HOME covers the best New Zealand architecture, design and interiors. It features inspirational, ingenious and just plain breathtaking homes from all over the country – as well as new restaurants, exciting art and the latest furniture releases.
THIS ISSUE IS one I particularly look forward to each year. It's undoubtedly a celebration — with the annual Interior of the Year winners announced — but it's also a showcase of the vibrancy of our interior architecture and design sector: in the details, the stories, and ultimately, the layers of creativity. Each of the winning spaces is deeply personal, shaped by the character and nuances of their owners' daily lives. Some are decadent retreats, others offer a more pared-back idyll. Some are intentionally eclectic and relaxed. All, however, are innately intertwined with a design sector that moves at pace at the best of times. This year, that pace feels amplified. A refreshed energy is palpable, drawing on a myriad of influences. In many ways, it feels more international than…
Intrinsic stillness A new suite of works by two New Zealand artists — painter Greer Clayton and sculptor Kiya Nancarrow— is now on show at Parnell Gallery. Together, their works inhabit a shared terrain of stillness and presence. Kiya's ceramic forms emerge from a deep, tactile engagement with her chosen material. Working with stoneware clay, she shapes and refines each piece to preserve a sense of movement and flow. Pale tones and subtle glazes heighten the purity of form, creating a poise and balance that serve as a physical counterpoint to the atmospheric qualities of Greer's canvases. Greer’s work draws on the shifting atmospheres of Aotearoa’s landscapes — layered planes of light, tone, and colour. Her abstracted impressions invite pause; land and sky merge in soft transitions, capturing an essence…
DRAWING ON THE rhythms of Aotearoa's native forest, the collection introduces two new lighting series, sculptural furniture, and the Hour Cloak -a commanding multi-purpose piece inspired by the mana of the Māori kākahu or korowai. The patterns and colours of native timber, and the symmetry and beauty of the forest flora, appear subliminally throughout the forms in the collection. Bec manages to poetically weave her fine art-led design practice into each creation, all of which begin with charcoal renderings. Part II of The Hour Collection reflects the expansion and contraction of the visual vocabulary established in Part I, mirroring the nuanced and ever-evolving practice of an artist at work. @snellingstudio…
NESTLED IN THE heart of Grey Lynn, a new chapter of architectural living is coming to life. Two stand-alone homes designed by Repose are under construction, each conceived as the ultimate in lock-up-and-leave luxury, blending contemporary urban sophistication with architectural ingenuity. The two homes are identical, mirroring each other in form and function yet each providing carefully considered privacy. Externally, vertical cedar sits atop white brick, which is broken up with operable horizontal cedar-clad screens in a darker tone; a materiality that winds seamlessly indoors where the kitchen and living area form the social core, opening directly to a private pool courtyard. A gallery-like passage leads to the main suite, positioned as a quiet sanctuary with its own outdoor connection. Two further bedrooms, a media room, and a wine cellar…
AT THE HEART of these interiors, flooring plays a vital role: grounding the composition, heightening mood, and in some cases, acting almost as a canvas for the layers above. Here, we consider three styles of maximalism, ranging from dark and dramatic to vibrant and eclectic, and soft and pastel-infused. What unites these various expressions is a sense of immersion: the feeling that every surface, object, and texture contributes to a larger narrative. In each of these spaces, Feltex wool carpet provides the grounding element: luxurious underfoot and integral to the design’s success. feltex.com Pastel maximalism There is also a softer side to abundance, one expressed in the bedroom below through gentle colour and whimsical form. In this space, Feltex’s Stonefields wool carpet in 912 Gypsum underpins a palette of gentle…
KNOWN AS ECCHO, the Energy and Carbon Calculator for Homes, the tool paves the way for early risk mitigation and experimentation with different variables, from window placement to insulation, heating and orientation, essentially testing how a design will perform before it’s built to ensure the home functions at its best. By using insights from ECCHO modelling to refine design elements before plans are finalised, it becomes much easier to identify and address potential issues like overheating early in the process. “The result is smarter, healthier homes that go well beyond the minimum requirements of the Building Code,” says Matthew Cutler of the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC). “Currently, a home can meet the Code and still overheat — there are no checks and balances to prevent that. We are…
