Bold is Beautiful | Architecture Now

Tucked away against the slope of a hill in Queenstown’s Shotover Country, this pleasantly quirky house was created for a client with bold tastes using recycled materials, a vivid colour palette and some impressive spatial design.

From the street, this house turns heads with its double-height front facade of silvering macrocarpa weatherboards punctuated by a vertical slot window, and also with its barn-like form which distinguishes it from the majority of its neighbours.

Designed by architectural designer and environmental building consultant Jessica Eyers of Wanaka-based Hiberna, the home reflects a brave client with individual tastes. The brief was to create a home that stood out in the residential subdivision, had unique features inside, and was also as close to passive as the budget could stretch. This prompted the inclusion of a rainwater tank and solar array. 

“We went through many iterations with the design,” says Jessica, who now works predominantly in passive homes. “It has a composting toilet – the first of its kind to be consented in an urban setting in the area. The bathroom features a green wall. And we did well with the performance – the building is very high spec, airtight with an excellent ventilation system and triple glazed timber framed windows.” 

These windows are part of the house’s reuse story. They were created to the wrong size for a project down the country and so were on sale at a heavily reduced price online. With the client having purchased these high quality windows, Jessica was then tasked with designing the house to fit them. 

The owner also found “these beautiful old rimu doors, which add to the industrial aesthetic inside. The main front door has stained glass panels. We were trying to balance the use of reclaimed materials with the thermal performance of the building, so these internal doors were an easy addition.” 

The house also features hardwood floors upstairs, which were reclaimed from the old Christchurch hospital, while the downstairs floors are tiled with underfloor heating to take the chill off in winter. 

Internally, the colour palette is bold, with lime green kitchen cabinetry countered by black walls in the adjoining double-height living room. The living space has a true wow-factor with its lofty ceilings, hung with a large scale industrial style lamp and featuring a steel stair with mesh balustrades. Brightly patterned wallpaper creates unexpected contrast against the grunginess of the colours and materials in this space. 

Bedrooms – two upstairs and one downstairs – are compact but well placed, with some quirks of their own in the form of lighting and curtains. A mezzanine built under the sloped ceiling in one of the bedrooms is an added bonus for adventurous children. 

Surprisingly compact, this 3-bedroom home has a sense of stand-out character that is testament to its brave client and her eclectic tastes, but also works well spatially and thermally for its new owners and their family.