The soaring roof on this Grey Lynn family home was the showstopper that helped it win this year's Home of the Year awards by Home magazine. Photo / Supplied
The soaring roof on this Grey Lynn family home was the showstopper that helped it win this year's Home of the Year awards by Home magazine. Photo / Supplied
A bold Auckland house likely to "ruffle a few feathers" because its soaring concrete roof contrasts sharply with nearby heritage villas has been crowned Home magazine's Home of the Year.
Designed by Jack McKinney Architects, the five-bedroom family home in a leafy Grey Lynn heritage zone "unashamedly" seeks to stand out.
Most strikingly, its 56-tonne concrete ceiling soars over the street as well as a casual open-plan living area.
The mountains are perfectly framed by the lounge room view from this Arrowtown mansion and finalist in Homes magazine's Homes of the Year competition. Photo / Supplied
Inside, concrete and steel are left "raw and unfinished" to mix with wide-open living areas and sweeping windows.
Home magazine editor and judge Simon Farrell-Green describes it as "primitive but poetic" and brimming with "exuberance".
"This Auckland house is going to ruffle a few feathers," he said. "It's a raw, contemporary house in a heritage zone."
Owner Rachael Newnham describes it as soothing, saying the beauty, raw materials and ample family room give the home a wonderful mix of form and function.
"If you have perfectly painted walls you worry about dings and scratches and marks, but here you don't – it's very relaxing and at the same time beautiful," she said.
Farrell said the home's boundary-pushing design made it a fitting winner of the magazine's 24th annual Home of the Year awards as it beat out Arrowtown mansions, Great Barrier Island baches and city apartments.
Wynard Central's clever apartment design on Auckland's waterfront also captured the judge's attention. Photo / Supplied
Architect McKinney said much of the home's creativity came from the fact he had worked with Newnham and her builder husband Cameron Ireland for the past 12 years, completing 11 renovations and four-and-a-half houses.
Ireland's building background also allowed for far more experimentation than with other clients, McKinney said.
"We have a body of work that we're always trying to surpass," he said.
"There was a bit of pent-up frustration to do something unrestrained on both sides. Just to do something fun."
The soaring roof on this Grey Lynn family home was the showstopper that helped it win this year's Home of the Year awards by Home magazine. Photo / Supplied
The home has five-bedrooms, including a master with "incredible views of the city" and guest ensuite, as well as swimming pool and second large living area upstairs.
Newnham said sometimes form could sometimes triumph over function in architecturally-designed homes as emphasis was given to "angles, exaggerated open spaces and floating staircases" over storage, for instance.
But she had made an effort to have her Grey Lynn home designed with extra space for her daughter and two-teenage sons and for visiting family and friends.
And despite her 15-year-old son taking over the guest en-suite for himself, even here a benefit emerged.
"The bonus is that room is hidden down the end so I don't walk past and feel the need to make him pick up his stuff all the time - it is actually a lot more relaxing, Newnham joked.
The light and views in this budget Wellington finalist caught the judges' eyes. Photo / Supplied
Other finalists included an Arrowtown mansion set into a rugged mountain landscape, a small "Bivvy Hut" overlooking Lake Wakatipu, cleverly designed apartment blocks in Auckland's waterfront Wynard Quarter and a chilled-out timber bach on Great Barrier Island.
But not all the houses were big budget designs, with a small Wellington home in the suburb of Southgate also making the shortlist.
It squeezes two-bedrooms, a recording studio and compact living spaces into a 93sq m home perched on steep hillside that has no car access.
The upstairs indoor living area was not only designed to catch the sun and give a feel of being in the tree-tops, but to also shelter the outdoor areas from the wind, giving the home's young owners more living spaces to enjoy.
With the builders unable to crane or drive goods into the site, the home was largely built from lightweight modular materials, while also being anchored against earthquakes by a retaining wall.
The Pinwheel house on Great Barrier Island has a chilled out vibe. Photo / Supplied
Built on "marginal", cheaper land, the home cost less than $900,000, allowing its owners to get a brand new house for the price they may have paid for a rundown home elsewhere, Spacecraft Architects co-founder Tim Gittos said.
