Homes

Approach this 100-year-old villa in Auckland’s Remuera and there’s a beguiling sense of history and character, but there’s also a sense of something more.

Five simple elements and the well-placed delivery of a stunning view define this minimalist, Hawke’s Bay home by Dorrington Atcheson Architects.

When a client’s brief is to “come up with something you think looks good”, the parameters are so open and the trust so complete that it can feel overwhelming. However, architect Phil Smith had known Martin and Christina Russell for close to a decade. If they were relaxed, so was he.

This clear insertion into the back of a century-old Wellington villa provides an extra 135 square metres and a myriad of spatial experiences for the owners.

Danish modernism, Kiwi nostalgia, and a touch of grandeur converge on a one-of-a-kind site in Mangawhai, where a home of red brick and glass is dwarfed by an undulating dunescape.

About 15 years ago, Darryl and Lee-Ann Church happened upon a for sale sign as they were driving to their child’s school camp at Lake Whakamaru. The land was part of a working farm, a property spanning 175 hectares that would ultimately be jointly owned by the purchasers of 50 new blocks within its boundaries.

Located down a densely populated driveway, this steep, small site didn’t have a lot of obvious benefits. What it did present was a number of questions, the answer to each offering a topical narrative on where to from here when designing stand-alone homes for family life in our cities.

On a piece of Christchurch real estate with some serious architectural heavyweights as neighbours, this home had to do justice to the area’s rich design legacy while embracing a contemporary approach to a prominent, public-facing corner site.

This monopitch, minor dwelling by Assembly Architects was inspired by Roman domus, tripped up by gladiatorial battles against local design parameters, and boasts a tasteful play of translucency and light.

That recurrent trope of ‘compression and expansion’ in architecture has been given a beautiful, rocky interpretation above Alexandra and looking across to the Hawkdun Range.

A beautifully understated Westmere home filled with luxurious detailing makes the most of its waterfront location.

Tucked away on an idyllic semi-rural site in Paremoremo, on the outskirts of Auckland, New Zealand’s first — and the southern hemisphere’s largest — 3D-printed concrete house marks a bold move forwards, and a golden opportunity to make architecture more accessible.

With help of a meticulous brief, exacting craft, and impeccable taste, this 1916 Arts and Crafts house in Remuera, Auckland, has been brought into the modern era in a manner true to the spirit of its original style.

A restricted material palette, a modernist soul that is part Californian, and a touch of Japanese — all combine to form an entirely picture-perfect Waiheke home by Rowe Baetens Architecture.

Part homage to the late Sir Miles Warren, part allusion to the owners’ Dutch and farming roots, this house by PRau is a beautiful amalgam of influences and materials.

On the cusp of land and sea on the rugged coastline of Christchurch’s Te Rae Kura — the red, glowing headland — the folding form of this home echoes and reflects the transience of the coast.

Nestled in a vast mānuka forest that nudges the edge of suburban Whitby in Wellington, this family home stands among the trees, balanced on the spine of a natural ridge overlooking an undeveloped bush-filled valley.

A Sumner site that’s all angles provides opportunity to think outside the square.

A joyful yet important little building in Paekākāriki that holds the spirit of whānau and the village in its DNA.

A home that decides for itself how best to live on the land is conceived to last for centuries.

This sophisticated Queenstown home by Rafe Maclean Architects is both introverted and expressive. A sculptural exterior form gives way to an interior that was once described by guests as being like the inside of a wooden jewellery box.

A dynamic family home with an unassuming street presence unfolds on a picture-perfect Westmere site, opening out at its lowest point to a brooding south-facing view.

A manifestation of permanence and solidity, this decadent concrete bunker near Tekapo echoes the silence of the lands that surround it.

A family home designed by Space Division replicates bucolic living in the middle of a busy Auckland suburb.

Can great architecture and affordable housing coexist? In this case, absolutely.

