Vernacular adventure

On the upper reaches of Lake Wakatipu, RTA Studio and Bureaux go high concept with traditional types at The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp. John Walsh reports.

Photography PATRICK REYNOLDS

THE GREAT GLENORCHY ALPINE BASE CAMP is a thorough-going realisation of a distinctive commercial model: bespoke architecture in the service of bespoke adventure. In both a design and a business sense, the enterprise pitches its tent (excuse me) in highly resonant territory. Hollywood–;and the cinematic quality of the project encourages movie-making analogies–;would recognise it as a high-concept proposition. You could say, given that mining metaphors in this part of Otago are as irresistible as the lure of gold once was, that The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp exploits a rich seam of settler typologies and memes. It’s quite a title: ‘The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp’. Aside from its assertion of superlative status, the name acknowledges the setting of a village remotely sited at the confluence of the Dart River–Te Awa…

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Architecture NZ (Digital) - 1 Issue, November-December 2023

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