Architecture NZ

Architecture New Zealand is the journal for New Zealand’s architects. For over fifty years it has been at the centre of the profession – keeping architects informed, inspired and engaged with reviews of the latest projects, insightful commentary on key issues and critical discussion of practice matters.

Architecture NZ

There be monsters

On the move

What the senses tell us (and what they don’t)

PROTECTING CANTERBURY’S TAONGA

MAKASINI WINS 2025 RESENE STUDENT DESIGN AWARDS

MEET YOUR INTERIOR AWARDS JURY

THE ARCHITECT AS REPAIRER: THE RETROFIT IMPERATIVE • In this, the first in a series of sustainability thought pieces from Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects, Rachel MacIntyre looks at why retrofit and adaptive re-use are the most impactful low-carbon design strategies architects can adopt.

REFLECTIONS FROM COP30 • In November 2025, AUT’s Priscila Besen attended COP30, the annual United Nations climate summit, in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil. She witnessed how critical cross-disciplinary solutions are to addressing our climate crisis.

ADDRESSING THE WHYS AND WHENS OF ARCHITECTURE

TURNING PAIN INTO PURPOSE

SLOW DOWN: THE 2025 COPENHAGEN ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL • President of Tuia Pito Ora New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Ralph Johns reflects on the importance of slowing down and thinking deeply.

ESSAY FROM FINLAND • Jeremy Smith considers the Finnish liking for layering and sectioning for the light, with the underlying influence of the Aaltos evident throughout.

DANIEL KEMPKA • Warren and Mahoney Senior Associate Daniel Kempka designs deeply empathic spaces that align with an organisation’s culture and prioritise emotional and physical well-being.

THE MAN WHO THOUGHT LANGUAGE WAS A HOUSE • Academic Michael Linzey presents a new view on Heidegger and the meaning of Being.

A+W NZ TĀTUHI DRAWING ARCHITECTURE: SARAH TREADWELL ARCHIVE 2026 SELECTION

INSTITUTE NAMES TWO DISTINGUISHED FELLOWS

AFTER THE RAIN: HEAVY HAULAGE • In part four of this six-part series, observing the disposal of disaster-compromised houses, Andrew Barrie considers the potential for relocation.

Ō Rua • Matekitātahi Rāwiri, Renee Smith-Apanui and Matangireia Yates-Francis, founding directors of ŌRUA, discuss their hopes and aspirations for the new practice and its focus on mātauranga Māori to elucidate the role of indigenous knowledge in the future of contemporary architecture.

Work

Elegant span • Andrew Barrie visits the vast, luminous Hangar 4, the centrepiece of Air New Zealand’s maintenance base at Auckland Airport by Studio Pacific Architecture. The building, which achieved Six Green Star certification, is the largest single-span timber hangar in the southern hemisphere.

Light box that pops • Felicity Wallace discovers Strip Mall, winner of the Sir Miles Warren Award for Commercial Architecture at the 2025 National Architecture Awards and a new presence in Palmerston North, comprising a graphic studio, a bicycle shop and an apartment, by Spacecraft Architects.

An act of restoration • Andrea Bell visits ACC’s new flagship building in Ōtepoti Dunedin, designed by Warren and Mahoney in collaboration with Aukaha, and finds a weaving together of cultural narratives, built heritage and sustainability.

Courting excellence • At a house on the Coromandel Peninsula, by Davor Popadich Architects, John Walsh encounters a realisation of Vitruvian principles in the winner of the Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing at the 2025 Architecture Awards.

Kiwi High Tech

Urban Art Village 2025: Building a City of Ideas

Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington street by street

Ignite. Adapting in the Age of AI

CARTOON