HOME New Zealand on Sunrise - an Auckland heritage apartment

Last week's Sunrise slot featured an Auckland apartment that will feature in our next issue, a Renovations special that will be on newsstands on April 5 (Easter Monday). It's a sensitive update of a gracious old space by Schulze Poursoltan Architects.

Home design - New York-style apartment in Auckland

This photograph of the living space is by Florence Noble - see the full feature in our next issue.

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.

The treehouse

Some houses get the joy squeezed out of them during the arduous journey to being designed and built, but this house is not one of them. It is a house in Titirangi by Adam Mercer of Mercer & Mercer Architects, one that stretches exuberantly upwards from its bushy site to get sun and views that must be the envy of many a low-lying neighbour. We'll be featuring this house, photographed by Patrick Reynolds, in full in our April/May issue (out in the first week of April). In the meantime, here's a wee tease: