Vulcano Redesign competition

Last night we had a function at Auckland's Studio Italia to celebrate the announcement of the winner of our Redesign competition, in which we invited nine architecture firms to redesign the 'Vulcano' table by Paola Navoni for Poliform. Here's the original table:

And here are the redesigns from the mag. The winning redesign, by Architectus, is on the opening page. They turned the table into a very elegant lamp:

The other eight redesigns are on the following pages in the magazine:

For those of you who live in Auckland or are planning a visit soon, the tables are on display at Studio Italia, 96 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket, until June 30. There's a silent auction happening for each of them through that period, with all proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity.

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.

Venturi house

Architectural preservation can take many forms, but this is a particularly heartwarming story about the relocation of a New York home by the architect Robert Venturi. It ran a couple of weeks ago in the New York Times, but the story and slideshow with it are well worth revisiting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/nyregion/14lieb.html?scp=1&sq=venturi&st=cse