In Aotearoa, shade is seldom still. It moves with wind, sun, and seasons, calling for responsive solutions to the ever-changing environment. For architects, designers, and homeowners, this invites an intricate approach to outdoor living, where shelter is adaptive, intentional, and woven into the language of architecture.
Colour shapes the presence of furnishings outdoors. It anchors a space, setting the atmosphere and grounding it in its surroundings. Outside, colour is less about contrast and more about the subtle ways it transforms experience.
At M House by Ponting Fitzgerald Architects, the arrival sequence is deliberate — a slow arc around the building that allows the architecture to be read in full before entry. It’s a movement that begins at ground level.
With its refined materiality and clean lines, the Pipe Collection demonstrates how furniture can extend the language of a home beyond its walls.
Every year, more and more New Zealanders are handing over the keys to their petrol or diesel-powered vehicles in favour of EVs, but what does this mean for our household power bills, and what do we need to consider when it comes to choosing the right charger?
This holiday home on the edge of the dunescape at Omaha, just north of Auckland, was redesigned to present a softer architectural face to the coast and reconnect the living spaces with the natural environment.
Clean, green energy has never been more accessible, and, when it comes to rooftop solar installations, the myriad benefits are hard to look past.
This contemporary villa renovation in central Auckland offers a joyous distinction between old and new, and a beautiful harmony of form, material, texture, and experience.
Embracing life outdoors has a new meaning, and it’s firmly centred around a beautifully streamlined range of bathing and kitchen products by ABI Interiors: the Sola Collection.
In the heart of Hawke’s Bay is an artisan workshop garnering significant attention, and for good reason. Led by designer and craftsman Toby Payton, Raw Concrete Design specialises in handcrafted bespoke polished concrete products for residential and commercial settings.
In China, over six million hectares of bamboo are grown each year, providing the raw material for some of the world’s most sustainable and eco-friendly timber, which now finds its ideal application as decking.
On a small urban site, this striking addition to a character villa is grounded by the use of monolithic coloured concrete forms framing a lush private courtyard.
Rogan Nash unveils a Western Springs project stitched together by a swimming pool, a pergola, references to Palm Springs, and morse code detailing that reads ‘secret garden’.
Taking the operable louvred roof to the next level, the latest innovation from Louvretec is the Retract Roof range — Opening Roofs that completely open or close at the touch of a button.
Not quite a pool and not quite a spa, the Stoked Stainless Plunge Spa strikes a perfect balance between the two with a piece that embraces the art of relaxation outdoors.
Utilising the existing design language of a mid-century modern home in Remuera, Johnston Architects and Bespoke Interior Design set about redesigning a pool house and creating an outdoor room, resulting in a trio of interconnected areas spanning indoors and out.
On a suburban site in Auckland's Kohimarama, a transparent-sided pool creates an immersive connection between an original villa and a pavilion-style pool house.
This New Zealand brand draws inspiration from the rewards and challenges of life by the sea: simple, relaxing and beautiful but rugged and unforgiving.
In Aotearoa, shade is seldom still. It moves with wind, sun, and seasons, calling for responsive solutions to the ever-changing environment. For architects, designers, and homeowners, this invites an intricate approach to outdoor living, where shelter is adaptive, intentional, and woven into the language of architecture.
Colour shapes the presence of furnishings outdoors. It anchors a space, setting the atmosphere and grounding it in its surroundings. Outside, colour is less about contrast and more about the subtle ways it transforms experience.
At M House by Ponting Fitzgerald Architects, the arrival sequence is deliberate — a slow arc around the building that allows the architecture to be read in full before entry. It’s a movement that begins at ground level.
With its refined materiality and clean lines, the Pipe Collection demonstrates how furniture can extend the language of a home beyond its walls.
It begins with dust: fine, dry, and strangely weighty. Packed and labelled with numeric codes, PeterFell’s coloured oxides read like elements — ready to be combined with concrete and set in permanence.
