An Auckland architecture practice has been short-listed for a global award for audacious plans for a futuristic, partially underground bunker-style house planned for Jack's Point near Queenstown.
Hamish Monk and Dean Mackenzie of Monk Mackenzie Architects designed the partially underground bunker-style house as a giant X, with the central hubsuspended bridge-like above a wetland area.
How the house would look mid-summer, surrounded by tussock.
Their plans have been short-listed by the World Architecture Festival 2017 under the future category and the results will be out in November.
The site outside overlooks Lake Wakatipu at the foothills of The Remarkables mountain range and Monk said he was confident the house would be built.
"A lot of people ask that. A lot of people look at it and ask if it's a real project but yes it is," Monk said.
"The client is a keen golfer. Part of the brief is for him to rent this out as a luxury home."
The 670sq m house has six bedrooms, a media suite, spa, sauna and steam room with central living/kitchen/dining, he said.
Asked how the roof would cope with snow, Monk said it was designed to take the load: "The whole roof structure is a post-tension concrete slab, up to 600ml thick."
The house is designed to sit low in the landscape, dominated by The Remarkables.
The architects described their plans.
"This private residence engages an uncompromising and breathtakingly beautiful landscape with an equally uncompromising architecture," they said.
The X-form layout of the house is visible in this image.
"Resolutely grounded in its site, the structure is anchored at four points but arches to bridge a natural watercourse bisecting the site. To the east, the mountains present an imposing backdrop. To the west, the site descends to the lake edge, offering long views of sheer cliffs meeting the water line. Here, the climate and weather is highly variable - a consequence of the great openness of the lake meeting the enclosure of the mountain range," the architects said.
The hub of the planned house is at the centre of the X.
The wind comes from all directions and the sun is often behind the mountain ridge but reflects intensely off the lake, the said. During winter, the site is snowbound but in summer it is covered in tussock and wetland flora.
Architects Hamish Monk (left) and Dean Mackenzie.
The building form strongly establishes and delineates opportunities for enclosure and inhabitation internally and around its perimeter, they said.
The Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre by Woods Bagot and two other Monk Mackenzie projects are also shortlisted for awards under the 'future' category.
