Grand Designs New Zealand | Wanaka Wedge

normally an architect starts at the beginning creating something especially for you but what if you came across your grand design on the internet it had never been built and it was designed for completely different conditions on the other side of the world [Applause] musicians justine cormack and mark today have always loved the dramatic landscape of central otago it's gorgeous the reds of the trees at this point beautiful justine was brought up in christchurch but has spent 30 years away the mountains definitely give me a sense of grounding i love walking through this landscape and it just settles me the whole time i've been away i felt a real pull to come back mark comes from america's new york state he met justine playing with the new zealand symphony orchestra in the late 80s this was when he discovered the raw natural beauty of these mountains being a musician it's it's impossible not to be inspired by the landscape i was just gobsmacked by the beauty i've always wanted to end up here but tied to work in auckland the couple thought they'd have to wait until they retired before they could move south then when mark found himself conducting orchestras overseas justine saw an opportunity to leave the violin trio she'd been with for 15 years and take a step into the unknown without really knowing where i'm heading professionally from this point it felt like absolutely the right thing to take a leap of faith and move down here and realise our dream of living in this gorgeous place and so we took the leap and here we are [Music] having sold their cottage in auckland mark and justine and their two cats coco and cassie rented a house near wanaka with the intention of finding the ideal spot on which to build a house uniquely suited to them being artists being musicians we thought that it would be amazing to build a house that made a statement artistically and is inspiring to live in an hour's drive north of queenstown queensbury sits in the majestic pisa range and it's here that mark and justine found this section [Music] they've gone from cheek by jowl auckland villas to this i'm just standing here in utter ore because this is extraordinary how on earth did you find us um we found it online online yeah oh yeah and we didn't know where queensbury was and it turns out there are all these beautiful properties up here but we think we've got the best one of course so tell me what's on earth have you got planned for up here we have an amazing design that we purchased from an american architect jeff day it's called the wedge house and it looks like a massive door stopper gigantic drawer stopper and it was designed for his mother in maine that we are super excited about and actually mark found this design on the internet too we've ended up just going with this already fully designed completely yeah it's never been built though it's never been built no you found it virtually yeah it's intended for maine it's the most bizarre thing i've heard yet we had to have it change to metric and flipped for the southern hemisphere i was going to say because you have to orientate the whole day moves the other way but i honestly think that this site is going to be perfect for that design on an exposed mountainside the wedge house starts with an insulated concrete slab at the thin end of the wedge is the master bedroom with a hallway leading past a bathroom to a kitchen dining living area famous for high winds scorching days and freezing nights the walls are lined with angular trapezoidal windows each catching unique mountain views a handcrafted timber ceiling runs through the lower level like a wave becoming the floor of the upstairs bedrooms and at the very top a giant fan acts as an eco-friendly ventilation system outside the walls slope right down to the edge of the wedge cleverly framing an outdoor courtyard sheltered from the prevailing wind the garage is tucked away to the south and the whole house is clad in corrugated iron hiking back to classic kiwi farm buildings despite its american origins the wedge house should feel like it belongs here while adding its angular peak to the surrounding mountains so tell me about your timeline we think it'll take about eight months but i'm kind of hoping it'll take less than that but what's the budget guys um well we had the building surveyed and it came out at 9 55 so that's that's the target but it's a target that we'd actually like to beat and substantially essentially we'll see if we're dreaming or not yeah well good luck with that yes oh you're not making me feel particularly good right now chris i'd be laughing nervously too well i love the idea of the wedge it'll be interesting to see whether this home designed for a completely different landscape and climate is really going to work here in the mountains of central otago but there's no going back now today the concrete trucks are here to pull the slab and justine is finally fulfilling a lifelong ambition to project manage her own build it's exciting this feels like a dream it's been in my mind for a long time i've been pouring over the plans for months it's going to be great to see the concrete come out of the end of that thing they had hoped to start a year and a half ago but justine's learning the hard way things don't always go to plan