Architect Tim Dorrington of Dorrington Atcheson Architects set out to produce something new: a prototype for pocket-sized houses envisioned as an alternative to large-scale developments.
Completed 10 years ago, and designed by architect Rich Naish of RTA Studio for his family, this home has settled effortlessly into its busy suburban setting in central Auckland.
On the shores of a secluded, sandy cove in Northland, this holiday home was devised to slowly recess into its natural surroundings.
Every year, more and more New Zealanders are handing over the keys to their petrol or diesel-powered vehicles in favour of EVs, but what does this mean for our household power bills, and what do we need to consider when it comes to choosing the right charger?
This holiday home on the edge of the dunescape at Omaha, just north of Auckland, was redesigned to present a softer architectural face to the coast and reconnect the living spaces with the natural environment.
Clean, green energy has never been more accessible, and, when it comes to rooftop solar installations, the myriad benefits are hard to look past.
This contemporary villa renovation in central Auckland offers a joyous distinction between old and new, and a beautiful harmony of form, material, texture, and experience.
In the dunes of Te Ārai, this coastal retreat was designed with two aims: to make its presence known and to sit quietly with its back to the forest and its face to the sea.
This sculptural holiday home in Leigh is an artful arrangement of three buildings, an enclave of sorts, designed to accommodate various personalities and requirements.
Embracing life outdoors has a new meaning, and it’s firmly centred around a beautifully streamlined range of bathing and kitchen products by ABI Interiors: the Sola Collection.
In the heart of Hawke’s Bay is an artisan workshop garnering significant attention, and for good reason. Led by designer and craftsman Toby Payton, Raw Concrete Design specialises in handcrafted bespoke polished concrete products for residential and commercial settings.
In China, over six million hectares of bamboo are grown each year, providing the raw material for some of the world’s most sustainable and eco-friendly timber, which now finds its ideal application as decking.
On a small urban site, this striking addition to a character villa is grounded by the use of monolithic coloured concrete forms framing a lush private courtyard.
Rogan Nash unveils a Western Springs project stitched together by a swimming pool, a pergola, references to Palm Springs, and morse code detailing that reads ‘secret garden’.
This two-storey Beach Haven home of sharp geometries is designed around a trapezoidal plunge pool, over which the upper level is cantilevered.
Taking the operable louvred roof to the next level, the latest innovation from Louvretec is the Retract Roof range — Opening Roofs that completely open or close at the touch of a button.
Not quite a pool and not quite a spa, the Stoked Stainless Plunge Spa strikes a perfect balance between the two with a piece that embraces the art of relaxation outdoors.
Utilising the existing design language of a mid-century modern home in Remuera, Johnston Architects and Bespoke Interior Design set about redesigning a pool house and creating an outdoor room, resulting in a trio of interconnected areas spanning indoors and out.
On a suburban site in Auckland’s Kohimarama, a transparent-sided pool creates an immersive connection between an original villa and a pavilion-style pool house.
This New Zealand brand draws inspiration from the rewards and challenges of life by the sea: simple, relaxing and beautiful but rugged and unforgiving.
From bringing the indoors out, to cabinetry that spins to reveal its contents, Hettich is elevating interior and alfresco design options with its innovation in the mechanics of movement.
Sculptor Simon Max Bannister’s works carry a powerful essence, often becoming symbols of our relationship with the environment and the wildlife within it.
This pool house is a dichotomy of sorts — on a residential site, it is commercially proportioned — and meticulously considered as both a public and private facility.
In a rural setting that feels far removed from the city on the outskirts of which it is located, this Auckland home unfolded over a decade or so.
Heading into winter and missing those beautiful long summer evenings outdoors, it’s time to think about what alfresco dining will look like in 2024.
There’s not much that beats enjoying the outdoors on winter evenings under a sheltered canopy. As the mercury drops, bring the indoors out with design-led alfresco living.
During a mountain bike ride about ten years ago, two mates got chatting. The result is a fresh – and entirely Kiwi – take on the hot tub.
