UPDATE We’re very pleased to announce that our book Modern: New Zealand Homes from 1938 to 1977 won the Gerard Reid Award for Best Book at the recent Publishers’ Association of New Zealand Book Design Awards. It also won the categories of Best Illustrated Book and Best Typography. Congratulations to Arch MacDonnell and Sarah Gladwell of Inhouse Design (who also design every issue of HOME) for their beautiful work on the book.
We’re delighted to introduce you to our book, Modern: New Zealand Homes from 1938 to 1977, a tribute to the innovation and bravery of modernist architects of the era. It was published in October 2013 by Random House.
The book features wonderful modernist homes from Auckland, Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Whanganui, the Kapiti Coast, Wellington, Christchurch, Alexandra and Dunedin. Many of them have been published in HOME in the last decade or so, and are collected together here along with some homes being featured for the first time.
Modernism was a global revolution in architecture that changed the way we live, and the homes show the way this international style was imported to New Zealand. The country’s housing stock was previously dominated by English-style housing such as villas and cottages that paid no attention to fundamental design issues such as orientation to the sun, and relegated domestic functions such as cooking and laundry to rudimentary lean-tos. Modernist homes often featured open-plan living spaces oriented to the sun. They also elevated the importance of domestic function and family life. They also used beautiful materials that, in most of the homes in the book, still look fantastic today.
Through its look at 24 modernist homes, the book traces the development of modernism from a pure international style to one that collided with the New Zealand vernacular, as architects experimented with open-plan living spaces under cottage-style roofs.
One of the most charming things about all these homes, we think, is the fact that so many of them are still in the loving care of their original owners, or have been purchased by people who love them just as much. Only a few of them have been adapted (and if they have, then the alterations are very sensitive), a testament to the enduring quality of their design.
HOME is pleased to offer copies of Modern for the special price of $70, including free delivery throughout New Zealand. You can purchase your copy by visiting www.magshop.co.nz/modern.
