Jewel in the crown

Melinda Williams takes a look inside an award-winning home in Central Otago.

Building a house in Central Otago is not usually a straightforward proposition.

The magnificent natural landscapes - one of the biggest drawcards for the often wealthy purchasers in the area - are rigorously protected by covenants that require houses to blend with their surroundings in an unobtrusive way.

Auckland-based architecture practice Fearon Hay has considerable experience with cleverly adhering to the area's covenants, and its Alpine Terrace House, one of the Gold Pin residential winners at this year's Best Design Awards and a regional winner in the Master Builders' House of the Year, is no exception.

Commissioned by a couple who travel regularly between multiple homes in multiple countries, it was designed to be a protective sanctuary and a picture frame for the incredible 360-degree views that encompass the Gibbston Valley, the Wakatipu Basin and across to Arrowtown.

A substantial home of more than 350sq m, the house sits low in the landscape and yet appears to float just above it, on a concrete plinth with a cantilevered edge as the ground slopes gently away from the main entrance.

The house is composed of four linked rectangular buildings that form a fortress around an open interior courtyard: a pair of guest rooms and a kitchen designed for social occasions; a dining space flanked by two sitting areas; the master suite, bathroom and library; and a reading room with mudroom, coats and garaging.

When the weather is harsh and the wind is up, as it often is in the area, the exterior of the house can be shut down with folding external shutters, with the focus of the home turning inwards towards the central courtyard. On beautiful, clear days, the shutters can be rolled back, opening the home up towards the encircling mountain vistas.

The house is clad in a combination of dark-stained cedar, blue steel and darkened stone, forming a low-profiled, receding form in the park-like landscape around it. The gently pitched planes of the roof stop the building from presenting as a relentless block, and instead add a subtle sculptural element.

Inside, the interiors have been rendered in dark colours - primarily Resene's Bokara Grey, a charcoal black with warm red and yellow undertones - to keep the eye drawn to the views, creating a seamless transition from outside to inside and giving the generous spaces a restful, enclosing atmosphere.

The home's interiors were designed by one of the owners, interior designer Dean Sharpe, who also runs luxury accommodation agency Archistay, which rents architecturally designed homes (including this one) to travelling design connoisseurs when the owners are abroad.

Tim Hay, who along with Jeff Fearon directs Fearon Hay, says it was a great experience working with him.

"He was a fantastic client in terms of a collaboration. The design of the house was originally prepared some time ago for another client, who didn't go ahead with it. Dean picked it up and worked with us to deliver something that was very true to the original idea, but also with an injection of Dean's interior spirit ... ''

The dark tones of the house form something akin to a jewel-box setting for the extensive collection of art and antiques the owners have acquired over the years, which adds splashes of colour and texture throughout the living spaces.

Subtle interior detailing - such as a 3mm negative detail on the wall linings and the luxurious materiality in the bathrooms, which were inspired by retreat spas in Asia - elevate the finish of the house.

As the Best Awards judges noted in their comment: "The residence settles completely and utterly into its location with exceptional detail, and a sensitivity that responds to its changing environment through the seasons.''

- viva.co.nz

Behind the scenes 

The clean simple lines of this Crown Terrace house belie the large amount of work that went into its construction.

"It was a massively labour-intensive house,'' builder John Gavin says, adding the project took nearly two years and was almost like a small-scale commercial build.

A lot of engineering detail and structural steel were required because of the exposed site, which is 646m above sea level, and because of the cantilevered concrete floors, which extend about 1.2m from the master bedroom and the lounge, he adds.

The house sits on a compacted concrete foundation with insulation on top of this and an additional 200mm top slab containing underfloor heating.

The home is owned by New Zealander Dean Sharpe and Australian Bentley de Beyer, who in the past 15 years have divided their time between New Zealand, Singapore, India and the United States. At present, they live in New York City, where Mr de Beyer works for a global healthcare company and Mr Sharpe runs design and build projects and a freelance interior design consultancy.

The many elements not commonly seen in residential builds included full-height pivot doors, the front one clad in steel, says Mr Gavin, a builder in Queenstown for 38 years. The entry has concrete tilt panel walls, a polished concrete floor and an in-situ concrete roof, while the en suite features large, 3m long by 1m wide, tiles and "spectacular'' views of the Remarkables through floor-to-ceiling glass.

Presenting John Gavin Construction Ltd with a gold award for new homes over $2 million, a lifestyle award for interior design and the bathroom excellence award, the judges in this year's southern regional Master Builders' House of the Year praised the home's "incredible'' attention to detail: "The final product is a lasting testament to the owners' love of the area and to the world-class skills of the Kiwi builders, designers and architects who created it,'' they said. It also won a gold reserve award, one of only 100 awarded nationally, and will go on to the national finals next month.

- By Kim Dungey