The great outdoors
7 June 2023
Heading into winter and missing those beautiful long summer evenings outdoors, it’s time to think about what alfresco dining will look like in 2024.
Menu
Heading into winter and missing those beautiful long summer evenings outdoors, it’s time to think about what alfresco dining will look like in 2024.
There’s not much that beats enjoying the outdoors on winter evenings under a sheltered canopy. As the mercury drops, bring the indoors out with design-led alfresco living.
During a mountain bike ride about ten years ago, two mates got chatting. The result is a fresh – and entirely Kiwi – take on the hot tub.
The winners of the 2022 Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards demonstrate an enviable beauty and diversity.
Set on the ridgeline of Bronte Peninsula — an area that is rich in rural productive history — a new pavilion is surrounded by coastal regenerative planting.
On a slight bend in the road on a Remuera street, a 1950s house has been transformed slowly over two decades.
One of Strachan Group Landscape Architects’ latest projects in central Auckland was designed to reimagine the flora that once covered the land.
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 a tiny island just off the coast of Whangarei Heads a small house does justice to its unique site, while requiring some adjustments to the typical modern lifestyle.
On a striking piece of land that stretches out behind the 2021 Home of the Year above the Kawarau River, two Dunedin locals have achieved something spectacular – a sustainably farmed estate producing three very distinctive and highly desirable edibles.
As technologies advance and the effects of climate change become a reality, the building industry is looking towards a myriad of options to offset carbon emissions and welcome biodiversity back to our cities.
Concrete Copper House by South Architects enjoys a beautiful position beside the Waimairi Stream. To make the most of the site, the owners — with the help of Kamo Marsh Landscape Architects — created a unique garden.
Nestled between lush hillside and the shores of Lake Rotoiti, the surrounding environment of Evelyn McNamara’s latest architectural delight offered a myriad of opportunities for fauna of texture and colour.
We spoke to landscape architect Alex Traut about living water, the environmental benefits, and filtering pools using nature.
On an elevated site between Christchurch and Governors Bay, architect Philip Kennedy envisioned a place of expansive outdoor living.
Nestled high in a wild alpine expanse, this renovated hut was devised as a place of retreat and connection for its city-dwelling owners.
In Takapuna, the pace is slower than in other suburban centres in Auckland. There’s a leisurely, beach-like feel to it, especially on Hurstmere Road — the suburb’s shopping and eatery hub — where people and vehicles share the road.
On a remote station about halfway between Aoraki Mt Cook and Timaru, near Lake Tekapo, this prefabricated house was designed to settle effortlessly into a harsh landscape of snow and storms, and long, dry summers.
Whether it’s a cosy fire pit to sit around on long summer evenings, or a high performance woodburner to heat up the outdoors in the colder months, a myriad of ways exist to bring an outdoor space to life.
We’ve rounded up the best options for effortlessly incorporating the latest innovations in heat and cooking into your outdoor space with Stoke Fireplace Studio.
Around this Christchurch home, which is raised above the ground to allow floodwaters to flow beneath it, an interconnected series of landscapes combines to create a striking aesthetic.
The move towards having organically farmed gardens sitting alongside hospitality venues is a growing trend in contemporary landscape architecture, where chefs and horticulturalists work hand in hand, planning menus based on what is growing in the garden.
Tucked into the hillside in Abel Tasman National Park, this is a house designed for enjoyment of the area’s unique landscape.
At the base of the Ben Ohau Range near Twizel stands a tiny cabin, secluded within a vast landscape.
Hamilton Gardens is known the world over. It attracts more than a million visitors every year, with upwards of 5000 visitors a day
Mimicking the pared-back materiality of the architecture, a simple plant palette creates a sense of calm in this modern urban garden.
Are they follies, small extravagances, or safe havens from the coastal whims? Melanie McDaid explores the courtyard house and some of its local iterations for clues
On 162 hectares of what was once farmland at Auckland’s Long Bay, only small pockets of native forest remained, leaving plant and animal communities isolated from each other on degraded land.
For homeowners with the luxury of outdoor space or those looking to cultivate a garden in their homes but starting from scratch, there’s an abundance of information on home gardening but it takes some searching and, if you’re an amateur, it can be overwhelming.
In Red Beach’s latest retirement village, the archetypal landscaping stalwart – the bowling green – has been thrown out in favour of a whole new
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, particularly when less than half of the home touches the ground.
For a brutalist building that stands so four-square on its ground, this house is full of hidden delights.
Sandii McDonald creates a beautiful rhythm in a Japanese-inspired landscape — based on plans that were first drawn in the 1970s by Sang Architects.
By building a raised pool to sit flush with the living area, this Westmere home’s poorly-used front yard is now the ultimate space for summer
Ermanno Cattaneo pays homage to the original architect of this Remuera home, Ron Sang, by designing this extraordinary pool pavilion Project Pool pavilion Designer Ermanno
Faced with a narrow garden and dated exterior, James Walkinshaw of Xanthe White Design used some simple but effective ways to transform this Pt Chev
Landscape designer Phillip Smith created a coastal garden on a tricky piece of land jutting into the Waitematā Harbour that morphs and shifts, depending on
The brief was simple: Build a summer house high on the hill, away from their perfectly proportioned house, to dine, relax and drink in the
A dated outdoor area received an elegant makeover. Now with a striking shelter, sculptural fence and outdoor speakers it’s the ultimate entertaining space A party
A Northland pool designed to be taken in day-long doses Pool fencing requirements often make you wonder if it’s worth even bothering with a pool,
As summer strikes, we’ve uncovered four stylish ways of taking to the waters, with pool designs that make outdoor living easy
Fearon Hay transforms a petite Auckland back yard into a summery paradise A small Auckland backyard becomes a tropical paradise Poorly designed pools can feel
A pool and pavilion by Pattersons on Canterbury’s Banks Peninsula is a getaway all its own It is a modern pool in the grounds of
Xanthe White has won a clutch of landscape design awards and written two books, but she’s about to tackle a rather more personal project: her
He has become the most famous garden designer in the world, yet he still opens his own property to the public a few days a
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.
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 and a piece of architecture that recesses subtly into the beauty of the landscape that surrounds it.
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.
