The essence of summer luxury is a home that facilitates easy indoor outdoor living by blurring the edges between indoors and out. Tenfiftyfive is an Australian practice that creates intelligent, real family homes with elegant spaces that effortlessly merge interiors with garden terraces to enhance the lifestyles of their owners.   Here are three stunning […]

When you want to stay in the same house and suburb for a lifetime, a house needs to be able to adapt with you. The simple elegance of this concrete house conceals a large interior that can be easily reconfigured as needs change. Architect Megan Rule discusses designing a house for life using modern and […]

Sometimes as we explore the global arena to source projects that are truly exemplary we discover a practice whose entire body of work takes our breath away. Hyde + Hyde in the UK is one such practice. Set against moody backdrops in dramatic locations, images of the buildings they have designed and created across the […]

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

Appropriate sustainable design in tune with the local climate.

With a large glass viewing area but minimal depth Escea’s widest fire yet, the DS1650, makes a big impact using a small footprint.

Luxury is many-layered. First come the life comforts – simple warmth and shelter – but aesthetics can add a poetic layer. Architects use proportions, light and material selection to create character and delight. Here, we explore some poetic depictions of luxury as captured by photographers – moments created or framed by architecture that enhance our […]

Aaron Paterson and Sarosh Mulla, of Paterson Collective Architecture, reflect on a new form of luxury that says less about size or bling, and more about true value. When you consult the digital oracle that is Google about ‘luxury’ you are consumed by images from a Donald Trump wet dream: superyachts, jets, fast cars and […]

Architecture is led by ideas, expressed through materials and form, and executed with craft and precision. It is neither art nor sculpture, although often described in these terms. It is a creative yet pragmatic process – and result – that must fulfil requirements for shelter and comfort, but has the ability to heighten our aesthetic […]

The kitchen has long been the central social space in a house, and one that gets the hardest knocks. Extra care in quality and materials, it seems, are amply justified. We have selected three kitchens that have had every last detail considered and refined to create spaces of fine craft and beautiful aesthetics. Surry Hills […]

If kitchens are the central social space, then bathrooms are their antithesis – the most private and singular of spaces within a house. For many, solitude is the essence of luxury and daily bathing is the perfect ‘alone time’. These three bathrooms demonstrate how to celebrate quietude and privacy in different ways, from framing a […]

Gardens in the sky and dynamic spaces make this urban house in Ho Chi Minh City an exciting, richly layered family experience. Architect Shunri Nishizawa discusses reinventing the typical row house to create stunning social spaces and celebrate nature in the city. Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Architects: NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS. Photos: Hiroyuki Oki. ‘The perceived […]

One of the great successes of the scheme lies in its use of courtyards to marry the house to its site and create as much useable outdoor space as possible.

Architect Dominic Glamuzina discusses the suburban condition and our changing attitudes to boundaries,  openness and privacy. His house design in Cox’s Bay, Auckland, brings modern planning to a heritage neighbourhood, but takes its cues from a more democratic past. Text Dominic Glamuzina. Photos Sam Hartnett. The suburbs are contentious places, maligned by urban planning critics […]

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.   […]

Kitchens are built-in design elements that are at once highly functional and expressive: typically the ‘engine room’ of the family home, they must also work with the architecture of the building. We review three examples, made of humble materials, whose personalities reinforce the overall design. Photography Simon Wilson. Sayes Stock kitchen, Auckland by Henri Sayes […]

Selecting designer furniture for a home can be daunting with such a wide choice of contemporary designs at all price points. We have found three items that are affordable, lightweight and easy to ship. They all feature simple lines and a soft aesthetic.   Monarch Table,  Goldsworthy Studio The Monarch series is a family of […]

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 […]