Homes

Light and linear

On a small, suburban hillside site in Christchurch, the design response for this family home was driven by verticality.

An oasis in a land of extremes

Poised above a desert-like Central Otago valley full of weather extremes, this house is part Americana, part experiment in slow architecture.

The language of a landscape

Three hundred or so metres above sea level in the far north, Geoff Fraser found the perfect patch of land for his latest house. Completely isolated and about a kilometre from the road, Geoff’s hilltop 15ha site is strewn with large volcanic boulders and surrounded by mature native bush. The air is clean, the views are immense and the solitude is all-consuming.

A sleek pavilion at Lake Rotoiti

The simplicity of this rural setting gave way to an expertly conceived design allowing for considered moments of solitude on the lakefront. A charcoal-toned roof and vertical timber cladding ensure the form blends into the hills behind, which are blanketed in verdant natives.

Back in black

Concealed on a bush-clad hillside site above Piha, the dark facade of this home mimics the tones of the ironsand on the beach below.

A contemporary home of rhythm and green

This family home, on the edge of Cox’s Bay Reserve in Westmere, Auckland, was conceived as a place of privacy — a contemporary urban abode incorporating considered moments of whimsy.

Reimagined glory

Marrying the elegance and style of New York with the outdoors lifestyle of Auckland, this elegant Remuera house delivers the best of both worlds.

Moonlight on the hill

This home on Moonlight Bay Road hangs perilously above the Tasman Sae a mere five minutes’ drive from downtown Raglan.

A matter of duality

On an enviable Northland site, this family home is a place of elegance and light – a sculptural addition to the rural landscape.

Raglan rest

In the foothills of Karioi, dark cedar cloaks a home surrounded by lush greenery in a vast and encompassing landscape.

Golden glow

This Auckland home is made up of a trio of individual but allied cubic forms using terracotta, corrugate, and a polycarbonate that positively glows in the dark like an urban lantern.

City and sea

On the shores of Sydney Harbour, New Zealand–born Australian architect Richard Archer devised a home of connections with the water and city beyond

On point

The interior flow of this waterfront, central Auckland apartment has been reimagined by Four Walls Architecture with flow and minimalism in mind.

Light on the crater

This North Shore home by JCA Studio is sandwiched between two different layers of building code.

Much aroha

New Zealand’s second apartment complex to have ever achieved the top Homestar rating is an urban experiment focused on people and their place in the land, rather than strictly about architectural form.

Living sculpture

From the street, this elegant white house looks like a close cousin of its neighbours. Two peaked gables and a verandah with a bull-nosed roof give a shout-out to the surrounding villas. But all is not as it seems.

Two bricks together

On a prominent corner site in central Christchurch, a cuboid brick house bridges the divide between residential and commercial.

Street life

On a steep, narrow site in Wellington, this family home cascades down over various levels, connected by a central spine to the north.

Dear architect…

A family-centric, semi-courtyard home with an internal, slow, staggered reveal takes pride in its privacy and as an entertainment mecca.

Lake Rotoiti house

Unfolding across two visually distinct levels, this holiday home on the shore of Lake Rotoiti is envisioned as a winter house — a concrete bunker of sorts nestled into the hillside.

Follow the sun

Coastal locations call for special consideration of material and performance. In this case, on a farm on a clifftop in Northland, the site is exposed and the elements are harsh.

The local compass

Pointing due north, The Dart is a direct and simple response to the topography of Mangawhai’s Bream Tail Farm.

A north arrow

On a clifftop that makes up part of the expansive and undulating land of Mangawhai’s Bream Tail Farm, this sculptural holiday home responds beautifully to its rural and coastal environs.

New wave

Inspired by a heritage church, this suburban Christchurch home uses its sinuous form for both impact and functionality.

Timber enclave

Bounded by farmland, and beneath a simple gabled form, this home is designed around layered moments of unexpected eccentricity.   Surrounded by Cantabrian farmland, the home

Three by the pond

AW Architects has designed a house in Bendemeer with three, very distinct volumes and equally diverse personalities: the birdwatcher, the socialite, and the sheep shearer who’s scrubbed up well.

Echo in the hills

This certified passive house is the sum of many parts — some conflicting, others converging; but as one, the innate tensions deliver an enviable and powerful presence. 

Ode to the seasons

A high-performing holiday home in Wanaka plays with height and light, compression and expansion.

Cabin on the coast

This coastal cabin in Mangawhai Heads has a lot going for it. With 270-degree views out across the ocean and back towards the Brynderwyns, it’s

Bringing the Hamptons to Takapuna Beach

The 2021 City Home of the Year, House on Takapuna Beach by CAAHT Studio, met the challenge of the fishbowl effect, as beach goers and dog walkers promenade the sand beyond the site’s border.

Refined, beautiful, natural

New Zealand residential architecture is dominated by the use of timber, both as an exterior cladding and joinery material, and for internal detailing — and there’s good reason for that.

