Yevrah

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Nestled into its mountain setting, this strikingly original Queenstown home is a showcase for energy saving design and technology, as DAVID KILLICK discovered.

From Queenstown you take the road to Glenorchy, turn right and climb steeply. The road feels like a ski access road, but is sealed. At about 500m above Lake Wakatipu, Alpine Retreat is believed to be New Zealand's highest residential subdivision.

Here you will find some unusual homes: a massive log home, a place with a round stone turret, a house that could belong in Switzerland, Austria or southern Germany. And then there's Yevrah Ornstein's house. It's full of curves (even the matter-of-fact roofer said the roof looked "sexy") and interesting angles. The main living area is cantilevered out over a sheer cliff. There's a glimpse down towards the lake.

When Ornstein bought the site eight years ago, no one wanted it, he says. Too high, too remote, too tricky. But it was just the kind of peaceful retreat he was looking for. Originally from Long Island, New York, his background includes building homes in Mexico, and upstate New York, schools for the Peace Corps in Equador, writing and publishing, and alternative energy.

In a climate where winter temperatures dip as low as minus 10degC and snow can lie on the ground for over two weeks, energy efficiency would be a high priority. He searched for an architect who specialized in this area, and chose Christchurch architectural firm Roger Buck and Associates Ltd. Their views gelled. "I think Roger and Ted (Barnes) are absolutely brilliant, and such a pleasure to work with."

Ornstein had several other priorities apart from practical energy saving, which he detailed in his brief: "I don't want to live in boxes; I like curves. Do away with walls wherever you can. I said I like my privacy, and I wanted to maximize the view, and bring the outside inside."

He is delighted with the results. Not only did the architects achieve everything he wanted and more, he can't speak highly enough of the builders Brian Hill, of Queenstown, and master carpenter Tony Baker. Everyone involved enjoyed working together on an original project.

A host of features, some tried and tested and some new, come together to make the house energy efficient. Foremost is its concrete-filled polystyrene block construction, clad with local schist and cedar. The blocks create thermal mass, storing the sun's energy and gradually releasing it. Inside, some of the polystyrene has been stripped away and plastered, so walls act as "thermal sinks". Masses of ceiling insulation was fitted underneath the butynol roof.

NK Windows, of Christchurch, supplied European-style double-glazed windows. Thermofloor, also of Christchurch, fitted underfloor electric strip heating.

An innovation is the "warm wall", which Ornstein and Roger Buck plan to market. It's a simple concept: a black-painted aluminium panel on the outside has a series of perforations. A fan ducts warm air inside through pipes and wafts it down from the ceiling. A heat recovery system distributes air evenly. It's low cost but effective, says Ornstein.

So just how economical is the house? Ornstein says the power bill averaged $360 a month over 10 months. That might sound quite a lot, until you consider that some Queenstown households pay several hundred dollars more in the middle of winter, despite being smaller and lower down. Others can pay $1500. Three-phase line rental is about $100 a month. Ornstein's place is nearly all-electric (he also has a woodburner), and he has an outdoor spa pool which he keeps heated. The house measures a spacious 350 sq m. One building expert reckoned without the design and special features, the power bill be an extra $1000 a month.

Ornstein is also a believer in wellness. Apart from a gymnasium, he has a far-infrared sauna, which detoxifies the body while being economical to run, and a hyperbaric chamber, which superoxygenates the body.

The gym, two bedrooms, and a bathroom, are on the top level. Other rooms open off a central hallway which cascades down towards the living area. All main rooms face north for the sun, even a bathroom, looks out to the deck.

Materials include an exposed schist wall, travertine marble flooring from Italy, and Australian jarrah handrails. Craftsman Martin McDonald, of Coronet Woodware, made Ornstein's maple storage unit and desk. Artwork includes works by Christchurch artist Sue Spiegel, and some native American pieces and paintings.

Bathrooms are works of art, too. The shower head is Italian, while the curved mirror and benchtops were made by local craftsmen.

At the far end of the passageway, the living room looks direct out over the cliff over beech trees towards the mountain tops. Doors in the TV area open to a rocky outcrop and spa pool. From this area you can look down over the lake.

The kitchen, by Lloyd Richardson, of Invercargill, features a black granite benchtop and jarrah joinery, and schist. Overhead, the sculpted ceiling is a testimony to exacting workmanship. "Asymmetrical balance" sums it up, says Ornstein. Doors open from the dining area to the north-facing deck. Even the kwila decking timbers were curved, instead of being laid in straight lines.

Morgan and Pollard laid out the large section, which features natural schist walls, boulders and rushing water, and New Zealand natives. Ornstein is delighted with the house, and calls it a work of art. He fully expects it will still be around in a few hundred years a time. Roger Buck told him it would take from 12 to 18 months to fully learn how the house works. It's not so much a simple dwelling as "a living entity", says Ornstein.

A fan ducts warm air inside through pipes and wafts it down from the ceiling, underneath the floor and into all parts of the house. It's true central heating: low cost but effective.

What's special:

Location: Alpine Retreat, Queenstown (elevation approx xxx m above sea level).

Design priorities: energy efficiency, curving shapes, open spaces, built to last.

Architect: Roger Buck and Associates, Christchurch.

Builders: Brian Hill, of Queenstown, master carpenter Tony Baker.

Heating and cooling systems: "warm wall" _ for information, email warmwall@xtra.co.nz; passive solar design with concrete and super insulation; underfloor heating by Thermocell; double glazing by NK Windows; woodburner.

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