Amazing Architecturally-Designed Skylark Cabin Airbnb

twizel is home to some of the most dramatic and beautiful landscape in the country and today we've traveled here to meet a man who's built an incredible small home to take advantage of all of this and you'll be happy to know he's set it up as an airbnb so you can enjoy it too [Music] hey gary how are you good thanks good to see you it's great to meet you and i'm very excited to see this beautiful home of yours great it's been a bit of a journey for us so we're pleased to have you here it is a pleasure to be here so obviously i want to talk about the home but first i have to talk to you about this incredible section how did you find this place yeah just really really lucky my wife has family connection down here so we were visiting the area and she fell in love with it right place right time and convinced me to buy it and i don't regret it one little bit 10 acres of just great landscape it sure is i mean you've got these incredible imposing mountains in the backdrop and beautiful dramatic colours with the grass oh it changes every day the weather sort of predominantly comes from that way and you can see it coming up the ranges and it just changes color as it's moving along and you know some days it's a bright red sunset and other nights it's all dark and gloomy and thundery sort of hopefully like what tonight will be absolutely and the design of this house really is just quite brilliant you worked together with an architect on this didn't you yeah that's right barry connor from christchurch he's been involved in another couple of projects that we've done just a natural guy to go to for us fortuitously he's got a holiday home just down the road as well so we managed to combine trips for him down here and visiting the site in it so we come up with an idea talked to barry and um he sexed it up for us he certainly did it really does just marry perfectly with the environment and it is just a striking house to look at yeah thank you for that we love it we really do it's different and yeah we could have built something a heck a lot cheaper if it was just a cookie cutter one off a design somewhere but that's just not us we like to be complicated and this certainly was complicated even though it's only 50 square meters i don't think there's a straight line or a straight angle anywhere and what was your reason for wanting to build a small home on the land the council allows two dwellings on the size block of land so they allow a minor dwelling which is under 50 square meters and a major dwelling so we decided that we'd do the minor dwelling first and then we'll do the major dwelling later on great idea and the colour scheme that you've chosen for the house is really unique as well the black and then the startling contrast with the orange yeah that was on purpose the siberian larch is the timber and that can fade to very golden color and the architect was originally thinking that we'll leave it like that so it would go into the landscape much more but then we decided that the contrast was much nicer and just to break it up and to show that connection with the ground is why we chose the orange paint we love it now the house itself is beautiful but you have gone to the next level with the landscaping here as well haven't you i believe that the landscaping is just as important as the house you can have a beautiful house and if you don't do the landscaping it just doesn't do it justice so you've got to spend that time and effort and energy to do it and we're lucky here with this environment that it's quite easy to try and replicate absolutely i totally agree with that sentiment because the house is important that's our shelter but it's also really nice to build in these assets that encourage us to spend time outside you've got to in this sort of place here half the reason you come here is to see the outside here in the mckenzie basin you know we've got the world's largest night sky reserve so you've got to recognize that and incorporate it into your home design if you didn't do that you wouldn't be doing the place justice so we've got the outdoor bathtub we've got the front deck and sort of sitting areas outside and it's just nice to sit out there in the late at night and all you hear is maybe frogs five kilometers away sound just travels so fast here at night time now obviously in the future your plan is to live here full time but right now it is a holiday home and you're also renting it out on airbnb yeah that's right we thought well we're not here all the time why not try it once we finished the house we decided that you know what are we going to do with it and because my partners still in christchurch studying and i float between the two when i'm not here it just seemed a waste that it wasn't being utilized and having that extra income it's a bonus it does help well this home really is something very special i love its striking exterior i love the way that it fits into the landscape and i am very excited to see the interior design should we check it out we should come on in after you thank you so come on in bryce thank you very much oh wow now this is something very special first of all your eye is just completely drawn to that incredible circular skylight yeah we're pleased with that it was actually a last minute decision we thought that we needed a point of difference in the night sky like we were saying before you've got to take advantage of it and why not and it's quite unusual immediately walking into a home and being in the sleeping area you were pleased with the way it is because people come in they open the door they can see outside and the skylights the first thing in here that they see and then when they turn around