Hilltop Retreat
Design and build by Hunter & Craig
The brief:
The house is nestled high on the Cairnmuir Hills on an area of significant natural landscape. The resource consent had very rigorous constraints and our clients had very specific ideas about what they wanted to achieve so the design brief was challenging.
The project:
The home is situated amongst tors up to 10 metres high and is contained within a defined excavation to minimise site disturbance. For our designers, this was a challenging site to work with, coupled with the client’s specific spatial needs and a long list of details around the cladding, interior spaces, finishes etc. The 20m long entrance runs though rocks that are up to 4m high. Our builders were tasked with delivering their usual high-quality result in very restrictive conditions. The site was spectacular but the saying “between a rock and a hard place” certainly resonated with us for this build. At times, building had to take place within 50mm of the cut rock walls. We modified some of our standard construction methods to enable construction to occur in a way that enabled continuous site and house access. This required thinking ahead 3 or 4 months.
The result:
The building team was stretched as they grappled with the site constraints, tight timelines and Covid lockdowns. This was not a project for the faint-hearted but as you can see, the result was worth it and the home owners are overjoyed.
Awards:
This extraordinary home is an epic marvel, skilfully carved into the rock and meeting challenging resource consent requirements. Hunkering into the hillside topography, the craftsmanship shines through in the well-executed standing seam roofing and cladding, cleverly capturing stormwater runoff under the decks. The fully glazed shower enclosure boasts stunning design and execution – a pet project of Hunter & Craig Building & Design. This home exemplifies the design and build formula working at its very best, including showcasing the builder’s prototyped recessed concealment of window treatments. Despite a tight timeline, the result is a stunning Arizona-esque hillside retreat in Bannockburn.
Master Builders House of the year 2023
This home won the Supreme House of the Year – Under $1 Million, Altus Window Systems New Home $750,000 – $1 million Category, a Special Award and a Gold Award.
