Taking flight: Falcon Brae
The steel roof profiles of Flacon Brae curve in multiple directions, mimicking the surrounding hills.
The villa is sited in the Motueka River Valley, between three National Parks.
The undulating roofline can often be spotted from above on walking tracks throughout the property.
Three wings off the main living areas create distinct suites with their own private decks.
Interiors were designed in association with Kurio.
Each suite is named after a local area and takes material inspiration from its namesake.
The three suites feature private bathrooms and lounges housed under the extended-height curved roof sections.
The communal spaces offer all the residential amenities that guests or the clients could need while staying.
A heated outdoor pool soaks in the view of the valley.
Falcon Brae was named a winner in the Hospitality category at the 2021 Nelson/Marlborough NZIA Local Awards.
The surrounding 50-hectare site is planted with native vegetation.
This NZIA Local Award winner takes inspiration from the Pacific Rim, creating a flexible space that offers the comforts of home but can function as a luxury lodge, all poised under an undulating roofline.
The bespoke elliptical roofs of the Falcon Brae Villa are an engineering feat in themselves. But, housed underneath is a flexible plan that feels at once expansive and intimate. It was designed first and foremost as a home for the American clients backing it, but they wanted to rent the space out as a luxury villa when they were not in the country.
Much of the way this project walks the line between housing and hospitality is in the planning. Three distinct suites, aptly named for local areas, create wings off of the central entry and lounge spaces. Jerram Tocker Barron Architects director Simon Hall says that the distinctness of the suites elevates it as a hospitality venue. “I think there is a generosity of space, with the main living space of each suite having the popped roof,” he says, referring to the extended height of the curved roof sections.
The Motueka Suite, the Kahurangi Suite and the Tasman Suite all took their specific inspiration from their namesakes, adds designer Karl Vercoe. “From the beginning, they all had distinct flavours of relation in terms of colours and materials.”
“They’ve got their own palatial bathrooms and decks as well, so they do function as self-contained spaces,” Hall says. “And, they’ve been deliberately located within the lodge to provide intimacy in terms of separation, so you can have different guests staying at the same time.”
Because the clients wanted to operate the project as a lodge, deadlines were tight, and the arched roofs provided more than one challenge. Vercoe notes that clients included the desire for curves in their original brief and the design evolved as it went along. “We had designed these curved roofs on top of a hill where there was a huge amount of wind load. They would have actually acted like a sail, wanting to pull the whole building out. There was a lot of work going on in the front end of the design to keep the aesthetics and keep these features, but we also had to work with the structural engineer on-site to brace the buildings.”
The steel roofing frames were set up by Sharland Engineering in Nelson and then disassembled and put back together on site. Plenty of manpower went into installing each piece to ensure it didn’t blow away during the process.
Beyond the building, the clients were eager to be kind to the surrounding landscape and community as well. “The clients were particular about making sure that it had a connection with New Zealand and the local environment,” Vercoe says. Hall adds, “The site is 50 hectares. The lodge is one part of it, but there is a wider masterplan of rejuvenating what was a reasonably dilapidated farm. They planted around 50,000 Manuka trees. The lodge is a way of facilitating something that is quite a lot larger than itself. I think it’s going to be a real asset for that area.”
The glory of the resulting roof area of over 1000m2 is difficult to deny. The judges of the 2021 NZIA Local Awards for Nelson/Marlborough liked it enough to award the project in the Hospitality category, saying “the sweeping roof structure provides a clean and evocative fifth elevation when viewed from the walking tracks above”.
Lodge operators also note that the villa is completely off-grid, using solar energy for all power required. Pacific Rim meets Aotearoa; home meets hospitality; and luxury meets treading lightly.
