WANAKA HOUSE
(in cooperation with Marmol Radziner and Associates, Los Angeles, USA)

HMA is working in partnership with USA firm Marmol Radziner and Associates to develop a California style house, refined to sit in a Central South Island context.

The challenge is set: revisit the Pavilion House Style and adapt its traditional layered horizontal planes to local planning rules and extreme weather conditions;  and of course, take advantage of the spectacular views to the north of the site.  Our client requests clever detailing to deliver cost effective solutions to these parameters.

Stepping the house across the site and running the main roof slope parallel to the hillside allows the house to find a niche in the topography.  Heavy stone & plaster walls create a spine along the back of the house which anchor the dwelling to the land.

The design responds to the local context with careful choice of materials, merging the house with the surrounding landscape when viewed at a distance, but retaining a sense of character when met at a personal scale.  Illustrating that a house can adhere to strict planning regulations, and still make an exciting design statement.