The view from here

14 Apr 2026

Many of us will have a mental picture of our ‘dream house’ including, of course, the dream location. This may be informed by cherished memories of childhood holidays or by an affinity with a particular landscape.

For the owners of this home, designed by Mark Warren of MJWarchitecture, the lakeside locale was the deciding factor in their buying the property.

“My clients used to stay at the hotel across the road from the site, which, at the time, had a really dilapidated DOC information centre on it. However, there was no denying the extraordinary view of the lake, which they had coveted for many years, so when the property became available, they didn’t hesitate to buy it,” says Mark.

The interior material palette includes larch, birch-veneer ply and honed concrete, anchored by an internal courtyard and fire surround handcrafted to resemble off-form concrete but which is, in fact, the Rockcote Multistop Finishing Render system from Resene Construction Systems.

Not surprisingly, given that the view was all-important, the clients’ brief was for a home that kept the view front and centre.

“Essentially, the house was to be a vehicle for enjoying the view,” says Mark. “The site itself is actually quite small and awkwardly shaped with a number of covenants that constrained the building platform. In order to give the clients what they wanted and to stay within council guidelines, the plan evolved from single storey to two.

“And then, of course, there’s the usual list of practical requirements including aging-in-place considerations, along with needing to accommodate extended family – sometimes up to three or four generations of family at the same time – across a mix of private and public spaces, which in turn needed to be protected from the elements while still offering connection within the view.

An operable roof allows the internal courtyard to be opened to the environment, allowing for al fresco entertaining. The Rockcote Multistop Finishing Render system was hand-applied to a concrete block substrate.

“So, programmatically, the house had to do a lot, and yet you still had to see that view. That's really how the internal courtyard came about, because that's the best way to anchor the house, give it a central focus that was aimed at the view and was able to be opened to, or shut off from, the house.”

One of the outstanding features of the courtyard, aside from the operable roof, is the off-form concrete effect Mark selected for the walls.

“Aesthetically, I wanted to continue the linear rhythm in the courtyard that I established with many of the other materials used throughout the house, because I wanted it to have a very real presence. It came down to trying to find a more economical way to achieve that look, so I reached out to Resene to ask whether it could be done and once I knew it was possible using the Rockcote Multistop Finishing Render system, that’s when I got the builder down there to find a tradesman who could do the job, which actually proved quite difficult because none of them was confident about achieving the look we actually wanted. 

“When we found the right guy, Ian Flanagan, not only was he up for it, he'd actually done a similar look for a commercial project in Wanaka. He turned out to be one hundred per cent the right person, and actually won an award for this project (Resene Construction Systems Special Project Award Winner 2022). Sadly, I heard he passed away a short time later, but he has left behind a beautiful work of art, which is testament to his level of skill, because it's so very well done. To know that it’s hand-finished just adds to how remarkable it is.”

The impressive fire surround echoes the off-form concrete look of the internal courtyard and serves to demarcate the living area from the kitchen-dining area and internal viewing deck.

“You know, when you try to emulate another material, you're basically trying to cheat, which can be problematic as a poorly executed result can bring the whole design down because it looks exactly like what it is, an inferior substitute for the real thing. Happily, it all came together as I had envisaged, as you can see,” says Mark.

In the courtyard, the Rockcote Multistop Finishing Render system was applied to the concrete block substrate, while in the lounge, where it was used on the fireplace and television surround, it was applied directly onto the fibre cement substrate.

“Looking at it, and even when you touch it, it has a sense of solidity, because aesthetically, it's doing a lot of ‘structural’ things to the house, and it looks and feels just like you would want it to look and feel. Ian’s work was outstanding and clearly the accolades he received for it were well deserved. And obviously, the RCS system is very, very good; the perfect combination of the right person and the right product.”

The house borders a public walkway so establishing the right amount of privacy while maintaining access to the view was paramount. Bedrooms on the upper level are recessed to limit prying eyes, yet floor-to-ceiling windows ensure unobstructed views.

Photography by Simon Larkin: larkindesign.co.nz 

Published: 14 Apr 2026