Michael Hill is planning to construct 17 underground houses on his golf course (“The Hills”) in Arrowtown. I think this is a very clever development that deserves a mention for some quality thinking.

Think of the pristine landscapes around Arrowtown, the snow capped mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and beautiful environment. So often an intensive housing development in a rural setting would detract from this. Here’s some scenery of the Queenstown Lakes District – not an ugly place. In fact it was the place I got engaged, and here is the view from the precise spot (Bennetts Bluff, Lake Wakatipu) where I went down on one knee to propose to my fiancee Bridget:

The Hills

Here’s a picture of Michael Hill’s stunning golf course in Arrowtown:

Normally houses would harm a magic landscape like this, however Michael Hill and his Auckland architect (Andrew Patterson who designed the cutting edge Clubhouse there) have today lodged building consent for 17 subterrean houses.

Around 80% of the houses will be underground and have few doors, which will help with heating. The rooves will be grass or pebble and finished to a top executive standard. The sizes of these houses will be 350 – 700sqm in size. The excavation and retaining work needed, schist exteriors in above ground parts and top quality finish desired means these houses will be very expensive to built and therefore also demand a top quality price.

The proposal is to develop these over ten years. Click Here to see more on this fascinating development.

We need more lateral thinkers like Michael Hill in New Zealand. He has a magnificent environment in The Hills. And he is allowing more people to share in it, without detracting from the environment with underground housing.

I hope the building consents go through smoothly and quickly so this staged development project can begin – I can’t wait to see it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m off to my sister-in-law’s birthday party tomorrow, featuring virtual ten pin bowling on Ninentdo Wii as her girls are to sick to go out with us. Then my Club soccer game. It will be fun.