The five-bedroom 360sqm house at 4 Fishermans Lane, Mount Creighton, which was rebuilt in 2019, has an impressive design provenance that spans the globe.
The design was driven by British-based designer Alex Willcock, whose work and home studio Kemps House has appeared in global design bibles such as the New York Times magazine and Harpers Bazaar.
The planned remake of an existing building, that overlooks Bobs Cove about 20 minutes out of Queenstown, quickly escalated into a full-scale rebuild resulting in a luxury five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home.
The owner, global business advisor and investor David Lawn, has quite the design chops himself. The Christchurch-born brand expert ran surf brand Rip Curl in Australia and launched yoga retailer Lululemon into Australasia, after stints with Country Road, jeanswest and The Limited in the US.
Willcock, the designer originally from Australia, was a furniture maker who worked with British design icon the late Sir Terence Conran running the iconic Conran stores (he was married to Conran’s daughter Sophie). He studied under big architectural names like Norman Foster and the Italian Ettore Sottsass, and, more recently, founded hot new furniture company Maker & Son with his son, Felix Conran. Lawn was an early investor in the company.
Hamish Walker, of Walker & Co, said you can see how Lawn brought his design flair to the house.
"That’s why it’s so different and special. It’s a real retreat and the buyer will be the same sort of person – a high-flying corporate living in the city or off-shore. You always look at the current owner to get an idea of what the buyer will be.
"His friends run huge multinational teams and fly in from all around the world, they sometimes bring their teams for corporate retreats."
"I would put this property in the category of humble luxury: every little detail has been carefully planned and crafted. It’s designed in a way that isn’t over the top and you can really connect with the environment.
"A certain high-end echelon of the market would recognise this sort of quietly luxurious design."
The building features plaster, bespoke precast concrete panels and huge sliding glass walls that can open the house to the land. Things like the thick aluminium Vitrocsa windows and sliding glass panels and large automated custom-made Accoya sunscreens are new to New Zealand, and, like many of the international products and technologies, were used here for the first time. Features include Danish Dinesen flooring, a motorised lighting and systems control technology, ground source heat pumps and cooling, Italian tapware and more.
The minimalist design features mirrored splashback to reflect the view. There’s a media room and a guest wing, while the master bedroom features a suspended fireplace and striking tiled bathroom.
Lawn, who is selling the property because his international business commitments mean he is no longer travelling to New Zealand, told OneRoof that the sense of calm and remoteness is what makes the Fishermans Lane house so special.
"The best thing about living here is the sense of being in nature. The lake changes all the time and the views of the lake and mountains are captivating," he said.
"We cold water swim in the lake accessed by a private path to the little beach just below us and use the trails to walk and bike around the area."
Walker would not comment on the likely price of the property, which has an RV of $8.45 million.
"It will be interesting to see where it ends up price-wise," he said.
"The cost to rebuild something like this isn’t cheap, a replacement cost would be getting close to $10m today.
"It’s the best of the best in terms of design and construction located in a very special area."
- OneRoof
