More shots of our winning house

One of the best things about having a blog is that we can show images here that we weren't able to shoehorn into the magazine. So here are some more views of our Home of the Year 2010 by Stevens Lawson Architects, a beautiful house in a beautiful landscape. All the photos are by Mark Smith. This one shows the view south over the house to Lake Wanaka.

And this one looks over the house to the west, with the Treble Cone skifield just out of frame.

Here's a night view of the home's western elevation, with the kitchen space opening onto a courtyard. The room at the left of the picture is the main bedroom.

And here's a view southwest over the lake, which clearly shows the way the architects designed the home's cedar skin to wrap the walls and the roof. (For those of you wondering how a wooden roof works, it conceals a waterproof membrane underneath it, and is constructed in removable panels to allow easy maintenance of the membrane if necessary).

We'll post more outtakes of the other Home of the Year finalists over the next few weeks.

And the winner is...

We're very pleased to announce that the winner of the Home of the Year 2010 is Stevens Lawson Architects for a home they designed beside Lake Wanaka. Congratulations to Nicholas Stevens and Gary Lawson for their third Home of the Year win in the 15 years of the competition. The Home of the Year issue is on newsstands on Monday.

BMW EfficientDynamics Sustainability Award

Since BMW joined us as our Home of the Year partner, we have introduced a new award as part of our Home of the Year coverage: the BMW EfficientDynamics Sustainability Award, which celebrates innovation and responsible use of resources in sustainable home design. This year's winners are Pete Ritchie and Bronwen Kerr, who designed this house in Arrowtown, which is featured in our Home of the Year issue, on newsstands Monday:

As their prize, Pete and Bronwen receive a six-month lease of a BMW 320d, a diesel-powered marvel of fuel economy (using just 5.3 litres of fuel per 100km, and with carbon emissions of just 140g per km). Congratulations Pete and Bronwen.

The last two finalists on Campbell Live

Here's the link to Campbell Live's footage from last night of the last two houses in this year's award.

Remaining finalists for Home of the Year unveiled - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

We're announcing the winner of the Home of the Year award (and the BMW EfficientDynamics Sustainability Award) tonight at a function in Auckland. We'll post details on this site tonight, too.

Home of the Year - Part Two - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

Part two of Campbell Live's coverage of the Home of the Year judging process was on TV3 last night - the story is at this link:

Home of the Year - Part Two - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

There is one more episode of the judging journey to go to air before we announce the winner on Thursday July 27. And remember, the Home of the Year issue of the magazine is on newsstands August 2. Stay tuned!

Campbell Live tonight

The kind folks at TV3's Campbell Live have just told us the second installment of their coverage of the Home of the Year finalists will be screening on tonight's show. We'll post a link to the footage on this site tomorrow if you missed seeing it live. UPDATE: Seems the footage didn't go to air last night - we were warned that there might be last-minute reshuffles, so hope you didn't stay home especially. We'll keep you posted about the next installments.

Home of the Year finalists

A little tease: here, we present to you an image of each of the finalists in this year's Home of the Year award. They're presented in no particular order - and remember, you have to hang on a while until we announce the winner on the evening of Thursday July 29.

We'll post news of the winner on this site that night, and it will also be announced on TV3's Campbell Live. HOME New Zealand's Home of the Year issue goes on sale August 2.

Thanks to our partners BMW - who admire good design as much as we do - the winning architects receive a $15,000 cash prize, making this New Zealand's richest architectural award.

This year we have six finalists. Unusually, two architects have two finalists each. The first of these is Daniel Marshall, who designed two houses on Waiheke Island. This one (shown below) is nestled in a bay at the island's eastern end, and was photographed by Simon Devitt.

And this one is on the northern side of the island, and was photographed by Patrick Reynolds.

The winners of last year's Home of the Year award, David Mitchell and Julie Stout of Mitchell & Stout Architects, have their own Auckland home (below) in this year's lineup of finalists. It was photographed by Patrick Reynolds.

