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...

Home of the Year - Part One - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

Last night TV3's Campbell Live played the first of their coverage of the finalists in the Home of the Year award (we'll be announcing the winner at a function on the evening of July 29), proudly presented in conjunction with our partner BMW.

Campbell Live have been great supporters of the award for many years now, but this year they did things a little differently, following the judges (New York's Charles Renfro, Auckland's Ken Crosson, and me) on their journey around the country to see the homes. First up, two homes by Daniel Marshall on Waiheke Island.

Home of the Year - Part One - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

All these homes will be published in our Home of the Year issue, on newsstands August 2.

Karl Maughan's studio

Artist Karl Maughan - whose paintings of exuberant gardens feature in some very important art collections around the world - creates his works in an exceptionally orderly studio/library in a converted garage at his Auckland home. Patrick Reynolds shot these images for our April/May2010 issue. They nicely capture Karl at work, as well as giving us a glimpse of his amazingly organised bookshelves.



In one corner of the room (seen in the image below), Karl has pinned several maps of the North Island together, a habit that began with a map of the Manawatu region where he grew up. The Chinese pagoda artwork is by James Kirkwood. Beside it, immediately beneath the map, is a work by Julian Dashper, with one of Karl's earlier works below that.

Karl has a particular enthusiasm for old children's books such as 'The Empire Annual for Boys'; his habit of collecting them began in the 1970s and has continued since, hence the bookshelves in his studio are stuffed with children's books published between 1850 and 1910.

He mixes his paints on a glass-topped table before applying them to his canvases. He didn't tidy the studio especially for the shoot - apparently it's always this neat.