Commercial
Interior of the Year 2026: The Finalists
The 2026 finalists are revealed. Vote for the project you believe should win the Readers’ Choice Interior of the Year Award 2026.
Wedged into a cliffside beside the wild harbour
of Wellington’s Eastern Bays, this year’s Home
of the Year is a masterly object full of sculpture
and craftsmanship, grandeur and human scale.
The 2026 finalists are revealed. Vote for the project you believe should win the Readers’ Choice Interior of the Year Award 2026.
For more than 35 years, Plumbline has worked alongside New Zealand architects, interior designers and specifiers, helping bring thoughtful residential and commercial spaces to life. As a longstanding supporter of Interior of the Year, the New Zealand-owned company sees the programme as an opportunity to recognise excellence and champion innovation.
In early 2027, Rita in Wellington’s Aro Valley will relaunch as Super Rita, transforming the restaurant into a new, bespoke deli.
A house by Crosson Architects on a former Ti Point farm draws on the volcanic geology and coastal curvature of the Rodney landscape to ground itself — robustly but lightly — in a place shaped by deep geological time.
We caught up with the 2026 Interior of the Year judges to ask about what they are looking forward to and expecting to see in the competition.
Could there be a better design than a courtyard house to flex with the whims of the Auckland weather? Cue a double-courtyard design.
M is for ‘Martinborough’, for ‘monolithic’, for ‘minimal.’ In this holiday house, where the owners instil singular focus into everyday rituals, it is also for ‘moments to mark.’
Utilitarian forms and understated elegance collide in this rural Queenstown Lakes home by RTA Studio.
At Te Kaha, Christchurch’s new multi-use stadium, coloured concrete by Peter Fell plays a subtle but significant role in grounding the architecture within the city’s evolving urban fabric.
Two new projects intelligently embed Maoritanga values across architectural, interior, artistic and graphic design elements.
As Interior of the Year returns to spotlight the country’s most considered spaces, long-time sponsor Powersurge reflects on more than three decades supporting New Zealand architecture and design.
For more than four decades, Forté has helped shape New Zealand interiors through a deep commitment to materiality, craft and design support.
As a founding sponsor of the Interior of the Year awards, Resene continues to support the architects and designers shaping New Zealand interiors.
New Zealand architects have long occupied a privileged position in the art market: as buyers, commissioners, and collaborators. The recent sale of Sir Miles Warren’s collection at Webb’s Auction House made that relationship visible at scale.
Built to celebrate New Zealand’s place within an empire, the Auckland Chief Post Office has spent the last century quietly revising that claim. Its latest reinvention, by Cheshire Architects, considers a new, elegant future for this grand civic landmark in Tāmaki Makaurau.
We caught up with Autex Acoustics — an Interior of the Year partner — to discuss the brand’s longstanding support of New Zealand’s architecture and design community, its ongoing investment in sustainable innovation, and the collaborations shaping the future of acoustic design in Aotearoa.
Jeremy Smith toured the new One New Zealand Stadium, Te Kaha, by Populous and Warren and Mahoney to get a feel for the final anchor project of Ōtautahi’s rebuild.
As the 2026 Interior of the Year Awards programme gets underway, we caught up with Laminex New Zealand about its long-standing support of the architecture and design industry, the future of local manufacturing, and why celebrating exceptional New Zealand interiors matters more than ever.
In the restoration of Auckland’s historic Chief Post Office building by Cheshire Architects, every detail — including surfaces — became a question of stewardship as much as aesthetics.
We speak to James Blackburne, founder of Gisborne’s Architects 44 and the incoming president of Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects.
In the heart of Auckland’s wine country, this home by and for an architect explores an unusual premise: an architectural home delivered on a modest budget in partnership with a group home builder — and the result is intriguing.
Since 1936 HOME has showcased New Zealand residential architecture; homes that are designed to inspire, challenge and delight, by the country’s best architects.
In every issue we invite our readers into these homes, telling their owners’ stories at the same time as explaining how these remarkable buildings came to be.
Simultaneously, HOME celebrates New Zealand’s best design, interiors and landscapes – every element of the places we call home. It explores the wealth of creative talent that exists in New Zealand and our evolving built environment.
HOME is a highly collectible and beloved part of people’s lives; at once contemporary and timeless, thoughtful and stimulating.
With its contemporary look and feel and omni-channel offering, it holds its own at the forefront of our media landscape.
Entries to Home of the Year 2024 are now open.
Home of the Year is an annual programme that celebrates the country’s best new homes, and comes with a $10K prize for the overall winner.
Click here to enter, or to find out more about the 2024 awards programme.
Get the best of local architecture, interiors and design delivered straight to your inbox.
In the Coromandel, a home with a humble profile and a thoughtful design makes the most of a stunning location.
This sculptural Northland bach is a perfect north arrow on a remote farm high above the sea.
Built with awe-inspiring attention to detail, this Arrowtown home is a fresh interpretation of a familiar Otago rural vernacular.
Part gallery, part sculptural abode, this award-winning home above Takapuna Beach is surprisingly secluded.
A hilltop home in Dunedin becomes a gallery of sorts, its form an object of art itself – one of warmth, playfulness, and urbanity.
With the sun on its bow and the community at its stern, this is a house in which the elements are always front of mind.
A mature and restrained response to an awe-inspiring location. The architect has combined a wide range of influences — from Sri Lankan to,
This Auckland home delightfully reimagines city living, marrying privacy with insightful and intimate layers of connection.
