Rōhi

Rōhi is a small, boutique hotel. It is located in Tāhuna (Queenstown) in Āotearoa New Zealand and sits high on an escarpment overlooking Lake Whakatipu and the alpine township below. The hotel has just four suites, located on the upper two floors with a lobby and concierge drop off at the ground floor. The basement houses a wine bar for guests and locals and the hotel services floor including kitchens. The massing is conceived of as a quiet rectangular stone block, clad in local Tāhuna schist with the building opened and oriented to the east and Lake Whakatipu. The lobby is an inset glass block that is highly transparent and contrasts with the heavy stone box above. A roughly chiseled granite block forms the reception bar and the lounge floor is oriented around a large fireplace to create a sense of warmth and snugness. The ground floor also contains a concierge drop off with staff helping guests check and vehicles parked remotely given the extremely tight site constraints. Each of the four suites occupies half of each floor plate and are approximately 150 square meters each and accessed through a sculpted black oxided concrete core. Each suite contain a large master bedroom with en-suite, separate dining room, living, fireplaces, along with a spa and sauna and are geared around an intimate alpine experience. The basement wine bar is accessed via the hotel but also through a local pedestrian-only side street and is designed as a raw but intimate space. It leverages the hotel kitchen which is also located at this level as are the other hotel service spaces. The materiality of the project is deliberately raw with local hewn stone and rough timber prominent throughout the suites and impart a sense of luxury in their rawness. The core is sculpted but rough formed black oxided concrete and again designed to contrast with the detailed finishes and furniture. The project is designed as a quiet and unassuming building with a sense of cold rawness externally and a soft but dark warmth internally to resonate with the environment it sits amongst.