Our five 2012 Home of the Year finalists

All the shoots of the finalists in our 2012 Home of the Year are now in and being laid out, so we wanted to share these sneak peeks of our five finalists in the award with you. You'll be able to see all five homes in our lavish Home of the Year 2012 issue, on newsstands April 2.

So, in no particular order: this little bach is by Ken Crosson of Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects, and is on Whangapoua Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. The photo is by Jackie Meiring.

Another bach on the Coromandel Peninsula, this one at Onemana, a low-budget beauty designed and built by Dave Strachan of SGA Architects and Dave's students at the Unitec School of Architecture. If we were architecture students, we'd be stoked to have our first-ever creation named as a Home of the Year finalist. The photo is by Simon Devitt.

This home by Warren & Mahoney is on a beautiful peninsula just north of Tauranga. The photo is by Patrick Reynolds.

This home in an abundant garden near Wellington is by Alistair Luke, of Jasmax. The photo is by Paul McCredie.

Last but not least, this home at Piha is by Herbst Architects. The photo is by Patrick Reynolds.



And the finalists are...

Brian MacKay-Lyons and his wife Marilyn are on the plane back to Canada, and the Home of the Year judges have made their decisions. So, we're very pleased to annouce the finalists in our Home of the Year award 2012.

The winner will be announced at a cocktail function in Auckland on March 29, and the results published in our April/May issue, which is on sale from April 2.

In the meantime, we're busy getting our five very exciting finalists photographed to feature in our Home of the Year issue. (For those of you who can't wait, you can see amateur pics from our judging trip on our Facebook page or Twitter feed - just click on the Twitter box on the right-hand side of this page).

Anyway, the five finalists in the award (in no particular order) are:

• A home near Wellington by Jasmax
• A home at Pahoia, near Tauranga, by Warren & Mahoney
• A holiday home at Piha by Herbst Architects
• A bach at Onemana on the Coromandel Peninsula by Strachan Group Architects in conjunction with Unitec students
• A bach at Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula by Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects.

We're really looking forward to publishing our Home of the Year issue and showing you how good these five homes are. Thanks to our Home of the Year partner Altherm Window Systems for making this all possible.

My Favourite Building: Sir Eion Edgar and Dunedin's new stadium

A sneak preview from our October/November: Sir Eion Edgar, chairman of Forsyth Barr, has chosen Dunedin's spectacular new stadium (by Jasmax and Brisbane-based Populous) as his favourite building. The photograph is by Graham Warman. You can read what Sir Eion has to say about the building in our new issue, on newsstands October 3.