here they get the view outside so we want to draw people to the skylight first and then be outside and i think it is quite nice because stepping into this part of the home it immediately feels very comfortable and very welcoming yeah it is the plywood it gives you that nice sort of warm sort of enclosed feeling the place is mimicked on a skylark because on this ground here on the section we have skylarks and rabbits and we thought we'll recognize the skylarks so we wanted to make it look like the inside of a skylux nest so it was all earthy sort of colors and and the ribs and all that yeah very very nicely done and i really do like what you've done with the lighting here as well the strip lighting is just very unobtrusive but it really adds a lot of character to the home we agree we talked about having sort of different sorts of lighting you know the pendant type lights and that but because the place is only 50 square meters all those visual obstructions is what i call them you've got to remove them all and the led strip lighting perfect yeah wonderfully done i like the way that you've lowered the window there as well to really get the view of the exterior from when you're lying in bed yeah that was deliberate outside there you'll see all the grasses in that so it's just really nice to be able to open up that curtain in the morning and just roll over and look out rather than having to sit up to look out absolutely and i like how you've got the storage behind the bed there as well yep you've always got a place to put a book or a glass of wine very important tidy wardrobe in the corner there too tidy little wardrobe yes and a little bit of shelving there for storage excellent and then what do we have behind the bit there um come down this way and we'll show you let's check it out we've got the ensuite directly behind the headboard all right and this is the um ensuite door and then behind it in this sort of cupboard space we've got the washing machine and dryer which can be converted back into a wardrobe space if we ever wanted to yeah great idea putting that there and then can we check out the ensuite certainly there we go oh now this is beautiful first of all that shower is really something and i especially love the way that you've put the doorway in there to connect to the shower with the outdoors yeah because we've got the bathtub outside um we wanted a logical access point to the bathtub and to the cabin you know it's nice to be outside you can come back in and then put your bathrobes on and back into the house and i really like your choice of tiles in here as well it's very earthy and makes it feel like a very strong room yeah it does we've talked before about the grass outside and paying tribute to that and we also have rocks on the ground and we have a lot of them so we thought that we should connect the bathroom with that as well and you've complemented the stone with some lovely modern black fixtures as well yeah that's right we didn't want to cause that visual clutter by having lots of color and black was just the natural continuation yeah and you've got the combination of timber and metal and stone really all of the elements being represented here yep earthy yeah and i see you've got a flashing toilet here as well so you're on a subject system yes we are yeah and then where does your water come from um a bore 71 meters down i think and that gets pumped up from a submersible pump into a water tank and then from the water tank pump to the house excellent so you've got a good water supply here beautiful beautiful fresh underground water great well should we check out the rest of the house yeah come on through oh wow immediately that view just absolutely dominates this room doesn't it it does which is why we put the big windows at the end there and it's just great sitting on the couch or on the chair there reading a book and just watching the world go by it really is just so special having that view and i love the way that everywhere you stand in this house there really is something to look at out one of the windows and on purpose we have this fantastic landscape out there so we just have to see it and this kitchen really is very beautiful again it just ties so well into the house that's right again it was a very deliberate choice previous houses we've had big bright you know green and orange kitchens and that but that didn't really suit this sort of environment or the structure so we decided to keep it minimal and go black again yeah and again you've got plenty of storage and everything here there's enough storage in here for a full house you know my partner she's a fantastic cook so she wanted a full-size kitchen and i'm glad that we did it great and all of the necessary appliances in here too yep this drawer microwave oven induction cooktop and i like how you have the one piece welded bench top and sink as well because again it goes with that sort of minimalist and very tidy theme in here and also hygienic you know if you have the basins that have been put on top of a laminate or something like that you've always got that look that's um gathers all the grit that is just about impossible to get out so you have a much more hygienic surface very true and you've got a lovely little dining table here as well very romantic by the fire that's right it is and it's just the right size it can be folded down and put against the wall if we have more people here and need more floor standing space we have it and it really is lovely to see this fire here as well it's such a lovely feature in the house and it gets pretty chilly here so it's very important it does we have snow down on the ground here probably a couple of times a year and you just want to hibernate and in front