Willow House was designed to make the most of its sloping Queenstown site. The Kelvin Heights section borders Lake Wakatipu and has a sunny northerly aspect, making it a win-win for the owners.

The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house was designed to take advantage of the lake views, passive light and heat and also to minimise the impact of a three-storey building on the neighbourhood. As a result, the north facade was stretched to almost the limit toward the western and eastern sides and the whole house was broken into smaller parts.

The 305sqm home, which has three bathrooms and two living rooms, is a showcase for stratification. The upstairs bedrooms are in a metal-clad ‘box’, which sits on two schist walls on the next floor down. The rest of this floor has extensive glazing and the concrete garage, which is further down the slope, is below. A ‘mammoth’ amount of insulation was used in Willow House – underfloor water heating, double glazing and thermally broken door and window frames – to keep the owners warm in the coldest Central Otago winters.