Home of the the 2014 - the winner!

Congratulations to Nat Cheshire of Cheshire Architects, who designed Eyrie, the twin cabins on an inlet of the Kaipara Harbour that have won our 19th Home of the Year award. Here's our new cover, featuring a photograph by Jeremy Toth.

 

Design Awards 2014 Call for Entries

Designers! Each year our Design Awards programme features the best New Zealand furniture and homeware - and now's your chance to enter to ensure your design reaches the country's most engaged readers.

All you need to do to enter is send up to five images (from a variety of angles) of the furniture or object(s) you've designed, along with a 250-word statement about the project's aims and its designers. You can email your entries to designawards@bauermedia.co.nz or courier them to HOME magazine, Bauer Media, Shed 12, CityWorks Depot, 77 Cook Street, Auckland 1010.

Entries at due by 5pm, Tuesday April 15.

We'll choose a shortlist of finalist from the entries and have them photographed for inclusion in our June/July issue, on newsstands June 2. 

We look forward to showcasing more of the work of New Zealand's best designers.

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Outtakes: Devonport house by Michael O'Sullivan

We really like this home in Devonport, Auckland, by architect Michael O'Sullivan of Bull O'Sullivan Architects (who also designed our Home of the Year in 2011). The long form of the home is clad in white weatherboards, while the interior is a deliberate contrast, full of warm timber. In the photo below, the home's co-owner Iain Wood sits just outside the property. Emily Andrews took the photographs, and Yvette Jay styled the shoot.

The opulent herringbone patterned ceiling (below) is a metaphorical protective cloak thrown over the family. The kitchen, with its dramatic onyx island, features north-facing windows with vertical timber mullions that cast ever-changing patterns of light and shadow through the house.

This is the view out the other side of the living space (below), where Iain admires the sight of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour from the sofas designed by his wife, Jes. The pendant lights in this room were designed by Michael O'Sullivan and blown by Lava Glass. The 'Pebble' tables by Jerry Low and Nathan Yong and the 'Caro' rug by Carmen Stallbaumer are both Ligne Roset from Auckland's Domo Collections.

Michael tucked a downstairs rumpus room for Iain Jes' daughters on the lower level of the house and lined the space in ply (below) with a deep red carpet. 

The pared-back main bedroom (below) features monochromatic bed linen from Seneca and a bedside table from BoConcept. Michael's aesthetic reference for the home's white weatherboard exterior and warm interior was Rangiatea, the famous Maori church in Otaki.

The photo below shows the home's long, low roof pitch, which references the 1950s designs by Group Architects, many of which were also constructed on the North Shore.

Our new book: great New Zealand modernist homes

There are 24 homes in the book, modernist gems from Auckland, Hamilton, Thames, Whanganui, Hawke's Bay, Raumati, Wellington, Christchurch, Hokitika, Dunedin and Alexandra. All of them show mid-century New Zealand as a place of great sophistication and inventiveness. Most of the homes are still in marvellously good condition, as liveable today as they were when they were first completed - including Wellington's Halberstam House (below), designed by Henry Kulka and still occupied by Lucie Halberstam, the daughter of the original owners. This photo is by Paul McCredie. 

The book also features homes designed by, among others, Ernst Plischke, Bill Alington, Robin Simpson, Vladimir Cacala, John Scott, Ivan Juriss, Ted McCoy, Jon Craig, and Sir Miles Warren, whose magnificent Selby (below, photographed by Paul McCredie) near Havelock North features along with a home Sir Miles designed in Dunedin that has been shot especially for the book.

We're including the shot below just to make it clear that this isn't just a picture book. In fact, it includes the work of some of the country's best architectural writers from HOME's family of contributors, including Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Julia Gatley, Linda Tyler, Adrienne Rewi, Lara Strongman, Andrew Barrie, Bill McKay, Michael Findlay, Alistair Luke and Claire McCall. 

One of the many nice things about the book is the way it traces modernism's development in New Zealand from textbook flat-roofed homes to later experiments in combining European modernism with this country's cottage vernacular, where homes such as Jon Craig's near Wellington (below, photographed by Paul McCredie) combined pitched roofs with open-plan living rooms. 

We're pleased to be able to offer the book for the special price of $70 (RRP is $75) including postage, from www.magshop.co.nz/modern You can pre-order your copy there now. We really hope you enjoy it. 

