Award Winning Taupo House

Residential

10 Aug

Kinloch, Taupo, New Zealand

2026 Master Builders Regional House of the Year - GOLD

An incredibly difficult site with unusual local subdivision height restrictions. Here most of the bare land onsite was already above the hight limit and our only solution on this small site was to cut heavily into the hillside where the garage takes on a ’James Bond feel‘ completely buried into the hillside just leaving the glazed garage door as entry to the hill. Taupo in winter is a cold and windy location and thus encouraged us to form a courtyard to capture the sun and provide shelter from the cold lake breeze

Kinloch House approached from the driveway, its dark cladding and schist set low into the hillside

Board-formed concrete and oak frame the kitchen bar, with the sunken lounge and the lake beyond

A full-height oak wall divides the entry from the kitchen, lit by clerestory glazing above

The garage elevation in dark vertical cladding, with Mount Tuatara on the skyline

The kitchen island beneath a long clerestory window, with the lake framed beyond

The sheltered internal courtyard, which captures the sun and keeps the cold lake wind out

The main living room opens the full width of the house to the terrace and the lake

A second sitting room in plaster and oak, with sliding doors onto the courtyard

The main bedroom set against a schist wall, the village and lake edge through full-height glass

The dining table sits hard against the glazing so the view runs the length of the room

Kitchen and dining share one room, with the island as the working edge between them

Seen from above, Kinloch House reads as a single dark line in the hillside, most of it buried

A steep, irregular site and strict height controls shaped this single-level home, designed with architecture, landscape and interior developed together from the outset. The house wraps around a sheltered central courtyard that drives its passive performance — natural heating, cooling and ventilation — while linking inside to out.

Interlocking pavilions hold the living spaces and main suite in one wing, further bedrooms and a home office in others. Large, solid oak doors close off intimate rooms within otherwise open-plan areas.

Stone, zinc, steel, timber and in-situ concrete give a robust, energy-conscious home with a strong relationship to its lakeside setting.

Project

Client: Private

Location: Kinloch, Taupo, New Zealand

Status: Completed - Builder Beck Building

Photo Credit - Deanna Onan