Bunker-style home up for award
An Auckland architecture practice has been shortlisted for a global award for audacious plans for a futuristic, partially underground bunkerstyle house planned for Jack’s Pt near Queenstown.
Monk Mackenzie Architects principals Hamish Monk and Dean Mackenzie designed the house as a giant X, with the central hub suspended bridgelike above a wetland area.
Their plans have been shortlisted 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 600mm thick.”
Describing their plans, the architects said: “This private residence engages an uncompromising and breathtakingly beautiful landscape with an equally uncompromising architecture.
“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 wind came from all directions and the sun was often behind the mountain ridge but reflected intensely off the lake, they said. In winter the site was snowbound but in summer it was covered in tussock and wetland flora.
They said the building form strongly established and delineated opportunities for enclosure and inhabitation inside and out.
The Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre by Woods Bagot and two other Monk Mackenzie projects are also shortlisted for awards under the “future” category.