A modern stone

HOME and Peter Fell present: A Modern Stone, an exploration of concrete in the 2021 Home of the Year, Black Quail House by Bergendy Cooke.

Wind in its sails

With the sun on its bow and the community at its stern, this is a house in which the elements are always front of mind. 

Home of the Year 2021: Black Quail House

A mature and restrained response to an awe-inspiring location. The architect has combined a wide range of influences — from Sri Lankan to her own, impressive international career — to achieve a quintessentially local response to site, context, and history.

Multi-Unit Home of the Year 2021: FARM House

Although modest in size and budget, this Auckland multi-generational home puts the client at its heart while at the same time future-proofing the asset for any potential uses that might eventuate.

The house that punk built

There’s anarchy in Avondale and it looks a lot like Eames, it sounds a bit like Joey Ramone, and it has its heart set on placemaking.

Remote escape

On the edge of a bluff at Palliser Bay, this isolated holiday home stands firm in a sparse landscape.

From the green

Mário Luz devises a simple form — three cedar boxes anchored by a central concrete spine — that settles effortlessly into a flat, rural Cantabrian landscape.

Little house on the hill

Wellington architects Bonnifait + Giesen explore their long-standing fascination with prefab and show how this Gisborne home fits snugly within that evolution.

Green gables

On a typical Westmere street, this black-clad double-gabled home stands tall — unrecognisable from the original bungalow whose bones were used to form the basis of an extensive renovation. 

Delta force

Approaching Jerram Tocker Barron Architects to design a new house on one of Nelson’s steepest streets put the owners on a trajectory to conjuring up an intriguing, diamond-pattern facade.

Next stop, Argentina

There’s something confronting and powerful about looking out to the horizon and seeing nothing but the ocean, knowing the next major landmass is thousands of kilometres away. 

Garden pavilion

Michael O’Sullivan folds the sun into an arc — a beautifully curved pavilion that responds to a mature garden on a site just north of Christchurch’s central city.

Taking flight

Pastoral stone barns and a black steel butterfly find common ground on an idyllic plateau above Lake Wakatipu.

Links to the sea

On a Mangawhai golf course, a glass-box pavilion is ruptured by three inverted cones. Pip Cheshire discusses the ideas and process that turned this seemingly simple concept into something entirely magnetic.

Living on the edge: New Zealand’s best clifftop homes

There’s something about clifftop homes in New Zealand. Maybe it’s a sense of living on the edge or the desire to find the most picturesque spot to watch the sunrise. Here are five clifftop homes where the architect has done justice to the dramatic surroundings.

At the bay

A difficult, yet awe-inspiring site called for a radical solution: breaking a Bay of Islands holiday bach in two. 

Of timber and texture

Lovell & O’Connell Architects devises a rhythmic form that pays homage to a tight Wellington site.

Under the inversion

Wrapped in corrugate and spanning just under 110m², this unassuming home on a hill above the small town of Luggate is powerful beyond its volume.

Family Affair

Designed and built by family members, this house in Leigh is steeped in heritage and ancestry.

Wharf above the orchard

Tim and Alison Hay first occupied this home around 15 years ago. They had bought the site in north-west Auckland three years earlier when it was an old orchard with a number of paddocks.

The sea below

John Irving creates a home that falls away to the ocean in Northland. It’s a bit Palm Springs, this house. It’s a bit casual, and it’s a bit dramatic — but only in just the right amounts.

Bungalow high

On a bend in the road in a historic area of Remuera, Auckland, this large site had been mostly unused for decades. An original 1930s bungalow had a certain charm, but its layout and orientation didn’t lend itself to contemporary family life — or make the most of the site.

Coastal wilderness

On the divide between suburban street and wild dunescape, Brian White carves a retreat from a singular form.

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The overall winner and Home of the Year 2024 is Boathouse Bay by Crosson Architects, an exemplary model of multi-unit design embodying the quest for community living through a marriage of architecture, landscape, and master-planning.

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Ebb & flow

Moving between sweeping curves and overt gestures of permanence, this Mangawhai home opens up and reaches out to the estuarine landscape beyond, welcoming visitors and the view with a dynamic spatial interplay.

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Maungarāhiri

A masterful transformation of a 1920s bungalow, rooted in the Arts and Crafts tradition, into a generous modern family home, this expressive renovation captures the elegance of its architectural period while meeting the evolving needs of its occupants.

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Aroha

A cornerstone of Auckland City’s Avondale rejuvenation, the 2024 Multi-Unit Home of the Year stands as a gateway project that is instantly recognisable and a symbol of rejuvenation, not gentrification, within a city belt setting.

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Back house

The 2024 Green Home of the Year is a joyful little home that makes the most of a sunny spot in the backyard, designed with equal measures of economy and sustainability.

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Product of the week

Latest features

It’s the people

The overall winner and Home of the Year 2024 is Boathouse Bay by Crosson Architects, an exemplary model of multi-unit design embodying the quest for community living through a marriage of architecture, landscape, and master-planning.

Read More »