Black Peak/Mount Burke House

Black Peak / Mount Burke House is a retreat located on the shore of Lake Wanaka surrounded by mountains. Its design is intended to embody and extend the owners’ experience of years of camping onsite and to draw a deep connection with the landscape. Significant to the New Zealand/ Aotearoa culture, the land is considered as a mother figure, Papatūānuku, under Ranginui, the sky father, from whom we are all descended. Mountains, rivers and other natural features are considered identities in their own right with several achieving personhood status under New Zealand law. The house is therefore designed as a viewing device, subtly twisted in plan to align with the much loved surrounding peaks. The experience of these are carefully choregraphed into the home to form dialogue and connection to the landscape. The house folds around a central warm microclimate, the courtyard, to provide the arrival under Mt Burke and sheltered outdoor living throughout the year. The courtyard functionally separates two pavilions (the main house and the guest house) into an encampment family of buildings. At the heart of the home is the dining experience, as a series of layered views emanating from the fireplace loggia towards the majestic ridge of the Black Peak within what is known as the Mountain Basin of the Mt Aspiring National Park. Reinforcing the building’s sense of communion and belonging, a material palette has been carefully curated from the local environment. Forming the base of the building and in the walls of the fireplaces are stones sourced from the local mountain quarries. Finely scaled blackened Siberian Larch cladding were charred by hand onsite as were profile Red Cedar beams, columns and vertical fins that were all locally sourced and seasoned. The interior of the house is furnished with French Oak ceilings, cabinetry, and floors with charred Larch walls and natural stone benches and vanities. The aroma of these fill the sun lit house, mingling with the scent of the lake.