Interior Motive

A sophisticated retreat by architecture + at Medlands Beach on Great Barrier Island rethinks conventional bach living.

Magic Trick

Our Best Small Home does more than overcome a difficult site – it makes it into something rather special indeed.

Down The Line

Brief A laid-back island home where every room has sea views.

Glass House

Faced with spectacular views of the Tasman Sea in one direction and Mount Taranaki in the other, New Plymouth designer Paul Rust made the entirely logical – if admirably brave – decision to open every room up to the view.

New Vision

True to his organisation’s name, Mark Woolley, who leads community housing provider VisionWest Community Trust, is a visionary about what a good home can do to transform lives. “We put people into a house, but then we ask, ‘How can we see your life grow?’,” says Woolley.

Kiwi Sabi

A compact house in the Karekare bush by Stevens Lawson is designed around contemplation and retreat for a designer and his family. 

River Run

Architect Dan Smith and his wife Sam leave Auckland to build a small, crisp house in Taupiri, on the banks of the Waikato River.

Danchi Dreams

A New Zealand photographer gently explores the decay of Tokyos public housing schemes that were constructed in the 60s on Utopian ideals.

Dom Glamuzina Has Updated An Apartment In A Glamorous 1960s Building For His Father

Welton Becket is something of an outlier in American architecture.

Pete Bossley Has Designed A House That Floats Among The Pōhutukawa On Takapuna Beach

Aucklands Takapuna Beach looms large in the lives of the owners of this Bossley Architects-designed home.

Happy Hours

A makeshift beach shack on the back lawn like something from the Bahamas greeted architects Eva Nash and Kate Rogan on their first visit to a 1930s family home in need of a renovation.

Inside Out

A new apartment building features expansive outdoor living areas, raising the bar in design.

My Favourite Building

Managing director of Resident and winner of our Design Awards 2018 Scott Bridgens has a soft spot for Londons Granary Square precinct at Kings Cross.

Art Archipelago

A forgotten corner of Japan has been transformed by art, architecture and nature – brought together with exquisite consequences.

Magical Thinking

Our 2017 Home of the Year is a house for a young family by a young architect in a provincial town – and yet it has much to teach city dwellers about how to live.

Boats, Hats And Buildings

We farewell David Mitchell.

Civic Duty

Hastings City Art Gallery might not have had the attention of its Napier neighbour, but this small institution is undergoing something of a renaissance.

1985 Ross Jenner Remuera

An architect academic designs his own courtyard home with both views and introspection in mind.

Pop Top

A sharp little house by Patchwork Architecture floats above a vertiginous Wellington site.

House Work

A 1960s home that raised a family has been converted by Jane and Arch MacDonnell to house their design studio.

Relative Seclusion

Project Second dwellingDesign Graeme Cunningham, Architecture & EnvironmentLocation Torbay, AucklandBrief Design to the view and future-proof for flexibility

Travel Sized

Project ‘Suitcase’ houseArchitect David Melling, Melling ArchitectsLocation Lyall Bay, WellingtonBrief Fit a tiny home on a bush-clad site for a single occupant who travels often

Big Yet Small, And New Yet Old On The Akaroa Waterfront

Throw a stone from the deck of this holiday house designed by Aaron Paterson and Liz Tjahjana of PAC Studio, and you’ll hit a landmark.

A Hole In The Carpet

As consumer replaces student, an exhibition studies the demise of Auckland’s specialist arts libraries, and mourns the blissful stretches of time once spent in them.

The Barest Level Of Shelter, Without Losing The Magic

“I always wanted to build a cabin,” says Simon Wilson. “That’s one thing I’d wanted to do forever.”

Perfect Pitch

For 12 years, brothers Brent and Mark Procter and their families happily spent summer holidays on a small piece of land at Pauanui. Two portacabins, about 7x3 metres each, housed the families and somehow managed to cater for 20 people at Christmas lunch each year. But the plan was to eventually build a permanent, more accommodating arrangement.

Pioneer Stock

The view from this long, low red bach isn’t of white sand and phutukawa, but paddocks and sheep. It’s a bucolic, sheltered little spot, close enough to the beach yet far enough away that it doesn’t get gusts of afternoon wind. There’s a long, shared driveway and a handful of baches; the owners all know each other well.

A Barefoot Love Shack For Two On A White-Sand Beach

Otama is one of the most perfect beaches on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Do You Take This House?

While planning his own wedding, our correspondent contemplated a commitment of a different kind.

Just The Right Amount Of Wrong

Karen Walker makes a pilgrimage to Farleys House, the home of Lee Miller and her husband, artist Sir Roland Penrose.