Innholdsfortegnelse for February - March 2025 i Home New Zealand

BETWEEN WOOLLEYS BAY and Whale Bay, Staffa Bay is a little known coastal enclave where just a handful of holiday homes are scattered along the coast. It’s here in this pristine Northland environment that architect Grant Harris of HB Architecture designed a second home for his Auckland-based clients. “There’s all sorts of levels of responsibility with a site like this. First and foremost, our commitment is to our clients, followed closely by a commitment to fitting into a fantastic coastal environment, and doing it respectfully — respecting the natural place, and the neighbours. It’s about being mindful of where we are and what we’re doing so we enhance it rather than contract from it,” Grant explains. He’s no stranger to designing in this area, with numerous other projects under his…

A PREVIOUS RENOVATION transformed the lower level of the original, clay-brick house on this property from garaging into a living space, with an addition in the form of a glazed box clad in Japanese Inax tiles providing for a modern kitchen and dining area that takes in the sweeping mountain views. Beginning with this subtle canvas of clean lines and soft edges, interior designer Karen Kelly worked alongside the clients to create a retreat-like interior that feels as established as the architecture and surrounding native gardens. Empty nesters who hope to live here full time one day, the clients were interested in an aesthetic with longevity as well as personality. “We wanted to tell a story that resonated with the owners, who are avid art collectors, enjoy music and wine,…

WITH FOUR CHILDREN and their compact living spaces bursting at the seams, the owners of this home approached Scarlet Architects to reinvigorate an earlier design scheme, which encompassed a pool and pool house as well as some renovations in the main home. In creating their solution, Scarlet Architects worked with the quirks and character of the mid-century home, which is complete with timber-lined walls and a prominent double-height, yellow-brick chimney, as well as the essence of the original concept design by Guy Tarrant, explains designer Lindley Naismith. “We worked with the materiality of the existing house and its original materials, which is a lot of timber joinery, natural in the interior, and painted on the exterior. So, very much the palette of the ’80s for architects working in a particular…

THE GOLDEN ROMANTIC light that scatters off the sea and into the living room of this holiday home could be straight out of Tuscany. Even more so in the south-east entry court, where a rock-faced building with a red clay tile roof says ‘Buongiorno’ in an Italian accent. But those shadows that move across the façade are from pōhutukawa not stone pines, and the view down the valley and across Ōmaha Bay is a snapshot of North Island coastline that is as Kiwi as. When they first saw this human-scale grouping of three buildings on an elevated waterfront site, Matt Chaplin and Blair Green of Sumich Chaplin Architects were enchanted by its Mediterranean soul. Built in 2002, and designed by Ron Seeto, there were two-bedroom pavilions and a living/dining/kitchen pod.…

OVER THE YEARS, the clients had gathered a collection of reference projects; homes they felt articulated ideas they wanted to incorporate in their own build. There was a clear theme: each celebrated the mid-century in one way or another. The outlier in all of this was the desire to design with passive-house principles. They weren’t set on the house being certified, but they did want the performance that comes with designing in this way. The brief piqued Rohan’s interest, primarily because it resonated with something he feels is lacking in New Zealand: the pairing of residential architecture with energy efficiency and sustainability. “Meeting high-performance criteria needn’t be at the expense of beautiful architecture; in fact, we believe it is fundamental to creating truly beautiful architecture, for beauty surely extends to…

WHILE BRINGING WARMTH into the home during the summer months is easy thanks to the abundance of natural light, as we head into a cool transition colour becomes a central part of creating nurturing spaces in which to reflect, unwind, and enjoy simple pleasures. “Warm neutrals, earthy yellows, soft greens and cool blues such as those featured within the Dulux Still palette encapsulate what we find ourselves yearning for this autumn,” Dulux colour specialist Davina Harper says. “It’s a palette that feels comforting, harmonious and reflects the seasonal shift towards a slower, more reflective pace of life as people retreat indoors.” The palette has an underlying warmth, with calming neutrals, the perfect way to introduce more richness and subtle colour into the home. “Dulux Clay Pipe is a brown-based warm…

THE SITE NESTLED into native bush on the hillside enjoys beautiful views of the blue waters of the estuary below, enabling the occupants to watch kayakers paddling while sea-birds float on the air currents overhead. With the boundaries of Auckland creeping closer with every passing year, the convenience of the bright lights are near at hand, if needed. One of the homeowners, Charlotte, was a childhood friend of Sam Atcheson of Dorrington Atcheson Architects, so the firm was an easy choice for the couple when they decided to relocate here. Sweeping aside some initial, nostalgic qualms around demolishing the place that had served them well over many holidays, the couple put their trust in an old friend to create a more permanent structure. Sam and the team at DAA did…

KNOWN FOR ITS beautiful beaches and scattering of wineries, this area north of Auckland is popular with holidaymakers, many of whom have likely considered making a move there. With their children grown and off on their own adventures, this couple approached Gavin Donaldson of Neu Architecture to help create their forever home in the area, on a site overlooking the Matakana River with views towards Mount Tamahunga. Gavin had worked in Bishops Hill before, so he had a good understanding of the lay of the land. Taking their brief of a single-level home that could be configured to accommodate with ease both the couple on their own and a larger group of visitors, he first set about relocating the building platform from the higher, sloped southern end of the site…

