Homes

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.

Architectural designer Ben Brady creates a modern take on rural living for a couple who had lived on the same land for 40 years. Situated in Spotswood, a region known for its pastoral history, the home is designed to make better use of the site’s beautiful rural setting.

The New Zealand Institute of Architects Local Architecture Awards have started to be announced for 2023. Here’s a look at the some of the winning houses in Wellington and Canterbury.

On the shores of Wellington Harbour, this home for a young family was designed to embrace its coastal surroundings while feeling lofty and contemporary.

Appearing to both float above and disappear into the land, this Tāwharanui holiday home is a place of tension and beauty.

Simplicity, spatial articulation, and a nearly microscopic attention to detail ensure this coastal Mount Maunganui home by Brendon Gordon Architects and Weekday Studio works beautifully for its inhabitants.

Turning its face to forest and sea, this holiday home is devised as a basic shelter — albeit one of grand proportions and an undeniably alluring simplicity — that rises to every occasion.

We explore a home on the Coromandel Peninsula designed by Sophie Hamer, in which simple architecture becomes exceptional by its detailing.

Delivering a series of beautifully proportioned spaces, this humble Mangawhai bach is quiet and rustic, underpinned by Japanese influences.

On the west coast of the North Island, just outside New Plymouth, a group of residential properties operate independently, but together make up a vast country estate that doubles as a working farm.

Being surrounded by and connected to nature was a necessity for this family bach on a South Island lakefront.

A beach house in Whangamatā that is designed for multiple generations, long summer days and neighbourly conversations.

W Hamilton Building took on the daunting challenge of constructing Cliffs Road House, the 2023 City Home of the Year.

This contemporary country home in Central Otago is a place of unrivalled beauty, extending out towards and sitting in unity with the dramatic peaks of its low-lying alpine site.

Looking up at the 2023 Home of the Year, the connection between the built form and the surrounding environment is palpable.

Delivering an unrivalled combination of versatility and durability, the latest technically advanced cladding systems allow for new levels of design freedom when it comes to vertical cedar weatherboards.

An admiration for Japanese architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie houses formed the basis of a brief that described a timeless house with reference to these two seemingly diverse design influences.

Architect Brady Gibbons expertly incorporated the key elements of the coast, a winding stream, and the need for shelter from the harsh climate into the design of this home. The vertical cedar cladding, combined with sliding screens, gives the house its unique exterior character.

Climb Mount Manaia and the triangular form of this family home appears as a subtle marker in a striking landscape.

Balancing a beachfront site with a unique design presented PRD Construction with one of its more fascinating builds to date.

Resembling a simple shed, this budget-conscious minor dwelling at Waipu is a place of rest and contemplation.

Part Slim Aarons, part Los Angeles hillside paid, this fun and beautifully detailed Christchurch home by PRau is proud of its modernist soul.

Higher density requires not just good design but good manners. This leafy, central-Nelson house by Irving Smith Architects sought to do just that.

Designed for a couple who are avid surfers, this clever addition on a compact coastal site is both overtly contemporary and entirely sympathetic to its context.

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

Against the backdrop of Mount Cardrona, and honouring the area’s gold-mining days, a barn-style home is devised as a journey of tactility and colour, mimicking the highly seasonal hues of this well-known rural valley.

Tucked away on a rear site in suburban Mt Albert, this double dwelling brings together a collection of materials and moments to deliver a beautifully cohesive whole.

This off the grid house near Geraldine in is heated only with a wetback, despite snow covering the ground for much of winter.

Although this home hangs at a cliff’s edge above a leafy North Shore suburb, the house is all about strength and solidity.

In Ponsonby, a villa is extended around a compact courtyard linking old and new, while a gabled addition floats above a grounded lower level.