Design News

International artists feature strongly at this year’s Aotearoa Art Fair, with galleries presenting a range of global voices alongside local talent.

An exhibition of Chinese contemporary art arrives in Auckland, tracing decades of cultural transformation through works that span performance, installation and digital media.

Set into a suburban site in Kohimarama, Clay Block House by Daniel Marshall Architects is a study in materiality and environmental performance.

A new architecture magazine, Architecture Aotearoa: New Zealand’s Buildings, Cities, and Culture will launch in late May 2026 as a collaboration between Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects and the publishers of HOME: Nook Publishing.

More than 200 architects, designers, suppliers and homeowners gathered in Auckland to celebrate this year’s Home of the Year — an evening that brought together the breadth of Aotearoa’s residential design community.

With its refined materiality and clean lines, the Pipe Collection demonstrates how furniture can extend the language of a home beyond its walls.

In a new limited-edition release, the Lilum 50 sofa by Antonio Citterio for Maxalto transforms furniture into an abstract canvas.

In this thoughtfully composed interior, colour and material are carefully calibrated to balance energy with restraint. The result is a series of spaces that feel layered, expressive, and beautifully resolved.

Across the finalists and winners of the 2026 Home of the Year awards, colour reveals a notable shift in the way architects and designers are shaping contemporary homes in Aotearoa.

Three 2026 Home of the Year-winning projects demonstrate the versatility of Abodo timber across vastly different conditions.

In conversation with Jonathan Coote and Tobin Smith of Warren and Mahoney, Anna Dorothea Ker explores how New Zealand homes are shaped — not by a fixed blueprint, but by intuition, landscape and the evolving lives they hold.

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Hettich’s FurnSpin reimagines cabinetry as a moment of movement and surprise.

VidaSpace is defined by a certain restlessness, a refusal to be confined by what has come before. With the launch of ALT, that mindset finds its clearest expression yet.

At this year’s EuroCucina, held as part of Salone del Mobile, Aotearoa’s Fisher & Paykel will present its most comprehensive suite of flagship appliances to date.

Inspired by the chair of the same name, the Leopold armchair is distinguished by a generous and enveloping cushion, enclosed in a minimal wooden structure that emphasises its volume and visual lightness.

A selection of artworks from the private collection of legendary New Zealand architect Sir Miles Warren will be offered at Webb’s upcoming Works of Art auction — with proceeds supporting the preservation of his celebrated Ōhinetahi House and Garden.

A living pool

On a suburban site in Nelson, Spanish environmental activist Jose Cano spends hours meticulously photographing his subjects underwater

Nature bound

As eye candy, Evergreen Architecture: Overgrown Buildings and Greener Living is a delightful amalgamation of global architecture and landscaping.

Apartment Living, With A Twist

At 26 Aroha, a sense of community and drive for sustainable living has enhanced the lives of the many residents of this apartment complex.

Designing a Westmere home of light and clay

We spoke to Sam Caradus from Crosson Architects about how their recent project, Light and Clay, was designed to be a positive contribution to the community, neighbourhood and street. 

In profile: Jeremy Chapman

Architect Jeremy Chapman started his own practice five years ago. We caught up with him about his latest projects, and what’s next for JCA Studio.

Salone del Mobile 2021

Photographer Mary Gaudin travelled to Milan to capture the best of the much-anticipated design event for HOME, held in September after an 18-month hiatus.

Illuminating a winter lake house

The brief for the lighting design for a home on the shores of Lake Rotoiti was simple: the light source was to be invisible, and the output needed to deliver pools of light, subtly. 

Cotton and tiles

The New Zealand designers behind bath textile brand Baina — Anna Fahey and Bailey Meredith — are often inspired by the built environment.

Taming Light

This rural Wairarapa artist’s studio is informed by a need for highly regulated, natural light, a roofline that echoes the hills around it, and the desire to tread lightly on the land.

HOME in five with Emily Wakeling

The newest member of our team Emily Wakeling is spending her lockdown on the edge of Lake Taupo. We caught up with Emily to catch a glimpse of her envious views. 

Remembering Billy Apple

The art community of Aotearoa is mourning the loss of one of our most influential artists, Billy Apple (ONZM).

HOME in five with Paul Brandon

Videographer Paul Brandon is usually scaling the country, capturing our featured homes. In lockdown, Paul is taking the time to unwind.

HOME in five with Katie Delany

HOME’s digital manager Katie Delany is the driving force behind HOME’s social and web channels. Here’s Katie’s experience of lockdown so far. 

HOME in five with Fiona Fillmore

Interior designer, mother and owner of HOME’s August/September cover house, Fiona Fillmore, is spending her lockdown working through foreign films.

