The View From Here: Johnston Architects
Tucked away on the hillside, the Sumner Hillside Residence is positioned so that every room has a view of the ocean. The views from this home have been carefully considered with its northwest orientation and floor-to-ceiling windows capturing a view that spans Sumner Beach, the Kaikoura Ranges, and New Brighton Pier; the scenery […]
House on a Ruin: Colab Architecture
Our shaky recent history has tested our taste for the concept of the Romantic Ruin, an idea that has gripped the arts since the eighteenth century. The frisson once provided by a building that had seen another era’s hopes and dreams for the future, is replaced by the more prosaic thought, ‘is that going to […]
First in Performance: First Windows and Doors
If you’ve watched shows like Grand Designs, you will already appreciate that the quality of windows and meeting delivery dates is fundamental to the success of a building project. When Simon Carrodus and his team agree on a delivery date, they will always stick to it and they pride themselves on never letting […]
Rocking the Stone Look: Hard as Rocks Ltd
Thinking of enhancing the entry way or chimney of your new home? Or perhaps you have in mind a stone fireplace, an interior feature wall or a letterbox. You can achieve the look and feel of real stone with veneer profiles from Hard as Rocks Ltd. Most Kiwis love the traditional look of […]
Building the Future: Future Foundations
“It has quite simply taken off.” Leon Forde of Future Foundations says that when he signed up last year for advertising with Metropol he never imagined his business would grow so fast – “faster actually than my original goal of building four new houses in 2019”. In October 2018 at the Home Show […]
Is Affordable Architecture an Oxymoron?
Look at the cookie cutter houses in some of the new subdivisions and you may not have found architectural inspiration, but there is reason behind some of the repetition of form. A particular roof pitch and a 600mm eave mean that there will be no cladding above the windows. A certain floor plan […]
Islands in the sun
Kitchen islands are no longer an afterthought; rather they’ve become the mainstay of the contemporary Kiwi kitchen. We look at how to make the most of these modern kitchen must-haves. Put an unexpected twist on the classic kitchen island by choosing one with curved edges. This small difference allows for slightly more practicality […]
A Home in Harmony: 360 Architecture
When the client engaged 360 Architecture to build a house on their site on the lower Cashmere slopes, they bought with them a number of interesting challenges. The size of the site was quite restricted, the soil was very unstable and in poor condition, and the height to which the house could be built […]
Rising from the Rubble: RisingHolme
Risingholme Homestead in Opawa officially reopened on 5 June, when council members and the community gathered for the long-awaited moment when the cherished building reopened its grand front door. Harbouring decades of memories, the authentic restoration was a collaborative effort of determination after a double tragedy. The homestead had been closed since the […]
Engineering the Future: BVT Engineering Professional Services
Matt Bishop has been on many cutting edges in his career thus far. From an early interest in electric motorcycles – he was the first person to ever race one at Ruapuna – to innovative strategies for doing engineering differently, change is an important part of Matt’s philosophy. Managing Director of BVT Engineering […]