we did think that we would be well into it and possibly finish by this point which is a year and a half later part of the battle has been to convince local council the top of the wedge couldn't compromise the mountain skyline justine was down by the road with a camera and i was walking around finding with a 7.5 meter pole trying to work out which place would be the the least injurious to the skyline siting the house carefully finally brought the council round one of the things i'm learning in this process is just to go with the flow and don't expect things to happen when you think they will but delays mean the build is starting in the middle of winter with temperatures that hit the minuses and an extreme wind chill factor i wonder if their biggest challenge here might be the weather your face is blue [Music] after the pour the weather turns and a week later a cold concrete slab waits for today's delivery here comes our house pre-built frames trucked all the way from dunedin are arriving for the entire ground floor so we've got to get these frames up our driveway there's a bit of a tricky turn just here so they're just having a look how we're going to get this up there have to video this for mark since he's missing it today mark may be away working in wellington but after months of anticipation builder matt thomas is raring to go that's a big load yeah yeah fat almost instantly the house starts to take on its distinctive shape start of the wedge justine is straight to work well i've found the perfect job for myself removing all these plastic bits that were holding all the plastic covering then i'm going to go around and pick them all up and can't help but solve problems for the builders they're looking for a piece as well you're looking for e9 okay well that's it there e9 yep so it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle i guess it's all coming together quite well actually it's been no panic so far we've got some pretty big frames here so you wouldn't do it without this thing it's actually going to be a house yep you really start to get a feel for the size of it especially in that lounge room space that size of that window is just epic it is cool one week later and work has ground to a halt icy rain and bitter wind makes for a miserable sight but when the rain stops it's my chance to see how this experiment from the other side of the world is adapting to its new landscape hi guys hi wow it's certainly shaping up sure it is how you imagined so far it's definitely pretty dramatic i think it's gonna go up another meter and a half or so yeah dramatic loving the framing of all the views through the house when we're standing in the shower we'll have that incredible view of the mountains which would be that would be amazing and some tall windows so there'll be some interesting frames like this oh okay this one here that's a smaller tall window yeah the third the third one is rather tall in the living room so in that so we we have a crescendo going on here i can feel it now oh my goodness yeah your face is blue is it you're cold i'm a little cold luckily there's a place to go when mark turns blue builder matt has left a caravan on site to give his team a place out of the weather this is the perfect chance to get my head around the plans like a piece of music the house feels designed as an experience you move through when you walk into the house and then come through this door and you've got this whatever nine-foot stud and then when you get into this public space you have this vast height and so there's a bit of drama there the centerpiece of the interior is a tongue and groove timber wave but individual planks are tricky and expensive which creates a dilemma for mark and justine we're investigating using an american oak veneer ply which of course will bend beautifully i mean that would certainly be considerably cheaper but we'd like to get the architects okay with that because i mean as we're musicians we want to be as true to his vision as we can be interesting yeah it is interesting i'm concerned that these two musicians are treating the plans like a score they have to follow to the note when the score was written for lakes and trees but we're up high here in the windy mountains [Music] i'm having a night out in my hometown along with project managing the wedge house justine is still playing the odd concert and tonight is particularly special mike and justine first met in an orchestra so it's quite a treat tonight to actually see them here together in wellington with justine guesting with mark's wellington orchestra i'm allowed to sneak backstage for a quick hello before the concert hi guys hello chris hi chris you're all set yeah good to see you lovely to see you too hey best of luck for tonight thank you very much i can't wait oh good dvorak yeah exciting such a wonderful piece it is an amazing piece so how often do you two get the chance to play together over the years we've done quite a lot of work together especially when i was concert master in auckland but it's always fun yeah but now that justine's a project manager for the build um we haven't done as much this year perhaps as we have in previous years yeah well we'll see you out there the dvorak feels as angular and dramatic as the house they're building and i'm completely swept away it's