More Mrkusich: this time, the master's marvellous house

Yesterday we blogged about Milan Mrkusich's great paintings (10 works from his collection are currently being auctioned by Ocula Black) but we didn't want to leave out the fact that the artist was also a great designer, as these photos of his own Auckland home show. 

Mrkusich started his career as a graphic designer, and later worked on architectural projects in his role at Auckland's Brenner Associates. He designed his own home (where he still lives today) in the early 1950s. 

Our thanks to Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tamaki Paenga Hira for allowing us to reproduce these images of the home from their archives. The shots were taken by a photographer from Sparrow Industrial Pictures soon after the home was completed. 

This shot (below) shows the home's north-facing elevation and the way its striking wedge shape follows the contour of the site. 

Here's the southern elevation, with a timber wall sheltering the home from cooler southerly winds, while a clerestory window lets in light.

The home's interior (below) is lovely, with an open-plan, split level living space holding the kitchen, dining, living and studio areas. Some time after this photo was taken, Mrkusich added a larger studio to the southern wing of the home, enabling his wife Florence to use this space on the lowest level of the living area.

Another view of the living room (below) shows the southern clerestory window and the chairs from Brenner Associates. A work by Mrkusich is on the pillar in the foreground. Please excuse the blemishes on the photo, which are a result of damage to the transparencies before they entered the care of Auckland Museum.

 This view (below) looks from the living room back to the dining area, taking in the beautiful fireplace with its stone surround and the marvellously cantilevered steps.

And finally, this view (below) of the compact dining area also shows the kitchen at right and the home's main entrance. 

 

Our new cover: The Summer Issue

Our latest cover (which will reach subscribers tomorrow, and be on newsstands from Monday December 2) features a photograph by Emily Andrews of the home and studio of artist Jennifer Bartlett (whose work hangs at right), designed by David Berridge. 

Given all the Christmas madness that's about to engulf us, we wanted to create a cover that embodied our simple aims in the upcoming holidays: to rest, relax and reconnect. We hope you get this feeling of calm when you look at this lovely shot. 

Inside, there's a range of inspiring summer escapes, from a beautiful pool pavilion on the Kaipara Harbour by Herbst Architects to a humble Wanaka holiday home by Anna-Marie Chin that was inspired by the region's vernacular sheds. 

You should also look out for the Noble family's fabulous off-grid Northland encampment - made up of a converted shipping container and a clutch of Indian tents - and a magnificent Waiheke Island holiday home by Andre Hodgskin.

We hope you enjoy the issue, and that the promise of post-Christmas calm carries you through the craziness of the festive season. 

We like: Milse's sweet treats at Auckland's Britomart

We like the sublime, sweet offerings of dessert restaurant and patisserie Milse (pronounced 'Mil-say', and is Gaelic for 'sweet') as much as we like its dramatic interior. 

The cocoon-like space in Auckland's Britomart opened recently and supplies desserts to neighbouring Ortolana restaurant as well as hosting diners at tables of its own, and offering takeout. 

The space was designed by Cheshire Architects. HOME editor Jeremy Hansen spoke to Nat Cheshire about the design, and to Milse's executive pastry chef Brian Campbell about the amazing food. These photographs are by David Straight.

HOME How does it feel to be in the space?

NAT CHESHIRE The goal is a world of quiet delight within a chaotic left-over geometry surrounded by service lanes and delivery trucks outside. Milse has a cave-like intensity within the quiet complexity of its filigree surface. We hope this means it feels like another world entirely.

Home of the Year 2014 - the finalists

Tonight's the night we announce our 19th annual Home of the Year award. We're delighted to present the six finalists for the award for you here. 

As always, the winning architects will received a $15,000 first prize, thanks to our award sponsors Altherm Window Systems. 

The award was judged by our Home of the Year jury - HOME editor Jeremy Hansen, Gary Lawson of Auckland's Stevens Lawson Architects, and Stirling Prize-winning London architect Amanda Levete - who visited all the shortlisted homes in early March to make their selection of the winner and finalists. 

The winner and all the finalists will be in our Home of the Year issue, on newsstands from Thursday April 3.  And you can check back here at 7.30pm this evening to see our short web film of the winning home.

