Home New Zealand August - September 2022

It’s always interesting considering what makes something ‘green’. In this issue, we explore a range of different design and construction methodologies that, while very different, each attend to the concept in their own way. Some utilise natural materials — a rammed earth house in the desertlike landscape of Ophir (pg 96) is a great example of this — while others focus on size and scale. In Auckland’s Mt Albert, a clever home for two generations makes the most of a small, rear site, delivering an enchanting narrative across a compact footprint. In Remuera, a family home is wrapped in copper and covered in a flowering green roof (pg 24). In the Far North, on an exposed and rugged hilltop site looking out over the Cavalli Islands, a particularly striking home…

We’re pleased to announce that entries are now open for Home of the Year 2023! Home of the Year is HOME’s annual awards programme that celebrates the country’s best new homes, and comes with a $10,000 prize for the overall winner. The programme’s categories celebrate the best City Home of the Year, Small Home of the Year, Rural Home of the Year, Green Home of the Year, Alt & Reno Home of the Year, and Multi-Unit Home of the Year, with each recognising the specific nuances of architecture in different contexts. We are looking for homes that dare to be different, that push the boundaries, and that exemplify an innovative approach to residential architecture. To enter, find out more, or chat to us, visit homemagazine.nz/hoty…

Virginia Woolf In this issue, Virginia turned her lens to a home and landscape at the top of the South Island. We also explore one of her personal projects as she documents our shrinking glaciers. You shot a project for us in Nelson for this issue (page 44); what struck you about this space and its surrounds? The home is perched on top of a ridgeline and surrounded by grassy knolls and an ever-changing view of the tidal estuary and snow-capped mountains. You’re based in Nelson; what is it you enjoy most about living in the region? Nelson has been home to me for the last 24 years and what I love about living here is the diverse landscape, with three national parks on offer. This also means being spoiled…

DESIGN: 01 Mat Macmillan’s career began as an apprentice to a carpenter and cabinetmaker in North London. There, he learnt working methods that now represent a bygone era. Joints were marked and cut by hand, chisels sharpened on an old India stone. It is these techniques of days gone by that have remained at the forefront of Mat’s Tauranga-based practice, Maker Design Studio, ever since. Combine this with his interest in design, sustainability, and Greek mythology, and the result is alluring. Mat’s lighting range is inspired by lo, the priestess who led Zeus astray with her beauty; Jupiter's fourth moon, her namesake, a constant companion giving light. “The twin themes of beauty and light are behind this range,” Mat tells us. The pieces are crafted by hand with locally sourced…

DESIGN: 02 A new range of hand-blown glass pendants, vessels, and carafes, using batches of waste glass, is now available from Monmouth Glass. For more than two years the Monmouth team has been collecting glass that would otherwise be destined for landfill, with the intention of reducing the studio’s impact on the environment. The result is a perfectly conceived, limited release of pendants in a soft, blue-green hue, a natural expression of a diverse melt of numerous colours blown into finely dispersed bubbles. Available in three organic forms — Low Dome, Dome, and Teardrop — the pendants make up a range of striking crafted narratives of old and new. The soon-to-be-released carafes and vessels are available on pre-order and in a range of lighter hues. monmouth.glass…

DESIGN: 03 Artist Joanna Margaret Paul (1945-2003) once wrote about her process when struck by an idea: “It remains only to determine whether this image can be most forcefully caught in a poem, photograph, or ... painting.” Arguably one of the most prolific artists of her time, Paul’s intimate explorations of domestic life are the subject of a new retrospective, Imagined in the Context of a Room, which seeks to celebrate her career and legacy. Paul was one for not only pushing the boundaries but blurring them across different mediums. Looking closely at her work from the 1970s onwards, spanning drawing, painting, poetry, photography, and film, the exhibition explores Paul's experimental artistic practice. Moving across the different phases of Paul's life as an artist, the exhibition traces key journeys that…