september and the steel frames are coming in today with mark conducting his orchestra in san francisco justine's left to conduct the build i have to do a lot of videoing for mark because he's missed a lot of the the big stuff happening we have all of our walls external internal so you can walk through the house it's still winter but in this mad climate it's so sunny and hot today the team are in t-shirts this is the end of the roof and then after that once they've got that uh secured they're going to be putting all the rafters in which means the roof will be coming soon and when it comes it's no ordinary roof [Music] mike and justine have ordered a particularly long load which has to be trucked from christchurch five hours away through the lindis pass it doesn't look like a big load but this is the roofing for the whole house seven 24 meter long sheets the challenges of of driving something this long through here is that the cornering we tend to cut in through the corners it's such a long load it's critical that the sheets don't catch the wind and bend we've just stopped here to check the load make sure that all the strops are all tight and nothing shifted on the way up there so we'll carry on and keep on trucking [Music] after beating the infamous linda's pass gav realizes his real challenge is mark and justine's driveway is that the house up there and that is the house up there that's the house up there oh dear we are not going to get up here [Music] not in this lifetime with the 24 metre lengths of iron there's no way up to sight i'm thinking of bringing the truck out into this property here plan b is to get the truck up close in the neighbor's backyard to do that they need to remove a few street signs this one isn't playing the game so we'll um go past the driveway back the trailer up into here if we can and um try and get a straight run of the at the driveway then plan c despite the difficulties mark has no regrets the roofing company um said oh look it would look way better if we just did single lengths of steel so i was all for it i guess they're making a little bit more work for themselves but i think it's going to look super cool going up not just more work for themselves plan c means all hands on deck to carry it up from the neighbor's place 24 meter sheets are a good idea on paper but you need a human centipede and no wind to get them up to sight oh easy peasy that's fantastic looking up from here seeing it on the ground tomorrow it's going to be up there hopefully we're the dependent the weather's been kind to them today but the roofers are scheduled for early tomorrow morning but yes it would be perfect now but let's hope it's perfect tomorrow morning too and it is this morning the decision to use those incredibly long sheets of iron should pay off [Music] these sheets are so long they take a few back and forths to get into place with a roofing team that seemed born for ballet there's something about this house that brings out the music in everyone it's so impressive watching them work because they'll turn at the same time it's beautifully choreographed [Music] we've been hearing various measurements for this roofline they've all been different and it's like okay guys are we sure we've got the right length here yeah so looks like it's long enough yeah phew yeah just trusting the professionals with that [Music] so it's eight o'clock we might be to eat to beer o'clock around 10 15. with just seven sheets this could be the easiest rooftop shout in central otago history bit early but all right and with mark on the barbecue it could be the most gourmet [Music] sauerkraut and caramelised onions that mike made up last night mark's sausages make for a happy team thanks guys of course your job's not done you have to do the walls but um that was the easy part was this the easy part oh really [Music] the finished roof is perfect straight architectural lines with nothing breaking them up but the roof only takes the wedge so far and the bottom section is causing headaches the original design had brick walls taking the wedge all the way to the ground bricks aren't strong enough in this earthquake prone one zone so they're going with steel but they want to involve their american architect in how it's going to look hello yay how are you doing good it snowed last night about two inches or so not that much but it's cold yeah the brick walls were designed with gaps to catch glimpses of the view so jeff's challenge will be to create the same feel and steel yeah so i think once we get down to one or two we could do a really quick rendering to see how it looks with the whole house cool um and kind of move from there cool well that's exciting that's really exciting look forward to seeing those [Music] the design relies on this bottom triangle to complete the wedge getting it wrong could spoil its sculptural impact it's big decisions like this where you really want your architect on site [Music] there are many challenges here at the wedge house today it's putting in the asymmetrical window frames all different these are pre-built to mats measurements so they have to fit it's always a bit of a tense time on a house like this because this would be a big one to get wrong i wouldn't want to get it wrong especially if justine saw i don't know who's more nervous matt the