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Flux and flair: Public Library

Projects | There is someone skateboarding in front of the sales area and, at the back of this warehouse, a couple of fashion-model-looking types are having a powwow next to a plastic crocodile head. It is 4pm in...

To keep you home: Architect’s family residence

Projects | The architecture or design of a house is often discussed by condensing its merits (or downfalls) into sets of fairly standard parameters: Was the house built well? Do the materials fit their context? ...

Intergalactic: Inside the Dark Sky Project

Projects | In 2012, a parcel of more than 4300km2 of land in the South Island’s Aoraki Mackenzie Basin was awarded ‘International Dark Sky Reserve’ status by the International Dark-Sky Association. Such a design...

Higher ground: Richards Partners

Projects | Completed in 1913 and designed by Scottish émigré and Public Works Department draughtsman Claude Paton, the former Magistrates’ Court on Auckland’s Kitchener Street has been commended as a fine, if sl...

Commercial Bay: Saxon + Parole

Projects | We spoke to AvroKO back in 2017, when the Commercial Bay Harbour Eats precinct was still just a concept design. This weekend, their equestrian-themed, New York-style steakhouse Saxon + Parole is set t...

Capital interiors

People | How did you get started? / George: All three of us have known each other at various points in life. Jack and I studied together at Massey University, both doing industrial design, and Matt was studyin...

Gem in the dunes

Projects | There is a stunning entry sequence at the clubhouse of the Tara Iti Golf Course in Mangawhai. It is a simple space yet highly considered and, in a way, synthesises some of the key design drivers that ...

L.A. Confidential

Projects | Mark Haddawy’s collecting habits are as peculiar as they get. First, there is the pre-Columbian stone figures (Mezcala, from the Mexican state of Guerrero) that dot his living room – a passion shared ...

Of schist and strata

Projects | There is a long, narrow driveway that stems from a busy, semi-rural road in the Christchurch suburb of Yaldhurst. Lucerne – short, round and vibrant green – bobs in the wind on both sides of this pave...

Hot House: The Pierre

Projects | It took dynamite, hydraulic chippers, diamond-tipped drills, chisels and a measure of poetry to conjure up The Pierre from a mountain-top boulder. As the story goes, the massive stone on Lopez Island ...

Hot House: Fogo Island

Projects | In the mid-1990s, Fogo Island found its fishing and boat-building industries on the brink of collapse. Its people were emigrating en masse and the 238km², rugged outpost of Newfoundland, Canada, was s...

Future workplace

People | Interior: Judging by the accent, you are Australian but I hear you’ve made your career in the United States… / Simon Trude: It is a heavy accent isn’t it?! Yes I left for New York several years ago an...

Designer interview: Olivier Delhomme

People | Interior: What prompted the world to start using fire-retardant (FR) fabrics? / Olivier Delhomme: Legislators became concerned in the ‘70s with the spread of casualties resulting from people falling...

Te Uru

Projects | Anyone who has ever spent time upon the ocean adjusting a sail to the whims of the breeze is likely to understand this new, west Auckland gallery in ways entirely different to those of most pedestrian...

Renee Hytry Derrington

People | Group Vice-President of Design for Formica Renee Hytry Derrington and her team are usually trekking through the world’s premier design fairs, uncovering and documenting early trends. Interior caught u...

Aro Hā

Projects | The quest for spiritual meaning has always been closely bound to architecture and design. Yet, in an era of decreased interest in religion (according to the 2013 census, 41.9% of New Zealanders claim ...

Tropical paradise

Projects | Back in 1953, Brazil’s architectural modernist darling Oscar Niemeyer built himself a house in São Conrado, a seaside suburb on the south side of Rio de Janeiro. The now-iconic Casa das Canoas is one ...

Odettes

Projects | Auckland restaurateurs Clare and Joost van den Berg – who founded, designed, ran and subsequently sold the popular Herne Bay café Zus & Zo as well as Takapuna’s Zomer Café – see Odettes as the one ven...

Glam camping

Projects | In 2006, after Chris Tate sold a family house on Waiheke – a Richard Priest-designed pad with such humble accoutrements as seven bedrooms and a helipad – he found himself living in a tent in a nearby ...

Homemaking

Projects | When we visit this house in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden, Lottie (5 years old) and Stella (8 years old) are having an early supper on a black-stained American oak kitchen counter. Sunshine cascad...

Grand statements

People | Urbis: How was the process of filming Grand Designs? / Chris Moller: It’s been a big learning curve, but everyone has been so incredibly wonderful and supportive dealing with my total lack of experien...

Matterhorn

Projects | Entering the original, 52-year-old Matterhorn restaurant in Wellington always has been a bit of a puzzling experience. From Cuba Street, parallel to the Bucket Fountain and an ever-changing array of b...

Interior Awards 2016: Judges and sponsors announced

News | Federico Monsalve is the editor of Interior and Urbis magazines and this will be his third year as convener of the Interior Awards. Federico is a writer and journalist who has worked in-house and as a f...

Whare by the sea

Projects | Motutara Road dictates the curvy and picturesque descent into Muriwai Beach. It borders the crest of a hill before dipping into this relaxed, surfing mecca 40kms west of Auckland. / “Motu means ‘to s...

The white house

Projects | Originally derivative architectural migrations from the motherland (aka Great Britain), our weatherboard dwellings developed details to cater for the local topography and climate: architraves, friezes...

Fox Street office

Projects | Scratch any surface and one is bound to find some history. Take for instance Fox Street, in Auckland’s “oldest suburb” of Parnell; in the late ’60s an anti-Vietnam War protestor flung dynamite into w...

Viewfinder: Simon Devitt

Projects | Federico Monsalve (FM): Tell us a little about the projects you selected to include in this article. Why did you choose them and what do they say about your craft? / Simon Devitt (SD): I've selected hou...

City Shapers: Seascape

People | How did you become interested in Auckland and in this particular site? / Frank Xu (FX): Our director is a long-term developer in Shanghai but his family has been in Auckland for nearly 20 years so he ...

Winners announced: Interior Awards 2020

Awards | The awards jury – which consisted of convenor and interior editor of Architecture NZ, Federico Monsalve, architects Julie Stout and Kate Rogan, and interior designers Katie Lockhart and Erini Compton – ...

Designer profile: Olivia Smith

People | Interior: How did you come to work with textiles? / Olivia Smith: I initially moved to Milan to learn Italian and cruise around Europe. I did that for a year and then I didn’t want to leave; so I fo...