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.

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!

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...

The latest issue of San Francisco-based Dwell magazine is a focus on Australian and New Zealand homes, with the coverline "Why are the World's Best Houses in Australia and New Zealand?"

New Zealand architects are prominently featured: there's an eight-page feature on Bronwen Kerr and Pete Ritchie's home near Queenstown (featured in HOME New Zealand in our February/March 2008 issue), as well as homes by Strachan Group Architects (a Mangawhai home that was a finalist in our Home of the Year award in 2005), Stevens Lawson, and Herbst Architects.

You can view the Kerr Ritchie feature here:

www.dwell.com/homes/new

And you can see more of Pete and Bronwen's Drift Bay house by viewing Paul McCredie's photographs on their site:

http://www.kerrritchie.com/

Not all the features from this issue have been posted on the Dwell site, so you might just have to buy the mag!