Cottesbrook

A Wānaka home by Gibson Builders, and Southern Region Supreme House of the Year at the 2026 Registered Master Builders House of the Year awards. Entered as a builder's own home, it took Regional Gold and its category, and was named in the national Top 100. The judges singled out the passion, precision and craftsmanship through the build, along with a considered material palette, refined detailing and a strong sense of warmth and personality.

Idsgn Architecture set the house behind a pale stone wall, with dark profiled steel and a low pitched roof turning the corner behind it. The exterior is deliberately dark and quiet. The interior is the opposite: white walls, generous glazing, and a floor left to carry the warmth.

Picasso Oak runs throughout, in a handmade bevel edge and a lightly knotted grade. Picasso sits in the Quiet and Light group, pale enough to keep the interior open against those darker exterior materials, with enough grain reading through that the floor still registers as timber rather than as a blank plane. The handmade bevel gives every board its own shadow line, which is what makes a hallway laid end to end read as a series of planks rather than a single surface.