Just before the turn of last century, two brothers built a pair of brick villas side by side in the Christchurch suburb of St Albans.

In an area of Mount Maunganui where the divide between urban and coastal collides in a streetscape of varying design languages, ata interpreted his clients’ brief with a creative approach.

This lake house by Rogan Nash Architects can function as both a retirement spot for a couple and a welcoming holiday home for several children and their extended families.

A study on infill housing, this Sandringham home designed for a couple returning to New Zealand from California maximises a small footprint to deliver spaces of versatility within a simple but intriguing façade.

Jose Gutierrez Architects transformed this character villa, located on a typical Grey Lynn street, into a contemporary oasis — a place that moves between lightness and solidity with a fluid grace.

High above Waiheke Island’s Owhanake Bay, this pool pavilion speaks to the architectural nuances of the main home, while introducing its own distinct identity — a restorative space intuitively connected with land and sea.

In one of the most distinctive coastal environments in New Zealand, this large family home takes its cues from the dramatic beauty of the sound it overlooks, and follows the natural contours of the land to embrace the setting and disappear into the bush-covered hillside.

On a steep and challenging hillside site surrounded by native bush, this Piha home was envisioned as a weekend getaway.

Designed as a two-property subdivision, in conjunction with the neighbouring Beach Forest House, My House showcases how a collective approach to multi-residential design can result in a diverse set of architectural homes that not only seek to provide a viable solution to the call for increased density but which also improve our streetscapes.

In the vastness of a southern valley in one of the most remote regions of New Zealand, RTA Studio designed an entirely unexpected concrete dwelling of two parts and modernist intentions.

Perched on a hill above the tiny coastal settlement of Ligar Bay, this two-tiered bach was designed to capture the view in absolute purity, playing with a dialogue that pushes and pulls between solidity and transparency.

During a visit to Waiheke a decade or so ago, an architect was struck by a simple, refined sculpture and the way that its ad hoc form, created from a roll of corrugated iron, twisted down a hillside, creating and enclosing spaces.

On a prominent street corner in Grey Lynn bordering the heritage zone, this rectilinear addition presents a new and mostly closed face — a bold architectural statement that gives way to refined interior spaces.

Tying in with the pastel tones of the Coromandel sands, this home floats above the land, hovering almost, atop a native bush-covered knoll overlooking the twin peaks of Mount Paku.

A zig-zagging black form lounges in the sun among old trees and the serrated mountainscape visible from the Wakatipu Basin. Its architect, Anna-Marie Chin – winner of Home of the Year 2022 – tells us more.

Architect Paul Francis set about the extensive renovation of a 30-year-old home on the edge of Hobson Bay with the aim of removing the boundaries between architecture and landscape, envisioning a design that would fall gracefully into the background.

In the suburb of Hauraki on a small North Shore peninsula, this house elegantly moves around its site to frame views to the sea while enclosing a series of private spaces.

Turkish limestone, Californian architecture, and a context rich in history converge on this modestly sized yet potent home on Auckland’s city fringe.

A physical divider between public and private land, this house is a collection of rooms for living that exists in the space between two realms. It was never going to be extravagant, but it is extravagantly well considered.

Architect Tony Koia let this house take its own form — from the immediate landscape, the views, and the mountains and lake in the distance.

The extensive renovation of this 1980s Ponsonby apartment by Four Walls Architecture offers a refreshing take on city living at height.

The success of any project often comes down to the level of collaboration and the working relationships between client, builder and architect. In the same way a well-built home provides a better environment for living, so too does a well run project team produce better outcomes.

This family home offers both a departure from and a nod to the small concrete-block homes that used to be dotted along the coastal roads of Takapuna.

This highly sculptural home just outside Queenstown reaches out and responds to the water below and the peaks that rise around it.

A couple of kilometres north of central Wellington, on a ridgeline in Wadestown, architects Seear-Budd Ross envisioned a space of calm: serene rooms with restrained detailing.