Conscious Formation – Three Peaks House by Michael Cumming Architect

Referencing the nearby mountain trio, the aptly named Three Peaks House forms as a series of connected pavilions around a central open courtyard. Michael Cummings Architect consciously responds to the surrounding climate and orientation to ensure effortless and landscape-focused transitions between inside and out.

In its enviable location along Lake Wanaka, Three Peaks House sits as a familiar silhouette, looking to the mountains that surround as formal inspiration. Respectfully, like much of the existing building stock, the home is comprised of local materials sourced from local suppliers and becomes a natural insertion in place. In its shifting climate, the home needed to provide both a sense of protection and privacy, while also allowing for clear visual access and connections to the landscape. The response sees three main volumetric forms come together around a central and open courtyard space, allowing for an ease of movement across thresholds and optimising solar and light control. Michael Cumming Architect focuses on reducing environmental impact and increasing the ease of flow internally, creating an idyllic and nature-focused escape.

Large panes of open glazing allow for visual connections, while natural timber and stone encase the interior of the home, emphasising a warmth and cocooning effect.

As a combined effort, Three Peaks House was built by Gibb Building, with landscape design by Michael Cumming Architect and Lyn Eglington. As a result of the landscaping, the surrounding transition between the built and the natural becomes softened and deliberate. Taking its namesake from proximity of the home to Roy’s Peak, in the foreground, and Mt Aspiring and Treble Cone, each pavilion feels lifted at a select point toward the sky. Externally clad in cedar and with metal sheeting blanketing each roof, stonework offers a grounded element and connects back to more traditional building forms within the mountain region.

Each pavilion groups functionality as a natural way of creating delineation and hierarchy within the home. The sleeping and retreat areas are separated from the other living elements in this way, while an embedded flexibility allows for expansion of use as needed. Home to Australia-based owners, Three Peaks House allows them to connect back to their New Zealand origins and become immersed within the natural surrounds of Wanaka. Responding to the low height covenant, the home hugs the site from the street, with its openness revealed once inside. Large panes of open glazing allow for visual connections, while natural timber and stone encase the interior of the home, emphasising a warmth and cocooning effect.

The response sees three main volumetric forms come together around a central and open courtyard space, allowing for an ease of movement across thresholds and optimising solar and light control.

Almost Japanese in its sensitive arrangement on site, Three Peaks House is a modest and welcoming contemporary home. Michael Cumming Architect connects back to the origins of the area and responds with a mountain-appropriate vernacular.