Local planning rules required Orchard House to carry a 22-degree roof pitch, and Fearon Hay built the entire scheme around that constraint. Set within a mature chestnut orchard near Queenstown, New Zealand, the house by the Auckland-based studio is composed of several mono-pitched volumes modeled on the agricultural sheds of the Otago region.
The volumes are gathered around an arrival courtyard that opens toward the surrounding mountain ranges. Breaking the program into separate structures keeps each roof at the mandated angle without producing a single oversized mass, and it holds the house to the scale of farm buildings when seen through the trees. The brief called for a permanent family home and creative retreat with enough room for adult children to return and stay, and the finished house totals about 4300 sqft.
Zinc corrugate clads the walls and roofs. The ribbed metal is the standard skin of working sheds in the area, and its matte gray finish recedes against the orchard canopy. Zinc needs no paint and forms a protective patina as it weathers, which keeps maintenance low in an alpine climate. The house is designed toward Passive House standards, with cross-ventilation between the volumes and earthworks kept to a minimum so the orchard ground is left largely intact.
Inside, the palette shifts to oak, limestone, and plaster. The living room is anchored by concrete and limestone and lined with oak paneling, while plaster walls carry a range of earth tones from room to room. In the stainless steel kitchen, a hanging rack designed by the architects holds the owner’s collection of cooking tools and incorporates chestnut leaves drawn from the orchard outside.
Katie Lockhart joined the project once construction was underway, concentrating on furnishings and textiles. She sourced the kitchen backsplash tile and developed upholstered wall panels with Fearon Hay in Rubelli Velvetforty, a dense velvet that softens the acoustics of rooms otherwise finished in stone and timber. Landscape design is by 02 Landscapes.