Stevens Lawson Architects also have two homes in the finals. Both were photographed by Mark Smith. This one is a home on the shores of Lake Wanaka:

And this one is a home in east Auckland:

Finally, this home in Arrowtown was designed by Pete Ritchie and Bronwen Kerr of Queenstown's Kerr Ritchie Architects. It was photographed by Paul McCredie.

Which one do you think should win? Feedback is welcome...

Home of the Year - Part One - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

Last night TV3's Campbell Live played the first of their coverage of the finalists in the Home of the Year award (we'll be announcing the winner at a function on the evening of July 29), proudly presented in conjunction with our partner BMW.

Campbell Live have been great supporters of the award for many years now, but this year they did things a little differently, following the judges (New York's Charles Renfro, Auckland's Ken Crosson, and me) on their journey around the country to see the homes. First up, two homes by Daniel Marshall on Waiheke Island.

Home of the Year - Part One - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

All these homes will be published in our Home of the Year issue, on newsstands August 2.

Home of the Year 2010

Entries closed last Thursday for our Home of the Year 2010 award, which we're once again very pleased to be bringing to you with our partners BMW.

As usual, there's a great diversity of entries, some of them immediately alluring, others almost demanding a site visit to find out more about a place that doesn't fully explain itself in the entry photographs.

Early next week I'll be reviewing all the entries and choosing a shortlist of properties to visit with my fellow judges, former Home of the Decade winner Ken Crosson of Auckland's Crosson Clarke Carnachan, and New York architect Charles Renfro of Diller, Scofidio + Renfro (who is being brought to New Zealand to give lectures in April with the assistance of First Windows & Doors.

The Home of the Year issue won't be out until August, but we'll be on the road judging the houses in mid-April. We'll keep you posted about developments on this site in the meantime. This is the 15th anniversary of the Home of the Year award, so expect a bumper issue to hit newsstands in August.

Fashion and architecture

You may or may not care, but this week is Fashion Week, so here at ACP headquarters (the home of Fashion Quarterly, and other fashion-obsessed magazines) there has been a great kerfuffle about who's scored tickets to which designer's show, and so on.

Here at HOME New Zealand, we cannot claim to be above the fray. In our next issue, which we're just sending to the printers today (and will be on sale Monday October 5), we've asked 11 New Zealand fashion designers to choose their favourite buildings.

Kate Sylvester (shown below) chose a home designed by Stevens Lawson Architects that won our Home of the Year award in 2007. The photograph is by Mark Smith.





The surprising thing was how many of the other designers - who include Karen Walker, Trelise Cooper, Beth Ellery and Alexandra Owen - chose historic buildings as their favourites. We presumed that these of-the-moment designers would be obsessed with contemporary structures. Then we wondered if timelessness actually stems from a design being of its time, rather than trying to stand apart from it.


You can check out the other designers' choices when our October November issue comes out. We hope you enjoy them.

More outtakes

The house by Stevens Lawson Architects on Hawkes Bay's Te Mata Peak that is one of our Home of the Year finalists looks great from every angle, so it's good to have the blog to show you some more of Mark Smith's photographs of it. Here it is from the hill below, showing the northerly elevations of the three staggered, shed-like forms:

The home's central form is punctured by an interior courtyard that brings light deep into the heart of the house. This shot shows the courtyard on the left and the home's more formal lounge on the right, which itself opens onto a sheltered west-facing deck.

This is one of the owners' favourite shots of the house, showing it perched elegantly on its promontory with the hills of Hawkes Bay fading into the distance behind it.

Each of the home's three shed-like forms is connected with long, lower-ceilinged 'gallery' spaces. This photograph shows the connection of one such gallery space with the kitchen and living room. The sculpture outside is by Paul Dibble.

And this view from outside shows more of the Dibble sculpture, as well as the deck opening off the kitchen. The landscape design is by Philip Smith of O2 landscapes.

