The Award

Home of the Year 2021

Entries are now open for Home of the Year 2021 – the 26th year of New Zealand’s highly regarded prize for residential architecture.

The award celebrates the country’s best new homes, and comes with a $10K prize for Home of the Year. The categories for Small Home of the Year, City Home of the Year, Rural Home of the Year, Green Home of the Year, and Multi-Unit Home of the Year, meanwhile, recognise the specific nuances of architecture in different contexts.

Each project entered is automatically considered for Home of the Year. This goes to the home that captures a moment in time: they aren’t always the grandest, though there have been plenty of those over the years too. They are pure expressions of architectural thought, a unique intersection between a client’s brief and the designer’s vision.

Entry Form

You may enter a category, but you don’t have to. We’re looking for the five strongest projects across the categories, while every project entered is automatically considered for Home of the Year, whether or not it is entered into a category.

Entries close at 5pm, Monday, 14 December 2020.

For each project, please include:

  • A maximum of 200 words describing the project
  • A maximum of 12 high-resolution photos, including a variety of interior and exterior aspects with range of perspectives (please send these as individual images rather than a PDF of images for ease of viewing).
  • A floor plan and site plan
Click or drag files to this area to upload. You can upload up to 12 files.
Click or drag files to this area to upload. You can upload up to 5 files.

Terms and Conditions

  1. Instructions on how to enter form part of the terms and conditions of entry. Entry into the Home of the Year promotion is deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions.
  2. The award is open to anyone with a project that has been built recently in New Zealand.
  3. Entries to the award open on Monday, 2 November 2020 and must be received by 5pm Monday, 14 December 2020 (the Promotional Period). Entrants may enter multiple projects and multiple categories.
  4. The project must be unpublished and must not be committed for publication during the entirety of the 2020 and 2021 period. What constitutes publication is to be determined by Parkside Media in its sole discretion. The project must not have been published prior to entry in this award.
  5. By entering this award, entrants confirm and warrant that they have the necessary consents and permissions to publish the project in a mainstream publication.
  6. Entrants agree that Parkside Media (via HOME) has the exclusive first right to publication of entries, regardless of whether a project is ultimately named a finalist in Home of the Year.
  7. Entrants agree that any related publicity and/or promotional activity, including television coverage, belong to Parkside Media (NZ) Limited.
  8. Parkside Media reserves the right to photograph, film and/or otherwise make recordings of all entries, entered projects and the judging processes, including architects, designers, and any associated parties for promotional purposes and related projects. The ensuing copyright will rest with Parkside Media (or its contributors) without any claim to compensation from the entrant or any other featured person.
  9. Homeowners’ names and addresses relevant to submitted projects should be supplied at the time of entry but may be withheld from publication, promotions, and publicity at the homeowners’ request, where this request has been provided to Parkside Media in writing.
  10. Collaborative projects should be acknowledged on the entry form by listing all parties involved. Entrants agree to seek the consent of all design parties and homeowners involved prior to submitting an entry.
  11. Neither Parkside Media nor any other entity associated with this award will be responsible for any late, lost, misdirected, or incorrectly submitted entries, including but not limited to entries not received due to technical problems or human error. The time entries are deemed to be made will be the time the entry is received, not the time the entry is submitted by an entrant.
  12. The winning designer or designers of Home of the Year 2021 will receive a $10K prize paid by direct credit.
  13. The prize is not transferable or changeable in any way.
  14. The first round of judging will take place in January 2021 to determine a shortlist of projects to visit and will include a review of the completed entry forms, along with photographs and text supplied with your entry.
  15. Final judging will take place in March 2021 and includes a visit in person by the judging panel. Any project which cannot be accessed during the judging period will be disqualified.
  16. The judges of the award will be selected by Parkside Media in its sole discretion.
  17. All decisions made by the judges and/or Parkside Media are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
  18. The prize will be presented to the respective winners in Auckland in June 2021. The winner and finalists in the award will feature in the magazine’s June/July 2021 issue.
  19. Winners will be notified by correspondence to the respective email or phone number submitted with entry.
  20. Parkside Media reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and determine the eligibility of entrants (including an entrant’s identity) and to disqualify any entry or refuse to award a prize where false or misleading details have been given by an entrant, or where an entrant has behaved in a fraudulent or dishonest manner, or otherwise than in accordance with these terms and conditions or the spirit of the promotion.
  21. If the award is not able to operate as anticipated for any reason, Parkside Media may amend, suspend, or cancel any aspect of the competition (including any prize) at any time in its sole discretion.
  22. Except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law, Parkside Media (including its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, advisors, assignees, agents, licensees, representatives, advertising, and promotional agencies), excludes all liability (including negligence), for any personal injury or any loss or damage (including loss of opportunity), whether direct, indirect, special, or consequential, arising in any way out of the promotion, including, but not limited to, where attributable to any of the following: (a) any technical difficulties or equipment malfunction (whether or not under Parkside Media’s control); (b) any theft, unauthorised access, or third-party interference; (c) any entry or prize claim that is late, lost, altered, damaged, or misdirected; (d) any variation in the prize; (e) any tax liability incurred by a claimant or entrant; or (f) use of a prize.
  23. As a condition of participating in the prize, the winner indemnifies Parkside Media, all organisers, sponsors, and all other persons and organisations associated in any way with this award against all claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including costs on a solicitor-client basis) which the winner may incur arising out of their participation in the award and/or participating in the prize, howsoever caused.
  24. Parkside Media collects and holds personal information provided by entrants for the purposes of this award and for future promotional purposes. Failure to provide requested personal information may disqualify a person from being able to receive a prize. All personal information provided by entrants will be held by Parkside Media. Under the Privacy Act 1993, entrants have the right to access and request correction of any such personal information, and may do so by sending an email to homenewzealand@parksidemedia.co.nz.