Robust materials and expressive detailing create a joyous sensory experience on a human scale.

As part of our suburban housing series, we look at the single house selecting three examples that do things a little differently. These range from the E-Type House by RTA Studio that is cut open with courtyards to a small-but-perfectly-formed 50-square metre home. And, finally, a pair of townhouses that accommodate three generations of one family.   […]

Housing is a complex topic as there are so many factors that come into play – from sustainability to affordability, from aesthetics to technology, from regulations to demographics. Seeking new perspectives to these old questions, we asked six architects about some of the themes driving suburban house design in New Zealand today.     Smaller […]

Using a design/build approach based on economies of scale, this architect couple created three townhouse units in Seattle, one of which they’ve kept as a family home. Text Joe Malboeuf. Photography Rafael Soldi. According to a 2015 US Census Bureau report, Seattle just lost its status as the fastest-growing city in the United States. My […]

Sydney architect Brad Swartz explains how he turned 27 square metres in a Darlinghurst block into a functional and beautiful one-bedroom apartment for him and his partner. Being close to the city won over size for this young professional couple. Photos Katherine Lu. When we bought it, this was a rundown apartment consisting of a […]

Opportunities for urban green space are increasing as we reconcile density with human needs and sustainability. From pocket parks to green walls to communal rooftop vege plots, some clean air and domesticity is softening our cities. Written by Andrea Stevens.   The Commons rooftop garden, Melbourne (above) By Breathe Architecture, photo Andrew Wuttke The five-storey […]

This concrete block townhouse shows how one couple successfully made the move from the suburbs to the city in one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing centres. They, and the architect Adam Mercer, offer their views on this social yet private building. Text Andrea Stevens, Photography Simon Devitt. Defying the New Zealand dream of retreating to the coast […]

New Zealand Architect Richard George questions conventional planning and how one might make a house more flexible and adaptable for the long term. Photography by Simon Devitt. Too many houses are designed and built without questioning the core principles of design. In building relatively conventional houses, we still follow a given equation without ever asking why […]

Joseph Hampton of Warren and Mahoney discusses sustainability in house construction, and how to reduce impact on the environment both during the build and for a lifetime. Residential architecture has delivered many sublime moments of spatial mastery to humankind, yet it can also be responsible for altering the natural landscape and sprawling into the green fields […]

Sydney architects Chenchow Little explain how they converted an introverted Victorian terrace in Sydney into a breezy and connected house design, using careful planning and innovative devices to bring space and light into a difficult site. Text Tony Chenchow and Stephanie Little. Photography John Gollings and Katherine Lu. The Skylight House is located on 120 […]

Multi-unit living is taking its rightful place in the spotlight at last and these three townhouses in Christchurch offered us the chance to combine design flair with innovative construction technology on a compact infill site with tight constraints. Text Daryl Maguire, Warren and Mahoney. Photos Dennis Radermacher. Salisbury Street is close to Hagley Park and […]

Anita Panov and Andrew Scott designed and built their own inner city sanctuary in Sydney, Australia. Rather than deny the ambience and clamour of the city, they planned their home to embrace it, modelling its spaces to deliver a mix of stimulation, social comfort and solitude. Photos Brett Boardman. A few years ago, we designed […]

Auckland architect Pete Bossley looks at several common urban housing typologies for New Zealand cities, and comments on how denser cities can become more efficient and sustainable. Photo Simon Devitt. It may not seem so, but New Zealand is relatively highly urbanised. Over 50 per cent of us live in cities. Admittedly, our cities are […]

Co-housing offers a return to a more integrated and social living environment, with lower capital cost and energy use for a sustainable architecture. Architect Andrew Benn and his mother Suzanne test the concept in Sydney. Photo Tom Ferguson. With housing affordability now a major policy issue for our cities, and the need for sustainable housing […]

The B+B House has a sense of the monumental, a feature of Brazilian modernism with its open, poetic and optimistic character. Clean, cubist forms are influenced by local construction technology, but also by the climate and way of life. Raw concrete allows abstract modelled forms, while its passive cooling potential moderates the climate. Photos Fernando Guerra […]

Our latest issue is out now – Creating Economy by Design – where we investigate cost strategies in residential architecture, looking at how careful design can lead to innovations – building more with less, creating smaller but more interesting spaces, making houses simple but smart – and how industrial materials might be used to create homes that are robust, […]

This innovative apartment block by Melbourne-based Breathe Architecture caters to a new type of urban community, and shows how a building can support social, fiscal and environmental dimensions. Our strategy for The Commons apartment building in Brunswick was to build more with less: to provide space and height, light and air. To give people what […]

British practice Carl Turner Architects has reimagined the terrace house on a brownfield site in Brixton. Low energy use, high density, and a flexible plan increase the building’s usability and help future-proof it for changes in occupancy. Photography Tim Crocker. The Slip House is a prototype development that offers dense, flexible urban living. Built on […]

The Z–section of the B14 townhouse in Berlin is an experiment in living. Helle Schröder, of architecture practice XTH-Berlin, designed the house with Martin Janekovic, and describes what it is like to live in. It’s early morning on what is going to be a bright October Sunday, and I’m sitting on the roof terrace with […]

Mixed-use buildings allow apartments or townhouses to be raised above the public realm, solving privacy and security needs, while offices or retail make a vibrant street edge. They also have different user groups, whose peak use is typically at different times of the day: the result is buildings that appear to have a lower occupancy […]