A Robust Anchoring – Mt Pisa by Team Green Architects

Navigating a remote and removed landscape, Mt Pisa is anchored to its site, sitting lean and clad in a robust armour as a front against the elements. Team Green Architects draws from a rural vernacular and the primary principles of shelter and retreat to propose the unique home of lasting fortitude.

Positioned amongst the same-named Mt Pisa ranges in Central Otago, Mt Pisa is an aptly fitting insertion into its open and far-reaching site. While the modest form and cloaking materiality speaks to a distinctively rural language, the combined creation of a rhythmic façade with two main exterior materials offers a sense of formality in contrast to its location. Ensuring the home feels appropriate in place, Team Green Architects proposes a linear and contained form as a primary response to shelter to cater for the climatically ranging conditions. While the area is subject to extreme chilling cold, winds and harsh conditions during winter, it is also left exposed and open during the summer months, so the resulting home needed to be absorbing and accommodating at either end of the scale.

The grey upper element of corrugated metal sheeting then sits like a protective hood over the residence, referencing the most basic of shelters, typical of removed areas.

Built by Davidson Building, Mt Pisa sits nuzzled into a sloping site, and through a burrowing affect, feels weighted in place as the form pushes into the hill. Its lower base material of greyed timber sits in harmony to the earth the home sits upon and feels like a natural extension upward from the ground. The grey upper element of corrugated metal sheeting then sits like a protective hood over the residence, referencing the most basic of shelters, typical of removed areas. In looking to the surrounding context, there are lessons learned and captured by the team, and ensure the home feels naturally placed and in coordination with its environment.

The angling of the roof upward at one end references a salutation, of sorts, to the sun. In its own subtle way, the gesture acknowledges its orientation, with openings on either side acting in response to the desired heat and solar gain internally, while still maintaining the overall formal composition on site. Its planning unfolds in a similar simplified way, with a focus on energy efficiency and a shared openness across its two stacked levels. The upper level houses a dedicated master suite and office, while the living, kitchen, dining and spare bedroom sit on the lower level.

Its planning unfolds in a similar simplified way, with a focus on energy efficiency and a shared openness across its two stacked levels.

By listening and observing the colours, tones and delicacies of the site, Mt Pisa responses with equal measure. Team Green Architects allows for occupation of the enviable location, without competing with it.