Here are the finalists, from north to south:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The Castle Rock House (above) is a holiday home at Whangarei Heads by Herbst Architects, who designed our Home of the Year 2012 winner. The photograph is by Patrick Reynolds. 

Eyrie by Nat Cheshire of Cheshire Architects is a pair of almost-identical cabins (above) on an inlet of the Kaipara Harbour. The photograph is by Darryl Ward.

This Waiheke Island home (above) was designed by Wendy Shacklock Architects in association with Paul Clarke. The photograph is by Samuel Hartnett.

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This 50-square-metre home (above) in Wellington was designed by Andrew Simpson of Wiredog Architecture for himself and his partner, Krysty Peebles. The photograph is by Paul McCredie.

This farmhouse (above) on an isolated bay on Banks Peninsula was designed by Pattersons, and photographed by Simon Devitt.

And this home in Wanaka for a retired couple was designed by Tim Lovell and Ana O'Connell of Lovell O'Connell Architects.

We're delighted with the inventiveness and variety of this year's finalists. Remember to check out much more coverage of all these homes in our Home of the Year issue. 

Preview: The Art Issue 2014

Our annual Art Issue is always one of our favourites, and we're especially delighted with the way this year's extravaganza has worked out. There are plenty of highlights, including New Zealand jewellery designer Jessica McCormack's remarkable London townhouse, which features in the the beautiful shot by James MacDonald that stars on our cover.

There's much more to see inside. HOME editor Jeremy Hansen visited Jessica in London last June, and details her stellar career - her jewellery designs have been worn by Rihanna and Madonna, and she has a list of well-heeled clients from all over the world. She's also a dab hand at creating an art-filled interior, as you'll see in our pages.

Another rising star in this issue is New Zealand artist Simon Denny, who won the prestigious Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in 2012, and has been selected as New Zealand's representative at the Venice Art Biennale in 2015. Photographer Steffen Jagenburg visited Simon (below) at his home and studio in Berlin, and took some marvellous shots. 

And there's more New Zealand artistic talent that we've tracked down offshore: our Art Issue features Fiona Connor at home in Los Angeles, a former shop in the Echo Park neighbourhood that she also uses as a studio for her sculptures (one of which is the outdoor lounge chair in this photo by Emily Andrews below). Fiona has a fascinating art practice that we're really delighted to tell you more about in this issue. 

Many of you will know 'Wind Tree', the fantastic sculpture in Auckland's Silo Park (if you don't, here it is, photographed by Simon Devitt).

'Wind Tree' was not created specifically for Silo Park, but for another Auckland site in the 1970s. It spent about a decade in storage after being removed from QEII Square to make way for the Britomart redevelopment. We tracked down Michio Ihara, the remarkable artist who created it, at his home near Boston. Gemma Gracewood has written a touching story for this issue about Ihara-san's illustrious artistic career, and Emily Andrews took beautiful photographs like this one below of his home and studio. 

Another highlight from this issue is the New York home of Bill Shumaker (below), a one-time New Zealander whose Brooklyn brownstone is bursting at the seams with his idiosyncratic art collection. Emily Andrews also took the photos, and writer Sam Eichblatt's story in our Art Issue details Bill's fascinating life story. 

There's much more in the issue of course. It's on newsstands from Monday February 3.

Our new cover

Here's the cover of our special Design Issue, featuring a group of our stunning furniture and lighting Design Awards finalists. The photo is by Toaki Okano, and the shoot was conceptualised and styled by Sarah Conder and Juliette Wanty. 

We don't like to brag, but we think this issue's an absolute peach. It focuses on the homes of product designers like IMO's Sam Haughton and Hannah Brodie and their enviable inner-city Auckland pad, or industrial designer Ross Stevens, who worked for Philippe Starck in Europe and is building an amazing Wairarapa home out of recycled coolstore panels. 

In this issue, we also travel to Canada's icy Fogo Island to visit artist Kate Newby, who's on a residency in an incredible studio there. And we go to Antarctica to see the restoration job on Robert Falcon Scott's rudimentary huts.

Also! We check out typographer Len Cheesman's lovely Greytown garden, our correspondents report back from Milan Design Week, we inspect a delightful dessert restaurant in Auckland by Cheshire Architects, and much more....

We hope you enjoy it. The issue's on newsstands from Monday June 3.

