Our new cover

The cover of our December/January 2011 issue, which will be on newsstands on November 22, features of a photograph by Patrick Reynolds of a house by Julian Guthrie at Omaha, north of Auckland. This is our annual issue featuring coastal homes, so we wanted a cover that shouted 'summer!'. Hopefully this does the trick. Thanks to Julian for letting us know about this excellent house, for the Couillault family for being so helpful with our shoot, and of course to Patrick for the great shot.

Our new cover

Our latest cover, some people have been saying with surprise, features people. And it's true! We did this partly because when we looked through the homes in the June/July issue, they were a very well-populated bunch, so we wanted the cover to reflect the presence of all that humanity. In the case of the house on the cover in particular, the people were the point of it - the home in the image by Mark Smith is one of two conjoined townhouses by Matt Brew of Cantilever Architects that were commissioned by two sisters who occupy a house each with their respective husbands and families. The sisters share a nanny and their kids hang out together all the time, but the homes are also designed so each family can have privacy when they feel like it. A clever architectural way to create small communities-within-communities...

Our new cover

We're off to the printers today to press-pass the cover for our April/May issue. It features a beautiful shot by Paul McCredie that was taken from inside a holiday home designed by Herriot + Melhuish on the Kapiti Coast. Choosing our covers is always a nerve-wracking process. We're hoping this one has a sufficient combination of warmth and architectural detail to seduce plenty of buyers. We've focused predominantly on renovations in the next issue, but the home on our cover is one of two brand-new dwellings in the magazine.