established feel, while also providing shelter from the intense summer sun and from the wind off the lake.
"In winter, they drop their leaves and give us great northern light coming through," he says.
Understated but inviting, the house won the national award for new homes between 150sqm and 300sqm at the recent Architectural Designers’ Awards. Mr Connell also won the national award for multi-unit housing for six contemporary townhouses that replaced earthquake-damaged flats in central Christchurch.
While he is proud of the work Figure & Ground is doing, the accolades were unexpected, he says.
"Each year, the competition gets tougher and tougher and a couple of years ago, I thought it was going to be impossible to win a regional award, let alone a national one. To pick up two of them was amazing."
The judges said the Wānaka property was a "finely-calibrated work of domestic architecture", adding it achieved a strong sense of belonging through its thoughtful articulation of material, mass and light: "Elegantly proportioned and precisely detailed, it positions itself as a benchmark of contemporary New Zealand residential design".