The outtakes

One of the hardest parts about laying out house shoots is showing as much of the house as possible without the layouts getting repetitive. The good thing about having a blog is that we can show you some of Patrick Reynolds' amazing shots of the 2009 Home of the Year by Mitchell & Stout Architects that didn't make it into the final layout. This is one of the first views you get of the house from the bottom of the driveway -- it's a wonderfully intriguing object on the hill, inviting exploration:

The house faces the ocean, looking back towards Rangitoto and Auckland City:

Upstairs, little nest-like guest bedrooms are sheltered behind the cedar screens, which rest on gas struts and can be opened and closed with a long pole:

Below these, the master bedroom features an egg-yolk coloured ceiling specified by the architects, and a window that slides right back to allow access to the garden:

Patrick was a little disappointed that we didn't include his detail shots, so here are a couple. They're great, but we just couldn't squeeze them in. This one features the rear of the home, where the verandah roof points dramatically up the hill:

And this one shows a meeting of materials: the exterior cedar, the rusted window hood, and the bright yellow interior windowsill of the master bedroom:

There are plenty more shots where these came from. We'll post more of each of the finalist homes in the coming weeks. I'm on leave now until August 17, but will resume posting after that.

Home of the Year on Campbell Live

TV3's Campbell Live revealed the finalists in the Home of the Year on their show last night, and they all looked terrific.
You can view the footage at the link below, and also participate in the viewers' choice vote (and go in the draw to win one of five HOME New Zealand subscriptions). I should remind everyone that the judges' decision has already been made - but we'll be interested to see if we're in tune with the Campbell Live voters.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Home-Magazine-showcases-the-best-in-New-Zealand-design/tabid/367/articleID/115048/cat/221/Default.aspx

Our Home of the Year finalists

Sorry about the silence, everyone. We've been flat out preparing our 2009 Home of the Year issue. Which brings us to the point of today's post, which is to show you a sneak preview of the five finalists in the award. (We'll be announcing the winner on August 5, with mags on sale August 6. TV3's Campbell Live will screen a story on the finalists on their show on Monday August 3). The finalists shown here are in alphabetical order.

1. Andrea Bell from Pete Bossley Architects designed this big, beautifully crafted house on a clifftop in Glendowie, Auckland. It was photographed by Simon Devitt.

2. Mitchell & Stout Architects designed this home on Waiheke Island, an open-plan living and kitchen area bookended by two intriguing sculptural volumes. The photograph is by Patrick Reynolds.

3. Michael O'Sullivan of Bull O'Sullivan Architecture designed and built his own family home in Auckland's Mangere Bridge, which was photographed by Florence Noble.

4. Parsonson Architects designed this simple, light-as-a-feather bach at Shoal Beach in southern Hawkes Bay. It was photographed by Paul McCredie.

5. And Stevens Lawson Architects designed this long, low, mysterious home on Hawkes Bay's Te Mata Peak, which was photographed by Mark Smith.

For those of you who don't know, the competition works like this: In April, we call for entries from architects around the country, who send us plans and photographs of recently completed projects. Then our three-person judging panel - which this year was made up of myself (HOME New Zealand ed. Jeremy Hansen), Hugh Tennent, the Wellington architect who won our Home of the Year award in 2006, fellow Wellington architect Alistair Luke, who led the restoration of Plischke's Sutch house in Brooklyn, among many other projects - chooses 10 homes for our shortlist.

We visit each of those 10 homes in person, a week on the road that involves a lot of in-depth discussion about the pros and cons of each place. After those visits, we choose the winner and four finalists to feature in the Home of the Year issue. The winning architects get a $15,000 cash prize, thanks to the generosity of our partner in the awards, BMW.

Keep an eye out for the new issue of the magazine, containing heaps more about these fantastic homes. We're sending the last pages to the printers tomorrow.

Home of the Year judging

Entries have now closed to our Home of the Year awards, and we've been really pleased with the response: this year we had 34 entries, certainly the most in recent years and possibly the most ever. Of these, we've chosen 11 for the judges to visit in person. We'll then choose five homes (including the Home of the Year) to feature in the August/September issue of the magazine. The winning architects receive a $15,000 cash prize, presented in conjunction with BMW, our awards partner. We'll be on the road visiting the shortlisted homes in the first week of May, a journey that will take us from Rawene in the north to Queenstown in the south. We'll keep you posted about our trip and the houses we see on the way.