of a great little fire like that it's perfect it sure is and then of course complementing the cosy fire is this very comfortable looking lounge yeah it is it's very comfortable it's surprising you don't feel claustrophobic even with 10 people in here and it's a good size and then again the lounge is just so wonderfully open to this incredible vista in the deck outside yeah those stacking doors fold all the way across and that outdoor deck just becomes part of the lounge yeah i love the stone on the deck as well what's the story behind that a lot of effort and energy to lug that into position i bet but we got it there and um once it was there it wasn't going to go anywhere so we built the deck around it it really is one of those things that just fits in so well with the rest of the character the house because it looks like this house was built around nature and that stone is a perfect symbol of that it is we have intruded into the natural landscape so it's only right that the natural landscape should have a prominent place within the house i completely agree so how long have you been in this home now i've been living here predominantly for the last six months but the building process took about two years i've been involved from day one and i was the first person to put a pig in the ground i then realized how rocky the ground was and i had to shift that peg about five times and then i had to dig a big hole to put the peg in a bit of dirt to make that pig stay in the right place so yeah i've seen it from the very very beginning to now and i could tell you what's in behind every sheet of ply on this wall and it's nice having that connection to it and how are you actually finding living in the home i love it absolutely love it i've lived in big houses before you know five bedrooms multiple bathrooms big car garages but the reality is you don't need all that 50 square meters is just an ideal size and i bet your airbnb guests just find this incredible all the reviews we've had so far have all been fantastic they'll be fantastic guests and it's the landscape that everyone seems to talk about everyone just loves the architecture and the skylight seems to be number one oh i bet so for our airbnb guests this is a place that they can relax and recuperate i think it's hopefully for them a chance to reflect and reconnect with each other the place here is for two people and that was on purpose because it's a place that we feel that gives us connection and we're hoping that others receive the same from this environment in our house and so far they seem to and what would you say your absolute favorite thing about being an airbnb host is reading the reviews it just reinforces what we feel about the place because in all honesty you know when you're building the place you see it every single day it becomes lost in you so when someone says oh my god what a great place it just ratifies what you hoped the place would be like when you built it and it has and can i ask what this home cost to build because it's so condensed and because we have all the appliances and we chose to upgrade on most things it's around about 8 000 a square meter which is more than what you would normally pay so in total we're looking at about 400 000 then for this home and i do think that is a really wonderful budget considering the landscaping that's gone into it considering the really high quality fixtures and fittings all throughout the home and this really is a dream place to call home now it is it's a lovely place to live in you don't need a lot of space around you i think it's more enclosing it's more comforting living in a small place like this so this home is a sanctuary i used to be in a corporate world and i just got tired of that stress so coming down here and having this sort of vista to look at and the quietness it's serene it's just a really great place to reconnect with yourself well gary you really have done just an exceptional job with the design and the build of this home i love the way that walking into the space you just feel completely protected from the elements and yet completely immersed in this wonderful landscape at the same time thank you so much for sharing it with me thank you very much cheers this really is such a beautiful small home it's incredibly practical in its design and yet absolutely astoundingly beautiful one of the things that i like best about it is that it just looks like it's meant to be there the way that the architecture complements the landscape is just perfect because ultimately really that house is about celebrating all of this and i especially like that gary's decision to become an airbnb host has not only enriched his experience with this home it also means that you get to share it [Music] too [Music] i want to say a huge thank you to airbnb for partnering with us on this video and helping to make what we do possible all over the world it's so inspiring to see people like gary who have constructed these wonderful incredible homes and who open them up so that you can get to experience them through airbnb if you have a special place that you'd like to share and if you're interested in becoming an airbnb host make sure you click the link in the video description to find out more you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 711,938

Rating: 4.956594 out of 5

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, tiny home, small house, small home, tiny house tour, small home tour, home tour, architecture, home design, airbnb, airbnb host, unique airbnb, unique accomodation, tiny house airbnb, small space design, alternative living, downsizing, minimalist home, living big, bryce langston

Id: xp6qhyiuKsk

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021