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.



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!