Menu

Feature Articles

Golden Home With A Heart Of Steel

When self-described ‘town boy’ David Grigor decided it was time to move to the ‘country’ to be closer to his business, he and his wife Donna knew exactly what they wanted out of a new home.

While many people move away from the city to retreat from work and city life, for David commuting...

Leigh Marine Centre

Since the early 1960s the University of Auckland’s Marine Laboratory at Leigh has played a vital role in marine science research and education. Over the years the centre has grown to accommodate the increasing numbers of academic staff and those doing undergraduate and postgraduate work on the...

Pelorus Trust Sportshouse Hutt City

Hutt Park is one of the treasures of Hutt City with its ports fields, nine-hole golf course and camping ground among its many facilities. But when harness racing’s Hutt Park Raceway folded in 2002, Hutt City Council was left with a bit of an eyesore at the southern end of the park with the old...

Copthorne Hotel

The Copthorne Hotel in central Auckland is an established and high profile landmark, that is strategically sited on Anzac Avenue, in Auckland’s Central Business District, just “down the hill” from the University of Auckland Campus and close to the Vector Arena.

The...

Providing Safe Cover For Students

Many schools in New Zealand were built prior to the current building standards, in 1998 the New Zealand Ministry of Education undertook a nationwide structural survey of all school buildings and site structures in order to identify specific structural defects that could potentially cause death...

Sustainable Solution

Pooling equity to create an extended family home seemed a logical step to Neil Jacka and Jacqui Simpson. The couple had planned to build a home behind Neil’s parents’ house in the Auckland suburb of Avondale once the property was subdivided.

Because they wanted a well-designed,...

The Tornado-Proof Roof

On Tuesday 3rd May 2011, the Auckland suburb of Albany experienced ‘an extreme weather event’. A large tornado touched down at 3.15pm and slammed through a shopping mall before moving south leaving a 5km trail of destruction.

Weather Watch chief analyst Philip Duncan said that the speed...

The Tree House

Owners Maddie Leach and Gary Bridle, when planning their new home, had a vision of a simple  structure reminiscent of the kiwi “Doc Hut”. The practical  implicity of open space providing shelter, warmth and strength appealed to their artistic values. “Simplicity is part of the built language of...

Te Hana Te Ao Marama

The opening of an educational and cultural tourist village in Te Hana  as signalled a new dawn for what was once a community in crisis.

In fact, such were Te Hana’s problems with poor housing, crime and a polluted water supply that authorities wanted to close down the town, which is just...

Forgotten Lessons Of The Past By Graham Hepburn

Following the Christchurch earthquakes, engineering experts have recommended replacing heavy tile roofs with lightweight metal roofing.Inspections revealed that extensive damage was caused to houses by chimneys falling through heavy tile roofs or by the tiles coming loose and falling whereas...

Combining Form & Function

by Graham Hepburn

Architectural designer Chris Shaw gets a kick out of combining form and function in his projects and that’s highly evident in the Wainui Beach School library.

The wave-shaped roof of the building references Wainui Beach’s surf culture and its reputation as having...

Langs Beach House

Langs Beach House

David Jack and Elizabeth Thomas are no new comers to the beach as Liz has been involved in the family “bach” and holiday vacations at the seaside since her youth. When planning their new holiday home at Langs Beach David was adamant that the new home would be as...

Buckling Of Roof Falshings

BUCKLING OF ROOF FLASHINGS
Rod Newbold (Commercial Manager, Steel & Tubing Roofing Products),John Turner (Wood Technologist, SCION)

THE PROBLEM.
There has been a spate of compression buckling of transverse roof flashings, such as ridges, aprons, and apex...

French Influence

FRENCH INFLUENCE

 

John Killeen, a 5th generation New Zealander, has a dry sense of humour gleaned from years of experience. It is reasonable to say he has worked hard for what he has and has developed a knack of seeing through much of the information we are...

A Home For All Seasons

By Graham Hepburn

Dave North is the first to admit that he and wife Ali weren’t “specifically looking for an eco house” when they built in Nelson but that’s kind of what they ended up with.

Rather, he and Ali just wanted a warm, dry and healthy home for themselves...

Safety First

When people talk about products being sustainable, they usually focus on its carbon footprint or energy efficiency but the safety of a product is just as important.

And product safety covers all sorts of facets: from the safety of the workers that make it to how safe the product is to use...

A New Solution To The Old Problem

Metrotile have provided a solution that an increasing number of home owners have with shingle products installed in and around the 1980’s. Whilst the original unit’s unique design was complimented by the low, flat profile of shingles the long term performance was questionable. In this instance...

Country Retreat

The best way to learn to love the land is to live on it. That’s exactly what Mike and Marcelle Waugh did when they purchased a cherished piece of land, with a large bush covenant overlooking the south Kaipara harbour, in 2002. A corralled yard previously used for deer farming proved the ideal...

From The Ground Up

By Graham Hepburn

Building a new hangar at a working airport comes with its challenges, especially when you aren’t allowed cranes on site. And those challenges magnify when the hangar is 80 metres wide by 60 metres long and 15 metres tall at its highest point.

Air Nelson needed the...

Tranquility

When the owners of this unique home briefed Mark Brown, Solutions Architecture Ltd, they came with some very specific requirements on the function of their  new home but beyond this the brief allowed for a high degree of input in design and material choices. The overall concept was to create a...

A Sanctuary For Golfers And Wildlife

Wairakei International Golf Course was already rated one of the top courses in the world when owner Gary  ane decided to make it even more special.

His vision was to create an environment where golf and the  atural habitat work in harmony. He wanted a pest-free environment within the golf...

A Lifestyle Village

Whilst often referred to as retirement villages, Sanctuary Villas prefer to think the residents have done everything but retire. In fact the accent is on enjoying life without the stress and commitments of home maintenance, leaving village folk to pursue their individual pleasures.

...

Trafalgar Centre Nelson Southern Extension

The Trafalgar Centre, designed by Alex Bowman and built in 1972, has served Nelson well. For a number of years, however, it has been unable to meet the operational requirements of modern sports and entertainment events or to accommodate growing numbers of spectators.

This is Stage 1 of a...

Designing A Lifestyle

Having a wealth of experience in both design and building Wayne Bishop embarked on the design and development of a lifetime...creating, designing and building an entire lifestyle environment.
A huge project, not to just design the subdivision but to design and build every home in what was...

Pages

Subscribe to Feature Articles