builder or his clients it is definitely nerve-racking waiting to see the frames go in because we've spent a lot of time measuring them up triple checking all the sizes and i know a lot more about windows than i did before that's sure the square frames go in first under justine and mark's anxious eyes don't scratch it oh looks pretty good oh look at that it might be absolutely perfect the frames become more complex when they meet the sloping roof what do we call trapezoidal a four-sided yeah not not square it's got to be the same slope as the roof a wall has to slide into that rebate and the ceiling so it's yeah an angled wall that's probably the hardest one in the house yeah you're right charlie it's all yours and unfortunately the unusual angles have caused a problem oh no it's pretty tight this corner particularly can you level that off the wall luckily it's a minor enough change to cut down on site [Music] considering that's the only thing that wasn't quite right i think we're done pretty well [Music] perfect i was never worried another successful day but i do wonder where they are with their budget but at the moment we're sort of at the dot in the dark side of moon what i'd like to call the dark side of the moon in that we've lost radio contact money's going out but we're not quite sure how we're tracking we're just heading around there and we're just going going with it there's been a sad turn of events at the rental house where mark and justine's urban lifestyle has come up against the cruel reality of living in the country we've had a very sad thing happen one of our dear little cats he was shot was shot and killed in the property that we've been renting we don't really know what happened as soon as i found him i brought her up here and our wonderful builder and apprentice dug the hole and we buried cassie in this spot yeah and found a headstone for her and everything [Music] yeah yeah so i took the gloss out of um living up there so we've decided to um to come here over the summer and just stay on site sort of camp here camp here and introduce the cat we have another her sister her assistant remains with us which is great did i hear that right i can understand their need to move and at the height of summer camping seems doable but you'd want to be in the house well before winter and they're only just closing it in with the glass going in today with none of these windows simple or off-the-rack shapes this is another day of heightened nerves is it high enough i probably couldn't give it away nudge that way i need to and that started with the tricky trapezoidal frame it's got quite a bit going on with the angles it's quite hard to actually manufacture something without the hole being in front of you uh actually [Music] beautiful done yeah looks good it really does yes that's good another 20 more to go cool there are a lot of windows on the wedge but they're small so not a lot of glass the placement of the windows enhances the sculptural feel of this house but they were placed for a different site so i wonder if they'll do the magnificent view justice it must be tremendously exciting for you guys it's just about to be closed in yeah it's amazing it's been amazing to see the glass go in and step back and start to see the house kind of shine i'm also loving how the windows really frame this view but i think that's luck but it's just so fantastic as a musician there's a very sort of angular rhythm that's created by these different shapes it's kind of free-form improvisation whereas on the other side we just have these are very long tall floor-to-ceiling trapezoids so it's a more even rhythm on the other side of the house i like that as we tick over into a new year mark and justine pack up coco in the crockery and set up camp in their new backyard we are a bit concerned that the same thing will happen to her so it was definitely one of the reasons we thought let's let's shift now even in summer this alpine area can get bitterly cold life in a tent on their windswept mountainside section might prove too cold for even coco's fur coat as well as the tent they've had to order a cabin to sleep in and it's a strangely familiar shape got a thing for wedges yeah it's the mini version do you want me to hold something it's rather windy but it's still beautiful weather we're in summer yeah we actually haven't had a holiday yet um so this is our tenting adventure camping on site will also save them money which they're going to need because the interior lining they've chosen for the ceiling is expensive and they've found a special meal in canterbury that's been experimenting with making tongue and groove curve into a wave hi john good morning nice to see you again good to see you too so i've got some interesting examples to show you the tongue and groove needs to make both convex and concave curves so john has been experimenting with getting the radius right and the same spacing between each plank so we started with the the basically the canoe profile the disadvantages you got that gap there but it's a bigger gap on that side which isn't so good so we put that aside so with a bit of jiggery pokery we've had a go at it here there's a five mil by five more there and then that's great and if you look carefully you see how the tongue is on an angle the groove is also on an