Lake's Edge | Dravitzki Brown Architecture | ArchiPro

Overlooking Queenstown’s Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains, Lake’s Edge is a contemporary family home that celebrates incredible views while protecting its privacy on a site that’s exposed to a public walkway. Wrapped in cedar with large built-in timber screens, its ‘big box on little box’ form creates an intimate living space that cantilevers out over an outdoor entertaining room.

The outdoor lifestyle enticed one Te Anau family to move to the heart of Queenstown and build a stunning home in Kelvin Heights on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, which enjoys a north-facing view to popular ski resort Coronet Peak. The homeowners’ global travels have taken them to beautiful hotels around the world, providing the inspiration for the architects’ brief, although more serious site constraints formed the real drivers for this home.

“The lakefront location of this property, the views over the water and up towards Coronet Peak and its sunny aspect are unsurpassed in Queenstown – and you can hear the sounds of the water,” explains Alister, who designed the house in collaboration with his partner Katrina Dravitzki, co-directors at Dravitzki Brown Architecture.

“At night, you can sit in a chair in the lounge and you actually feel like you're on the lake looking at the Coronet Peak lights,” he adds. “It's an absolutely incredible space and everyone who visits becomes immersed in the view – it's just jaw-dropping.”

While the duo were lucky to work with amazing views towards the north and west of the property, they also had to contend with constraints on each side of the section, as well as a very restrictive height plane. The narrow section faces north and slopes down to the water, with a pedestrian walkway along the lakefront, a Hilton Hotel complex located on the western side and a park reserve, which meant that privacy was a key requirement of the design.

“The site is fairly sheltered from the elements so you can sit outside most of the time during the year,” says Katrina. “However, the site is close to a public walkway, so we needed to create large decks at the front to ensure that when you're inside the house, you can't actually see people walking and cycling in front – it's pretty clever.”

The duo has created a ‘big box over a little box’ concept, consisting of a glass box framed by a couple of concrete walls with a cantilevered Swiss Pearl and cedar box flying out over the front. Cedar screens on the sides of the building use an actuated system that controls when they open and close.

“The area underneath the cantilevered form becomes an outdoor room and gives us protection from the sunlight during summer,” says Alister. “We also hit a restriction in terms of how far we could encroach onto the buildable platform, so the cantilevered component of the site allows us to go over into that space and take back area that we wouldn't usually be able to use, as well as making the bedroom above as close to the water as possible.”

Click here to see the full project: https://archipro.co.nz/projects/lakes...