Our new cover: Fashion Houses

Behold! Our new cover, which New Zealand subscribers should receive today and which will hit newsstands on Monday. We hope you like it. It's a photograph by Sharrin Rees of a beautiful Sydney home designed by expat New Zealand architects Chris Adams and Bianco Pohio (who are also, as you'll see, experts at creating beautiful, calm interiors).

In the photo, the blue 'Clip' chairs are by Lorenz Kaz for Bedont, and the '91' table is by Alvar Aalto (who also designed the teaware on the shelf behind). The blue vase is by Bitossi. 

This issue is our annual focus on the connections between fashion, architecture and interior design. Some of the homes we've selected for it are owned by people in the fashion biz, and others were chosen because we think they say interesting things about the directions architecture and interior design are heading today. 

We're really pleased with the issue and hope you like it too. Thanks to photographer Sharrin and to Chris and Bianca for helping us create such an arresting cover. 

We'll preview more of the issue's content for you in our posts next week. Have a great weekend. 

Canterbury Architecture Awards 2013

The New Zealand Institute of Architects has just announced the winners of the 2013 Canterbury Architecture Awards, and we're delighted to present them for you here.

First up, the homes: the two images below show the Annandale Shepherds Cottage and Annandale Homestead on Banks Peninsula, both sensitively restored by Pattersons, which won awards in the Heritage and Sustainable Architecture categories.

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Next, a home many of you will recognise from our Home of the Year issue last April: the Clifton Hill House (below), originally designed by Ernest A. Kalnins in 1965 and sensitively renovated by Duval O'Neill of Herriot + Melhuish.

Another award-winner in the Housing category was this home (below) by Sumich Chaplin Architects. 

Also in the Housing category, this house in Ilam (below) by C. Nott Architects.

Matz Architects designed this home in Merivale (below), also a winner in the Housing category. 

This house in Fernside (below) by Wilkie + Bruce Architects also picked up awards in the Housing and Sustainable Architecture categories.

This holiday home (below) at picturesque Ngaio Point, Akaroa, is by Wilson & Hill Architects and also won a Housing category award.

This home (below) at Pentre Terrace won a Housing award for Cymon Allfrey Architects.

C. Nott Architects' second award in the Housing category is for the 'Tekapo Tractor Shed' (below), which is actually a shed-like holiday home.

Two projects at Christchurch Airport also received Canterbury Architecture Awards. The Air New Zealand Regional Lounge (below), designed by BVN Donovan Hill and Jasmax, won awards for Commercial and Interior Architecture. 

Also at Christchurch Airport, the Integrated Terminal Project (below) by Warren & Mahoney and Hassell won an award for Commercial Architecture. 

There were three winners in the Public Architecture category. First, the Selwyn Aquatic Centre (below), designed by Warren & Mahoney, which also won a Sustainable Architecture award in recognition of its passive energy utilisation.

Another award-winning pool complex: Timaru's Caroline Bay Aquatic Centre (below), designed by Boon Goldsmith Bhaskar Brebner Team Architecture. 

Christchurch City Council's own architecture office designed the Aranui Library (below), which picked up a Sustainable Architecture award in addition to being recognised in the Public Architecture category. 

The St Margaret College's Gymnasium and Chapel project (below), designed by Athfield Architects, received an award in the Education category. 

The repair of Harper and Julius Houses at Christ's College (below) by Wilkie + Bruce Architects won a Sustainable Architecture Award for the sensitive restoration of this Category 2 Heritage building originally designed by Benjamin Mountfort. 

The University of Canterbury's James Hight Undercroft (below) won an interior architecture award in recognition of Warren & Mahoney's transformation of a space bicycle storage area into a student hub. 

Athfield Architects picked up an award in the Commercial Architecture category for their work on the Fendalton Road shops (below). 

And Fulton Ross Team Architects won an award in the Sustainable Architecture category for their work on the New Regent Street shops (below). 

Last but not least, Herriot + Melhuish Architects won an Interior Architecture award for their work on Sala Sala Restaurant (below), which also features in our current issue. 

All the winners of the Canterbury Architecture Awards are now eligible for consideration in the New Zealand Architecture Awards, which will be announced in May next year. We'll keep you posted on those, of course - as well as the other regional awards as they're announced over the coming months.