An architectural lighting project by ECC:
Terrace Edge House by Anna-Marie Chin Architects in Arrowtown, Otago.
On the edge of Lake Hayes looking out towards the Remarkables there is a special kind of light.
It is distinctive to this alpine region, and highly changeable depending on the seasons. In the warmer months the deep blues of the lake contrast with the green hues of the mountains beyond. Grasses are alive with wildflowers and blush tones abound.
When winter arrives, it’s a different scene entirely – the light becomes almost magnetic, with the greys and whites of snow and frost the dominant tones creating a cool, crisp palette.
In the 2022 Home of the Year, Terrace Edge House by Anna-Marie Chin Architects, the lighting allows for just the right amount of ambience and illumination – it is a carefully crafted and versatile lighting design that delivers more than meets the eye.
For the homeowners, their preferred entrance is separate to the entrance in proper. Here, stepping inside, the first experience is one of walls clad in recycled rimu: this area has a sense of protection and permanence to it, an intimate tactility.
The innate character of the old timber is contrasted with jovial contemporary lighting, in the form of an irregular track light that traverses wall and ceiling – a beacon of sorts.
At the main guest entrance, iGuzinni Orbit uplights are flush with the concrete floor, casting light onto stone walls accentuating their textural quality and beautiful irregularity. Overhead, the circular Light Ring pendant from Henge delivers an opulent aesthetic.
In the main living and entertaining area, hand blown glass globe pendants by Katie Brown for ECC hang above a long kitchen island, swinging gently in the breeze when apertures are open, picking up fleeting glimpses of the lake and mountain view beyond.
This house is one of considered moments; a series of gabled forms connected by glazed hallways. There’s a feeling of refuge in the gables and a lightness in the connections between them.
At night, as the landscape beyond falls away into darkness, the spaces are further defined by their illumination – the contrasting materials, textures and treatments are at once harmonised and juxtaposed by an arresting play of light and shadow.
