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HomeArchitectureArchitecture Workshop completes Lindis Lodge in the Southern Alps of New Zealand
June 22, 2020

Architecture Workshop completes Lindis Lodge in the Southern Alps of New Zealand

Design draws inspiration from the imposing grandeur of the vastly scaled glacial landscape

Image credit: Patrick Reynolds

The built object in the landscape has long been a challenge for New Zealand architecture particularly amongst the beautiful scenic backdrops of Aotearoa NZ. On this remote site, where architecture’s neighbor is ecology and geology rather than built environment, how might we address the problem of the isolated building? Architecture Workshop’s strategy for the Lindis Lodge, a five- bedroom luxury lodge, in a remote glacial valley in the NZ Southern Alps explores this question.

The architecture draws inspiration from the imposing grandeur of the vastly scaled glacial landscape and the weaving folded moraine across the valley that ensued – remnant topography from the glacial retreat 10,000 years ago. The strategy is to bind the building with the land and to make it an attribute of the site. Topography is the common ground for the disciplines of landscape and architecture and for their contribution to contemporary culture. The lodge effectively forms a new ground; a constructed topography that adds a further fold within the continuity of the existing glacial moraine.

“The vast glacial landscape is the precedent for the building. The property, in the remote and glacial Ahuriri Valley, draws inspiration from the imposing grandeur of the landscape. The roof contours – made from Spotted Gum hardwood lamella – is designed to mimic the weaves and folds of the valley,” said Christopher Kelly, Principal Architect at Architecture Workshop. “I saw this as an opportunity to create something special rather than a standard American lodge, which has its appeal, but both the building and the experience is different here.”

In the Lindis Lodge, the visitor experience is encompassed between two layers; the excavated and embedded new ground in the moraine beneath intimate low black ceilings and the other light and woven, a soaring timber lamella perched on the riverside edge that hovers above to protect and most strikingly forms a new, and picturesque topography. Here the fragility and exposure of the solitary human figure within such physical and temporal vastness is in turn protected by the enveloping roof and the firelight flickering in the hearth, as in a high country musterer’s hut.

Image credit: Patrick Reynolds

The site is exposed to an extreme climate ranging from 35 degrees Celsius in summer to minus 16 degrees Celsius in winter with regular severe winds. The remote location is served by a fragile single-phase power supply. A backup generator is provided in the buried energy shed. The building is provided with a hydronic underfloor heating system, laid directly under engineered timber flooring to allow for quick response. Heating and domestic hot water is provided by a geothermal heat pump system complete with a 25x12x3m large ground source collector field. Efficient LPG gas condensing boilers provide backup when needed. Gas fireplaces provide further comfort and atmosphere.

Potable water is filtered from the on-site bore and rainwater harvesting system and black and grey water systems discharge to the biodegradable on-site sewage treatment plant. The large overhanging roof incorporates an airtight membrane within the layer of R6.0 insulation. The two facades include low E double glazing with a R-value of 0.9 and thermally broken window frames on the riverside. Heat recovery ventilators provide fresh air and extract air ventilation. Ductwork behind the split stone chimney breast recirculates the heated air in the 6.2m high Great Hall.

The detail construction layers of the parametric roof contours are the result of an established close collaboration between the architect and structural engineer. A full-scale prototype piece was built, which led to the invention of ‘screw laminated’ fabrication for the spotted gum hardwood lamella enabling a cost-effective on-site assembly of the complex gridshell roof. According to the architect, ‘screw lam’ involved 3 layers of 90x23mm spotted gum timber (10 times stronger than pinus radiata) bent in 3 layers on site between steel nodes and screwed together with pairs of screws at 150mm cns.

“The design intent is to bind the building with the land primarily by constructing a ‘new ground’. For Architecture Workshop, responding to the strong topographical context was a strategy where architecture and landscape could resemble each other more and the integration of timber, both structurally and for finished surfaces of walls, floors and the ceiling, would reinforce the rising ecological consciousness of contemporary culture,” concluded Kelly.

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