HOME in five with Day Barnes

Art Director Day Barnes is the creative soul behind the pages of HOME, and a constant source of laughter in our office. From his bubble in Whangaparoa, Day shares his take on this level four lockdown. 

HOME in five with Clare Chapman

HOME’s editor-in-chief, Clare Chapman, is mother to Emma and Toby and a self-confessed coffee addict. Here’s Clare’s lockdown in five questions.

HOME in five with Maggie Hubert

Maggie Hubert is a post-grad student and architectural researcher at Crosson Architects. We caught up with Maggie (and her Bengal cats) to hear what they’ve been up to in their bubble.

Culbert at HOME

We explore Bill Culbert | Slow Wonder (currently at the Auckland Art Gallery) through the lense of residential architecture and interiors.

A bunker by the lake

Evelyn McNamara’s Lake House is somewhat monolithic in form and uses a robust combination of materials that exudes a strong presence and a feeling of being protected. It could be deemed brutalist, but there is something more also going on here. 

A house of ebbs and flows

The simplest way to describe this 2021 finalist in the City Home of the Year category is: three concrete pavilions tied together by a highly sculptural copper form. Those two materials were selected for their durability, thus minimising the need for maintenance and allowing the owners more family time. 

Designing a sustainable future

This month, Dawson & Co. exclusively launched in New Zealand one of the oldest and most important luxury Italian furniture brands: Molteni&C.

The road to green

We sat down with BMW New Zealand managing director Karol Abrasowicz-Madej to talk sustainability, electrification of the BMW fleet, and the future of green vehicle design. 

The artist behind the lens

Taking inspiration from the work of South African artist William Kentridge, where the studio is the artist’s castle — a place where they can play king or buffoon — a new exhibition entitled A safe place for Stupidity will explore the work of New Zealand photographers. 

Good reads

One of our favourite book purveyors, Wellington’s Unity Books, has selected a trio of art, design, and history to keep us visually fit.

Architecture according to bees

At the heart of photographer Anne Noble’s exhibition Conversātiō at Queensland Art Gallery is a cabinet where a colony of bees lived.

Coffee table décor

As the mercury drops, we’re sitting down to appreciate the wondrous world of architecture and design in these recent books.

Studio 11:11

Marlborough-born spatial and leather goods designer Annabel Smart has worked for an enviable number of firms including Fearon Hay, Architectus, and Melbourne’s Hecker Guthrie.

How to select the best outdoor heating

Whether it’s a cosy fire pit to sit around on long summer evenings, or a high performance woodburner to heat up the outdoors in the colder months, a myriad of ways exist to bring an outdoor space to life.

Interiors Paradiso

Italian cinema is renowned for its impeccable sense of style. Be it music, fashion, food or acting, the Italians have a way of making moving images with a serious touch of stylistic flair.

Cavit & Co – Timeless Luxury

This immaculately presented book tracks the history of Cavit & Co. from its humble beginnings — in its owner’s spare bedroom — to some of the business’s most impressive assignments, including New Zealand embassies overseas and luxury hotels in the Pacific.

Tokyo Ride

At the Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival 2021, don’t miss Tokyo Road, a celebration of architecture in Tokyo.

Architecture on film

We chat with Clare Buchanan, co-curator of the Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival, to explore the highlights, ideas, and most unforgettable moments from this year’s programme.

Bringing a complex design to life

Lindesay Construction has built some of New Zealand’s most distinctive and unusual homes, the latest being the Dune House by Cheshire Architects. We spoke to William Lindesay about bringing a complex design to life.

Modern Living with Justine Olsen

Art and Conversation: We spoke to Justine Olsen, curator of decorative art and design, from Te Papa on her latest exhibition Modern Living: design in 1950s New Zealand.

Artists’ residence

As we near the one-year anniversary of Covid’s untimely arrival, we look back at how artists from around New Zealand hunkered down and what lessons they learnt from staying at and creating from home. 

Fine print

Eastern meditations and Wes Anderson–like interiors: we select some books that sit firmly on our wish-list.

Little Retreats: The Hotel Britomart

Cooper and Company’s transformation of the Britomart precinct in Auckland’s waterfront was a game-changer not just for the City of Sails but as a wider-reaching example of respectful and forward-thinking urban regeneration.

Little retreats: Park Hyatt

There is an undeniable grandiosity to the Park Hyatt’s inner sanctum, a sort of cathedral-like, gasp moment at being confronted with a huge, vertical void filled with modulated light and a powerful architectural statement.

Little retreats: QT Auckland

This hotel chain from across the ditch has been making inroads in New Zealand since 2015 when it purchased the quirky, art-filled, Museum Hotel in Wellington and refurbished it with visual cues that range from the circus-like through to French cabaret.

A mercy mission

A dilapidated former convent in Grey Lynn has a new lease of life as a luxury boutique hotel with striking interiors that celebrate the building’s origins.