Award-winner brings outdoors in

This house, designed to have the feel of a tramping hut, is "NZ Home & Entertaining" magazine's Home of the Year.

A King Country house set on a hillside and designed to look like a tramping hut won a top architectural award in Auckland yesterday.

The house was designed to cantilever slightly above a hillside, making it appear to be floating. Boulders brought from a nearby property line the internal walkway and give an impression of anchoring the house to the hillside.

One of its designers admitted she was initially worried when her firm was given a brief for the house of three pavilions on a small farm near Te Kuiti. Architect Julie Stout said she was surprised when the adventurous tramping family approached her with their wish list.

"They wanted to experience the outdoors within the house.

"We said, 'but gosh, it's cold and wet where you live'. They were already in the area and knew that.

"So we created a covered walkway to link the pavilions and that walkway creates a sense of journey as you move through the house and brings the outdoors in."

The three pavilions contain the master bedroom and study, a children's area and bathroom and a living-kitchen area. Plywood clads the exterior and plantation-grown pine has been used throughout.

The house, designed by Dave Mitchell, Julie Stout, Julian Stout and Ginny Pedlow, of Mitchell & Stout Architects, won the award sponsored by NZ Home & Entertaining magazine.