Kelvin Heights House

This award-winning project is located on a west-facing site overlooking Lake Wakatipu with Ben Lomond beyond.  

The house is in three parts and incorporates three bedrooms and a living wing, a gym and adjacent 25-metre lap pool, an underground cellar, and multiple garaging.

The orientation and L-shaped configuration of the site (an existing house adjoins the south/west boundaries) posed quite a challenge.  The design response to this was a strong composition of linear forms and materials appropriate to the site’s mountainous context.  

A dominant zinc-clad form – a ‘container for living’ – slopes downward with the contours, framing defined views of the lake and mountain backdrop.  Transparency and volume notionally bisect the zinc clad form at mid-point, defining the core of the house and enhancing its relationship with the adjoining outdoor living spaces.

The interior is deliberately restrained, and uses natural materials, including limestone flooring and timber panelled ceilings, as a complement to the view.

While the house is a substantial building, it has been designed to blend discretely with its natural surroundings.