The winners of the 2022 Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards demonstrate an enviable beauty and diversity.
Set on the ridgeline of Bronte Peninsula — an area that is rich in rural productive history — a new pavilion is surrounded by coastal regenerative planting.
On a slight bend in the road on a Remuera street, a 1950s house has been transformed slowly over two decades.
One of Strachan Group Landscape Architects’ latest projects in central Auckland was designed to reimagine the flora that once covered the land.
On the shores of Sydney Harbour, New Zealand–born Australian architect Richard Archer devised a home of connections with the water and city beyond
On a tiny island just off the coast of Whangarei Heads a small house does justice to its unique site, while requiring some adjustments to the typical modern lifestyle.
On a striking piece of land that stretches out behind the 2021 Home of the Year above the Kawarau River, two Dunedin locals have achieved something spectacular – a sustainably farmed estate producing three very distinctive and highly desirable edibles.
As technologies advance and the effects of climate change become a reality, the building industry is looking towards a myriad of options to offset carbon emissions and welcome biodiversity back to our cities.
Concrete Copper House by South Architects enjoys a beautiful position beside the Waimairi Stream. To make the most of the site, the owners — with the help of Kamo Marsh Landscape Architects — created a unique garden.
Nestled between lush hillside and the shores of Lake Rotoiti, the surrounding environment of Evelyn McNamara’s latest architectural delight offered a myriad of opportunities for fauna of texture and colour.
We spoke to landscape architect Alex Traut about living water, the environmental benefits, and filtering pools using nature.
On an elevated site between Christchurch and Governors Bay, architect Philip Kennedy envisioned a place of expansive outdoor living.
Nestled high in a wild alpine expanse, this renovated hut was devised as a place of retreat and connection for its city-dwelling owners.
In Takapuna, the pace is slower than in other suburban centres in Auckland. There’s a leisurely, beach-like feel to it, especially on Hurstmere Road — the suburb’s shopping and eatery hub — where people and vehicles share the road.
On a remote station about halfway between Aoraki Mt Cook and Timaru, near Lake Tekapo, this prefabricated house was designed to settle effortlessly into a harsh landscape of snow and storms, and long, dry summers.
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.
We’ve rounded up the best options for effortlessly incorporating the latest innovations in heat and cooking into your outdoor space with Stoke Fireplace Studio.
Around this Christchurch home, which is raised above the ground to allow floodwaters to flow beneath it, an interconnected series of landscapes combines to create a striking aesthetic.
The move towards having organically farmed gardens sitting alongside hospitality venues is a growing trend in contemporary landscape architecture, where chefs and horticulturalists work hand in hand, planning menus based on what is growing in the garden.
Tucked into the hillside in Abel Tasman National Park, this is a house designed for enjoyment of the area’s unique landscape.
At the base of the Ben Ohau Range near Twizel stands a tiny cabin, secluded within a vast landscape.
Hamilton Gardens is known the world over. It attracts more than a million visitors every year, with upwards of 5000 visitors a day
Mimicking the pared-back materiality of the architecture, a simple plant palette creates a sense of calm in this modern urban garden.
Are they follies, small extravagances, or safe havens from the coastal whims? Melanie McDaid explores the courtyard house and some of its local iterations for clues
On 162 hectares of what was once farmland at Auckland’s Long Bay, only small pockets of native forest remained, leaving plant and animal communities isolated from each other on degraded land.
For homeowners with the luxury of outdoor space or those looking to cultivate a garden in their homes but starting from scratch, there’s an abundance of information on home gardening but it takes some searching and, if you’re an amateur, it can be overwhelming.
A spacious Mid-Century modern-inspired home in Orakei proves that you don’t need a huge amount of land to have four bedrooms and multiple living spaces, particularly when less than half of the home touches the ground.
For a brutalist building that stands so four-square on its ground, this house is full of hidden delights.
Sandii McDonald creates a beautiful rhythm in a Japanese-inspired landscape — based on plans that were first drawn in the 1970s by Sang Architects.
