Sailor's hideaway wins top design prize

The Rock House has been described as 'theatrical, sensuous and beautifully proportioned'. Photo / Supplied

Sailing champion Brad Butterworth's new $3.9 million Auckland hideaway has won an architects' design prize.

The winning America's Cup skipper also stands to win a national award for his taste in housing.

His Waiheke Island hideout, dubbed the Rock House, originally annoyed neighbours, who nicknamed it "Brad's Pit".

But last Thursday, the Institute of Architects called the four-level house "residential architecture on an international level, theatrical, sensuous and beautifully proportioned".

The Auckland area award means the house, designed by Andrew Patterson, is now in the running for one of the national awards, to be announced this year.

The 318sq m beachfront home is hardly a humble bach. It stands on a golden stretch of sand, below the island's main settlement of Oneroa, at 46 Beach Parade.

It is listed by QV as a $2.06 million house on a $1.84 million section, which is large at 954sq m.

Three years ago, when a small army of earthmoving equipment arrived on the sloping site, neighbours complained about what appeared to be half a hillside dug away and a big scar on the landscape.

Later, one said the finished house was "not as bad" as she had expected.

Butterworth built the hideout with entertainment in mind.

It has three bedrooms, a study, a garage, two bathrooms, a pool in a central north-facing courtyard and a spa pool.

All living areas flow to the sheltered, enclosed pool area, but the house also has features for privacy.

Rotating fins on its upper level open it out to the sea and shore when the Butterworths are in residence, but shut "like a rock face", the institute said, when no one is at home.