Local farm buildings inspired the form and aesthetic of this house; long pitched roofs break down its scale and allow it to reach into the landscape. Photography Simon Devitt. Our brief was to design a practical family home that could accommodate visiting adult children, spouses and grandchildren. Our clients, Ken and Helen, had been living […]

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 […]

Nelson architect Jeremy Smith writes about transforming a commercial construction system into a cost-efficient, robust and poetic family home. Text Jeremy Smith. Photography Patrick Reynolds. Architecture to us is about questions. What is important? Who needs what? What makes it sing? Questions allow us to break a project down into key elements and make each […]

In reference to the simple fishing and summer cottages of Taieri Beach, this modern bach design affords more height and volume. Text Mason & Wales, Photography Ewen Livingstone The cottages of the coast are a product of their environment – influenced in scale and form by function, affordability and DIY construction, and often involving building additions and […]

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 […]

Held by the Auckland Architecture Association (AAA), the Visionary Architecture Awards recognise and promote unrestrained conceptual process and thinking on theoretical or not-yet-realised architectural projects. The awards were held Tuesday 17th November at an event at the Auckland Art Gallery. Architectural industry experts Rewi Thompson, Dean Mackenzie, Lynda Simmons and Chris Darby judged the premier […]

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 […]

Houses that reflect physical or poetic qualities of a place become more powerful and memorable. Here are three ‘buildings in the landscape’ that respond to the uniqueness of their environment. Photos Simon Devitt. Lake House by Stevens Lawson Architects On the edge of a South Island lake, the folding forms of this architecturally-designed house camouflages […]

Congratulations to all Friday night’s award winners at the NZIA Architecture Awards! Awards jury convenor, Auckland architect Pete Bossley commented: ”It has been a strong year in New Zealand architecture, and the buildings we saw amazed and enticed us. It was a privilege to visit them, and a challenge to judge them.” Here are the new houses […]

Picking up a Gold at the Best Design Awards, Jamie McLellan’s Lumber Table joins the stable at Fletcher Systems with his series of beautifully crafted Lumber Chairs. Judges’ Comments: The Lumber table impressed the judges with its refined elegance and meticulous attention to timber construction detailing. From a healthy field of emerging New Zealand furniture […]

The chiselled form of this courtyard house echoes a landscape of extremes. Architect Dominic Glamuzina discusses the need to address the cold, and embrace the warmth, of Central Otago. Text Dominic Glamuzina. Photography Patrick Reynolds and Sam Hartnett. Working to a thoughtful brief and rigorous budget, Aaron Paterson and I looked at old building practices […]

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, […]

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 […]

Monarch is a collection of tables and stools based around three leg profiles designed to offer flexibility in size, material and finish. The collection is intended to free the user from material and size restrictions, and to extend a dynamic aesthetic across a wide family of furniture pieces. The versatility of the design means that […]

The key feature of any lamp – the naked light bulb – may be effective, but it is also merciless. Its hard light blinds the eye and does nothing good for the atmosphere in a room. The job of a good lamp is to transform the light from the bulb before this light meets its […]

This is a book of pictures of modernist, mid-century New Zealand homes. The houses aren’t new, they’re old and lived in. Photographer Mary Gaudin and writer Matthew Arnold show us the timelessness of these simple yet elegant dwellings. They can be a little dusty, slightly worn around the edges and all have what antique dealers […]

A common problem for many New Zealand gardens is drainage and the channelling away of excess water. But what about when landscaping is required for a dry climate where there is likely to be a lack of water for lengthy periods? Megan Wraight talks us through such a project in Central Otago in New Zealand’s […]

Clustered together at the centre of the Seatoun Waterfront development in Wellington, these interlocking courtyard houses challenge the suburban archetype of detached houses on discrete sections. Nick Barratt-Boyes of Studio Pacific Architecture presents a different model for contemporary suburban life. The traditional approach to suburban development in New Zealand cities sees each house sited approximately […]

Architect Darren Jessop worked closely with the owners of this Auckland home to create the first certified Passive House in Australasia, meeting an exacting set of international standards. Our design for this four-bedroom home in east Auckland began typically enough. We had worked through three sketch design options with the client and had settled on […]

Architect Andrea Bell and interior designer Karen Ngan Kee discuss how architecture and interior design can work to create a seamless whole. When approaching a project, we don’t bring a ‘house style’. As an architect-interior designer team, each project is entirely unique. We absorb our client’s values, needs and wants. We examine the site and […]