Bunker House – Godley Peaks Road, Canterbury, New Zealand 🇳🇿

Bunker House, by Dalman Architects, is a modern underground home designed for isolation and endurance. Concealed within the rugged landscape of the Mackenzie Basin, the home redefines modern off grid living. Designed by Dalman Architects, this largely subterranean home is almost imperceptible from land and air, its concrete form blending seamlessly with the surrounding tussock. The residence is engineered for both resilience and sustainability, maintaining thermal efficiency year-round while offering uninterrupted views of the high country. With its only large, glazed façade oriented away from the Mt John Observatory, the design carefully mitigates light pollution, critical in this internationally recognized dark sky reserve.

Name: Bunker House
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 3
Size: 2,152 sq. ft.
Built: 2023

Deep in the remote Mackenzie Basin of New Zealand’s South Island, the Bunker House is a striking example of architectural ingenuity, designed to disappear into the rugged landscape. Positioned at the foot of Mount John near Lake Tekapo, this largely underground home is built to blend seamlessly with its surroundings, minimizing its visual impact while offering a secure and self-sufficient retreat. Designed by Dalman Architects and constructed by Wilson Building Timaru, the residence is strategically oriented to protect the internationally renowned dark sky reserve, with a single glazed façade facing away from the Mount John Observatory to prevent light spill. This unique build also features a planned underground tunnel connecting the home to a future aircraft hangar and airstrip, reinforcing its discreet, almost invisible presence in the high-country terrain.

Constructed primarily from exposed concrete, the 200-square-meter home is a masterclass in durability and efficiency, designed to withstand the region’s extreme climate while providing a warm, energy-efficient interior. The structure is built into a gently sloping hill, with above-ground portions concealed beneath native tussock, allowing the home to blend naturally into its surroundings. Inside, the minimalist material palette of concrete, steel, and recycled timber reflects the raw beauty of the landscape, while clerestory windows at the rear bring natural light into the subterranean living spaces. The floor plan is deliberately simple, centered around an open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area, flanked by two en-suite bedrooms, with a third room at the rear set to become the main entry point once the tunnel to the airstrip is completed.

Despite its rugged aesthetic, the Bunker House offers a refined and tranquil living experience, where uninterrupted views stretch across thousands of hectares of untouched highlands. The northwest-facing glass frontage connects the home to its surroundings, framing the vast expanse of the Mackenzie Country by day and the dazzling southern stars by night. Designed as a high-performance, low-maintenance retreat, this extraordinary home is an architectural response to both the region’s isolation and its breathtaking beauty, offering complete solitude without compromising on comfort or design.