angle they come together and form a square join but it's curving simple but ingenious and it's critical the curves are precise they have to work in with the windows walls and interior joinery it's a curved ceiling most other ceilings and most other houses are flat so this will be quite interesting people will walk in the space will be influenced by that ceiling and in keeping with mark and justine's hands-on approach with their build they're even getting a chance to meet the trees before they're milled that's about a 60 centimetre diameter tree right i know it was pruned on time because i pruned it and how many trees do you think we'll need for the house i haven't worked it out yet maybe 5 10 15 trees some wow i thought you were gonna say one or two yeah gosh so the next 10 15 years down there yeah that's spectacular sorry guys i know i mean one of the things about this build that we're really excited about is we're picking our battles architecturally so everywhere you look there isn't going to be another glamorous architectural detail but this idea of a curved tongue groove eucalyptus ceiling is quite cool and we're hopeful that we'll remain in budget in late january justine's sister robin and husband gordon come for a family camping holiday and i invite myself over for a barbecue hello how you doing hey good nice to see you good to see you yeah welcome to the gypsy campsite i was promised we'd sit under the stars and drink wine but the moment i get here it starts to rain so it doesn't rain much just when you come [Laughter] so we've got a kitchen coffee machine blender induction hob full-size fridge full-size fridge um it's very serious then we've got hot water on demand shower tent and a camper potty very glamorous goodness last week i was in a hotel and i could have long showers as long as i wanted and they that just didn't feel very satisfying whereas three minutes in this with the wind howling that's really good so you're a happy man out here in the wild yeah yeah i guess who knew that glamping was for me mark i guess really what you're saying is that you don't need that now now i wouldn't go that far no i think this experience will make us appreciate the house that much more when we get into it eventually for sure the light rain doesn't stop mark cracking on without dinner but the wind is starting to build and those gathering clouds are ominous do you think we should uh put some extra ties on this thing you can see mark the conductor at work here with the world going crazy about him he manages to keep control of his culinary creation [Music] mark's still cooking he's on a mission have you ever done a barbecue like this before mark oh i no this is miserable wow this is hail it's great hail but luckily there's a large empty building with room for the outside table [Music] and boy this conductor knows how to cook well this looks absolutely fabulous thanks chris so we've got a gazpacho to start and then we have two kinds of barbecued meat we've got a pooled pork with a north carolina barbecue sauce which is an apple vinegar based sauce with chili and then we have sort of a smoked barbecued lamb with the same sauce from kentucky i should really have done a second sauce it turns out this is a happy accident a chance to christen the new house with family and friends this is the first dinner party in our new house cheers oh it's monumental you know experiencing this crazy weather all i can say is i think this is a better tent and you should stay here it's an incredible feeling of shelter as well it hasn't even got the outside cladding on yet all the insulation but it feels good to be in here right at the moment that's for sure and then when things couldn't get any weirder the sun comes out and it's like nothing happened this is surreal this is surreal we've never experienced anything like that here [Laughter] they're completely mad but i love how mark justine and coco are making their stormy otago mountain home [Music] the wedge house is taking shape but there are urgent decisions pending architect jeff day has come all the way from america to see the house he designed for his mum for the very first time okay oh look at that there it is mark and justine have been intent on honoring jeff's vision hey hey guys chris how you doing and having come all this way it's important to them he likes what they've done so what do you think yeah it's amazing it's so interesting to see it in person after all this time i really love how the house just kind of glides up towards the ridge i can't wait to go inside so here we have the grand wow space and look at the view yeah that's spectacular isn't this unbelievable yeah yeah you know it's it's bigger than i expected to be honest i was worried that this might feel a little bit compressed but this feels really right and then the landscape spreading out as if it's on like an enormous landscape painting yeah incredible head coming up they're the best views in here nice yeah yeah that's incredible having the architect turn up eight months into the build means there's a backlog of questions why wouldn't the jib come down and just we'd still have the negative details and we'd lose this i think if there's a way to keep this as a wall you don't want to get dark so you may end up wanting to put a fairly transparent piece on the inside