Guest
The site is a naturally formed terrace snuggled into the gentle north-sloping base of Queenstown Hill, overlooking the untamed Shotover River which disappears around the bend. The clients are staunch locals, having spent most of their life in a modest cottage on the same road. They have owned the site for twenty years; planting and tending to the now mature grapes on the terraces above the site. They sought a permanent home here, a home for a lifestyle of mature years in the country, making wine, and tinkering with old cars. The concept was presented as a cluster of four robust rectilinear pavilions laid informally along the terrace. Off the form concrete boxes, walls, and parapets wrapped in rusting Corten steel, and blackened steel joinery. The project revealed itself as something akin to a wild-west shanty town. Each pavilion has a distinct, self-sufficient program. The central pavilion includes a bright open living space flanked by a generous kitchen, the clients’ bedroom suite, and the
