Homes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coastal wilderness

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

Swamp house

The nickname “swamp house” expresses the home’s proximity to the marshy paddocks resting below it on the Crown Range between Queenstown and Wanaka but it

Modern lake bach

Bach living is a stripped-back approach to life: family time spent eating, playing board games and puzzles in the evening, and during the day getting

Cruciform house

A spacious Mid-Century modern-inspired home in Orakei proves that you don’t need a huge amount of land to have four bedrooms and multiple living spaces,

Rewind and redefined

It’s a familiar story: when youngsters enter the picture, the excitement of the big-city dream tends to pale. Childhood memories of beaches, open space and

Sailing home

A Kerr Ritchie–designed home influenced by a love for the outdoors. Liisa hand-made a flag that read “Boys aboard”. The idea was to hoist it

Diamonds in the rough

Claude Megson’s unique contribution to New Zealand architecture had almost disappeared from view when this house, his masterpiece, was saved from demolition. These days, its