when the original brick design for the walls at the bottom of the wedge was rejected jeff was sent back to the drawing board we came up with the idea of a steel structure with perforated steel panels on the outside of that the large holes are following the the angle of the roof so they start up high and that means they're near the windows in the master bedroom laying a bit more light into those windows and then that converter down to the base and then that fades out right before the earth moves up the holes should also cut down on wind resistance but may create an unintended musicality you might get some whistling though through it i can't say that won't happen yeah you're getting to meet mark and justine right at the end of the process not at the beginning the house is being flipped um you're upside down how does all that feel how are you coping with all of that it's uh you know i'm just i'm going with it and i think what's amazing is that a project can actually survive really dramatic changes inverting it changing color changing the site to something completely different and the project still works you could say it works better you think it's partly due to mark and justine and their vision for this house in this landscape who would have thought that you could take such a specific design of the internet and make it work so well in a completely different part of the world six weeks later the cladding is on and the eucalyptus tongue and groove has arrived on site but the build is at least two months behind schedule to save time justine is pre-oiling the timber so matt can carefully install each piece so i wipe off the top layer of oil which basically gives it a bit of a patina is the word they use so that's what i need to do before coffee break [Music] and it seems to be going on well with the negative detailing looking consistent through the first curve it's quite a relief actually because it's been quite a process to get to this point finding the wood trying to design it to to have the negative detail that the architect was keen on and to have the boards cut for the two different sorts of curbs and so on and so watching the curve go up has been really exciting matt's putting a lot of love into these last details hmm actually i'm gonna have to cut that board there and it's when you're really trying to get things perfect that they take longer that transition point looks great matt yeah it does hey yeah really highlights the curve yeah and then the the hard angle really highlights the window beautiful absolutely love it [Music] we're well into autumn and with the weather getting colder mark and justine have been camping for nearly five months it's working fine i think every single part of the campsite is vital without everything here it would be really hard going but it's working well yeah the hardest thing is the most difficult thing is probably uh doing the dishes okay [Music] that's almost half a year living in a tent and sharing your private space with a team of builders good how you doing today the foundations are being poured for the steel walls that complete the wedge and create the courtyard here we go this courtyard and the completion of the wedge is one of the big reasons why we were attracted to this whole design because it's the power of that sculptural aspect is going to be amazing i was expecting the engineering of this to be reasonably straightforward but in fact it turns out as you can see it's major but the steel aspect is going to be great because it will integrate really beautifully with the cladding on the house these foundations are massive and it's a bit of a shock to learn very little will be visible 100 wide by 100 highs all you're going to see but you won't see this falling over because of what's here [Music] that's going to be good it's going to be quite a big space in here [Music] to get the house livable before winter the plasterer is putting in long days mike and justine put on a brave face but their glamping holiday must be wearing thin yeah well it's come out from the dark side of the moon and it's definitely it's we're tracking like like most people seem to it's taking longer and costing more yeah but i mean it's probably the nature of the bespoke aspect i mean we helped to buck the ground designs trend it doesn't appear that we are um our sense is that really it's ev every element of the build has probably cost it a bit more and so it's just added up over time we should be in the house five to six weeks he said confidently you know i i believe i said a few months ago that we'd be in at the end of march and or the beginning of april and that clearly is not happening [Music] [Music] it's been six months since i saw mark and justine and i really loved their crazy gamble they found their design on the internet created for a genteel north american landscape and transposed it to the rugged extremes of central otago to me that seems utterly bonkers let's see if they've managed to pull it off oh my goodness wow [Music] incredible [Music] hey chris oh lovely to see you welcome hey chris how are you i'm great i can't believe it it's gorgeous yeah wait till you see inside oh take me in we can't wait and here we are and here's our gorgeous view through the kitchen windows this is gorgeous wow i'm just overwhelmed by all the details but