Homes

Over the valley

There’s no doubt this large family home makes a statement. It’s a talking point for locals who wander past and often stop to take it

A subtle glow

Above an idyllic pohutukawa-fringed Northland bay, this family bach provides what is needed and nothing more.

Folded lines

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

Local lens

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

Minimalism on the coast

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

Subtle duality

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

At Marlborough Sounds

This home that steps down a bush-covered hillside in what is arguably one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand is both a statement

Coastal mood

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

Meeting the land

Turning its face to forest and sea, this holiday home is devised as a basic shelter — albeit one of grand proportions and an undeniably

At home on the veranda

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

Six by six

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

Natural harmony

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

A beachfront loft

High on a cliff between Red Beach and Orewa, this family home delivers something beautifully unexpected.

Alpine escape

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

Beachside living

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

Sculptural construction

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

Over water

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

Raw and earthen

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

Innovation in timber

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

Rooftop

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

The hues of Island Bay

Nestled into a hillside in Island Bay, two homes – one behind the other – were designed to encourage connection between their inhabitants, and with

Farm and coast

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

The Dart

The dart

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

Rural Hues

Rural hues

On a working farm between Christchurch and Kaikoura, this home artfully utilises Colorsteel cladding to create a dynamic definition within a palette of duality.

Of steel and cedar

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

Perfectly formed

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

Nature’s Gallery

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

Double Doors

A large family home elegantly reaches out to meet Papamoa’s everchanging dunescape, folding indiscernibly into the public realm.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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