DESIGN CONCEPT

Architects Statement:

The House at Lake Hayes is a pavilion to the panorama, designed for entertaining.  The brief called for a house that allowed both the owners and their guests to experience the big landscape during all the seasons.  The site is a long narrow strip of land stretched between the main road and Mill Creek below, a trout spawning stream for Lake Hayes.

Projecting over a bank the house is at one with the views of Crown Range, Lake Hayes and Coronet Peak that surround.  

Rolling rural grasslands set up the backdrop for the house.  Horizontal bands of pasture, hill and sky create a language that directly translates into the architecture.

The building is organised around an L-shaped terrace providing for both summer and winter dining around a large outdoor fire.

In summer the glazed walls of the house slide back to allow the inside and outside to merge across the outdoor terrace.

A finely battened ceiling hovering over the thick bagged block walls with glass panes stretched between form the living pavilion.  Demolition timber flooring flows throughout connecting the ground floor spaces.  

Cut into the ground floor is the large conversation pit with a generous fireplace for the winter nights.  From the warmth of the pit the busy lights of snow groomers ploughing the slopes of Coronet Peak can be seen.

Upon dusk when the landscape disappears into a muted darkness the house takes on a lantern like quality, appearing almost to suspend in its surroundings.


AWARDS

Recipient NZIA New Zealand Award – Lake Hayes House
Recipient NZIA Local award – Lake Hayes House


FEATURES   There is space for formal and informal dining including a stunning outside fire, a fully equipped luxury kitchen and extensive grounds which boast a spa with an uninterrupted view towards Lake Hayes.   The lounge features the ‘pitt’, a unique lounge area that is set into the floor creating a relaxed and intimate space with a open fire and discrete retractable plasma screen.
3 bedrooms – 2 Queen rooms and a bunk room with 4 double bunks; open plan living and dining; optional 24/7 concierge service available     LOCATION

Lake Hayes, nr Arrowtown, Queenstown     RATES

NZ$1450 - 1750 for up to 12 guests
Min 3 night stay