the simplicity and the beauty of the white which is talking to the mountains yeah it's a great place to cook wow and then in contrast to this then you've got this yeah it's extraordinary you know you you feel hell it it's keeping you compressed and then you get to hear and boom wow yeah it's incredible wasn't it the depth of this house is narrow so you're already compressed this way but then having this compression through the kitchen through the dining room and then releasing it i mean it's a crescendo it's i can't help it compositionally the relationship between music and architecture is very direct here completely completely agree the dance between your windows to the north and the drama of the windows to the south it's wonderful walking through the house and you have the changing landscapes all the way through the land around the house will be planted in brown top grass the same native species that covers all of these hills a finishing touch that will further set this north american design in this place here it was arbitrarily discovered on the internet and placed in this landscape and yet it feels so at home i can see how it could be difficult for an architect in that the architect's brief in a way is responding to the environment but in fact this house is a response to this environment because we chose this house we knew that it would work really well here at least to our tastes yeah and what's this up here oh well if you stay here i'll show you what that's about [Music] oh look at that wow so this is my desk so this is the romeo and juliet moment that's right yes you're right oh juliet oh no don't [Music] and there's more sleight of hand on the other side of the lounge the wood slides up for the tv and out to reveal the record collection and even better there's a hidden door to the rest of the house my goodness another gorgeous space wow what a bedroom and one with a lovely elegant twist the wood has changed places there's this whole idea of the ribbon of wood defining the public and private spaces of course the timber comes down yeah we entered through that and now we're walking on it yeah yeah lovely and that takes us outside into the courtyard you must have a look at oh gosh oh wow oh wow this is fabulous it is the thing that really grounds it for me is this i mean the landscape coming in and rolling in like this this patch of earth will also be planted in brown top grass to further enhance the feeling that this house has rolled straight out of the land there's the dna there's the source there's where the seed is planted and that kind of creates the first movement you know the wave and then the rest rolls out it all makes sense now [Music] well shall we go upstairs yeah oh i can't wait to see it [Music] so now we're at the top of the wedge with this incredible view it really connects you into the landscape doesn't it and so being at the apex of the wedge we've got a really high stud here creates a really spacious feeling here and this is of course where our guests will be ah sleeping yeah can't wait yes absolutely you're welcome anytime [Music] i guess the first thing to say is just sitting here it's such an exquisite taut instrument it really is an instrument it's an instrument of light it's an instrument that's been tuned to the land and for me it's an absolute privilege to have witnessed this whole process with you guys you're gonna make me cry what have you learned from each other through this whole process it's okay for you to lie well i mean i think the key to the success of this project was largely due to justine's great project management of it lining all the ducks up in a row making sure that all the tradies were always aware of what the others were doing and what was required at every step of the way yeah i have huge admiration for what she did well i think the process of making sure that we were both on the same page all the time um had its challenges and at times there'd be friction between us so there's a huge amount of thought and yeah nothing nothing here is as it is by mistake yeah very conservative we questioned everything basically was there a better way of doing things or and of course there was always budget consideration yes but what was the budget originally 965 was the uh target and we're at one just over 1.1 one one three seven hundred okay fifteen point four percent precisely [Laughter] i think what you've done here is really quite extraordinary and the thing that i really love about this house is it's kind of lean economy i mean this dimension that you chose the the width of the house is surprisingly lean and in contrast the section is the opposite you know it really allows the house to breathe and i congratulate you on having achieved such an exquisite result thank you totally deserved right you're going to cry no no that's son [Music] at the outset choosing a design on the internet seemed crazy but justine and mark have achieved something extraordinary the close collaboration between justine as project manager together with their architect and builder has grounded the wedge-shaped design to this landscape and imbued it with wonderful materials and details i'm utterly moved by its exquisite beauty the final composition is masterful okay so cheers everyone thank you very much for coming [Music] [Applause] [Music] normally