CONCRETE WAS THE starting point for the design of this home. It was a material the owners preferred, and one the architect knew would help to achieve their aims of a creating a highly efficient home that would stand the test of time. Not only was it the permanence and performance of the material that appealed to homeowners Tamara Croft and Hugh Johnstone, it was the ability to select its colour — allowing it to become a central part of the interior design. The concrete walls give the spaces an inviting tactility, while the concrete floor was coloured with PeterFell black oxide. A natural polish was chosen, which allows for a sense of visual movement — and accentuates the subtlety of the charcoal colour the black oxide creates. As light…

IT TAKES A gentle hand to situate a new home in an established area without it standing out as stark and shiny. While this Ōakura home is helped by the pōhutukawa trees surrounding it, its settled look can also be attributed to a dedication to detail and finish by architectural designer, Richard Furze, and the unhurried nature of the design and build process. “The builder was there over the course of three Christmases,” explains Richard. “Initial drawings began in 2013, then this [project] was shelved and we took a different track when it restarted in 2019. We took our time and nothing was rushed, so we could get it exactly how the clients wanted it.” A familiarity with the area — the architect spent childhood holidays braving the waves at…

AT THE MORE established end of Ōmaha, just north of Auckland, the streets are quiet, the pōhutukawa are large, and there’s a sense of suburban familiarity. Boats dot the driveways, and the sound of the sea is constant. It’s hard not to relax in the midst of these gently winding roads that lead to nowhere but the beach. When Chris Tate was engaged to design a holiday home here for an Auckland-based professional, he, too, had the sense of the immediacy of the quintessentially coastal suburban setting. Sections aren’t large, the coast is the collective backyard, and neighbours are close. “It’s a white picket fence type of area, and that’s come through strongly in this design,” Chris says — although that hasn’t happened entirely in the way you might expect.…

Te Kawerau ā Maki, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Tamaoho, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kotimana/Scottish DURING A WALK after cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, the land offered up something unexpected. “With the mass devastation of the surrounding whenua, it was as though each sediment hue had been thrust up separately to reflect and reveal a colourful cloak,” Charlotte says. “Placing my hands in natural materials from Papatūānuku is a deeply connective, sensual experience that instinctively soothes my central nervous system.” Her visits to this area are daily as she gathers material to paint; painting, in turn, provides a way of grounding and expressing herself. Charlotte is a prolific painter who has worked with a range of mediums over her 29-year career as a celebrated Māori artist. As…

THE FIRST CONSIDERATION, according to locally-owned EV charger supplier We.EV, is to understand that charging your EV can take up to 50 per cent of your household energy supply at any one time, so ensuring you’re managing your home's energy is vital. “While scheduling for cheaper power prices is a well-known solution, not many know about the power of smart home EV charging solutions,” We.EV’s Sam Montgomerie says. Early discussions around New Zealand’s emerging public charging infrastructure used to dominate the conversation around the practicality of electric vehicles, but the reality is 90 per cent of charging takes place in the home, Sam explains. It’s vital, then, that this new wave of energy demand is managed in a way that doesn’t cause significant spikes on the network. One way to…

AT THE TIME, Matt was studying architecture at the University of Auckland. However, the couple soon relocated to San Francisco, where he completed a master’s at Berkeley. Matt describes the house they had bought as “pretty rough”. “There was a toilet seat on the floor, and a bottle of Bourbon in the kitchen cupboard, but it was a great site with all-day sun. It’s also on the slope down towards the harbour, so I knew that, if we were to extend, we’d capture glimpses of a view.” As it transpires, the transformation of this tired state house would end up taking a quarter of a century — spanning a carefully considered series of interventions and additions that would work hard to deliver flexible spaces for what is now a family…

LIKE MANY NEW holiday homes north of Auckland, this home for a semi-retired couple replaces a humble bach that had seen better days. A long narrow site within a small enclave of properties at Staffa Bay, a tiny beach at the southern end of Woolleys Bay in Northland, provided for a constrained building area, which meant the new building needed to be contained within the same footprint as the previous house. This presented some challenges given the scope of the brief, which called for a master bedroom completely separate from the rest of the house, explains Grant. “This is very much a family holiday home or bach, and it’s still got that simple, seaside feel to it, but the couple wanted a space where they could retreat; their own private…

IT WAS BECOMING aware of architect Tom Rowe’s award-winning Volcano House that began this design journey for a couple who, at the time, were living close by in Devonport, Auckland. Originally from Germany, the pair had enjoyed the convivial coastal community in Auckland for a number of years before deciding they wanted to embark on a new chapter of their lives in the more restful rural environs of Hawke’s Bay. A few minutes drive from central Napier, the site they settled on is in the Tukituki valley, perched on a small plateau and naturally protected by a ridgeline that rises to the south. “There’s enough height to the hill behind that, when you’re on the ground, it feels snug and sheltered. There’s a real sense of comfort on the site,”…

THIS FAMILY HOME in one of Dunedin’s most desirable, inner-city neighbourhoods began as a brief for a holiday house in the nearby resort town of Wānaka. The owners “were really pleased with the [original] design,” says architect Ruth Whitaker, who spearheaded this project for Mason & Wales with Francis Whitaker, “but then they thought: why not build a family home in Dunedin that doubles as a holiday house?” To this end, the owners came to the architects with an enviable site near the city’s green belt, on a quiet, leafy street that belies its proximity to the CBD. Although architectural flair is not uncommon around here, it is mostly of the early 1900s Arts and Crafts variety. Significant stately old homes by Basil Hooper and Harry Mandeno stand as architectural…