an architect starts at the beginning creating something specially for you but what if you came across your grand design on the internet it had never been built and it was designed for completely different conditions on the other side of the world [Applause] musicians justine cormack and mark today have always loved the dramatic landscape of central otago it's gorgeous the reds of the trees at this point beautiful justine was brought up in christchurch but has spent 30 years away the mountains definitely give me a sense of grounding i love walking through this landscape and it just settles me the whole time i've been away i felt a real pull to come back mark comes from america's new york state he met justine playing with the new zealand symphony orchestra in the late 80s this was when he discovered the raw natural beauty of these mountains being a musician it's it's impossible not to be inspired by the landscape i was just gobsmacked by the beauty i've always wanted to end up here but tied to work in auckland the couple thought they'd have to wait until they retired before they could move south then when mark found himself conducting orchestras overseas justine saw an opportunity to leave the violin trio she'd been with for 15 years and take a step into the unknown without really knowing where i'm heading professionally from this point it felt like absolutely the right thing to take a leap of faith and move down here and realise our dream of living in this gorgeous place and so we took the leap and here we are [Music] having sold their cottage in auckland mark and justine and their two cats coco and cassie rented a house near wanaka with the intention of finding the ideal spot on which to build a house uniquely suited to them being artists being musicians we thought that it would be amazing to build a house that made a statement artistically and is inspiring to live in an hour's drive north of queenstown queensbury sits in the majestic pisa range and it's here that mark and justine found this section how are you they've gone from cheek by jowl auckland villas to this i'm just standing here in utter ore because this is extraordinary how on earth did you find us um we found it online online yeah oh yeah and we didn't know where queensbury was and it turns out there are all these beautiful properties up here but we think we've got the best one of course so tell me what's on earth have you got planned for up here we have an amazing design that we purchased from an american architect jeff day it's called the wedge house and it looks like a massive door stopper gigantic drawer stopper it was designed for his mother in maine that we are super excited about and actually mark found this design on the internet too we've ended up just going with this already fully designed completely yeah it's never been built though it's never been built no you found it virtually yeah it's intended for maine it's the most bizarre thing i've heard yet we had to have it change to metric and flipped for the southern hemisphere i was going to say because you have to orientate the whole day moves the other way but i honestly think that this site is going to be perfect for that design on an exposed mountainside the wedge house starts with an insulated concrete slab at the thin end of the wedge is the master bedroom with a hallway leading past a bathroom to a kitchen dining living area famous for high winds scorching days and freezing nights the walls are lined with angular trapezoidal windows each catching unique mountain views a hand-crafted timber ceiling runs through the lower level like a wave becoming the floor of the upstairs bedrooms and at the very top a giant fan acts as an eco-friendly ventilation system outside the walls slope right down to the edge of the wedge cleverly framing an outdoor courtyard sheltered from the prevailing wind the garage is tucked away to the south and the whole house is clad in corrugated iron hiking back to classic kiwi farm buildings despite its american origins the wedge house should feel like it belongs here while adding its angular peak to the surrounding mountains so tell me about your timeline we think it'll take about eight months but i'm kind of hoping it'll take less than that but what's the budget guys um well we had the building surveyed and it came out at 9 55 so that's that's the target but it's a target that we'd actually like to beat and change essentially we'll see if we're dreaming or not yeah well good luck with that yes oh you're not making me feel particularly good right now chris i'd be laughing nervously too well i love the idea of the wedge it'll be interesting to see whether this home designed for a completely different landscape and climate is really going to work here in the mountains of central otago but there's no going back now today the concrete trucks are here to pull the slab and justine is finally fulfilling a lifelong ambition to project manage her own build exciting

Channel: Architecture Decor

Views: 20,237

Rating: 4.7073169 out of 5

Keywords: grand designs, grand designs australia, grand designs new zealand, grand designs nz, grand designs uk, Chris Moller, Architecture, decor, beautiful house, S05E03, Wanaka Wedge

Id: 2E_eijko2Rk

Length: 52min 8sec (3128 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021