Our best new homes: Institute of Architects 2025 national award winners

A Crown Range stunner and a Hahei family home were larger, grander.

Architects who designed the four homes were declared the best in the residential category for the year.

The winners were announced at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre on November 20.

They are presented here in alphabetical order.

Architect Craig Moller of Moller Architects. Photo / Babiche Martens

Craig Moller of Moller Architects was the convenor of the jury panel with Beth Cameron of Makers of Architecture, Nicola Herbst of Herbst Architects, and Ilana Freadman of Freadman White in Melbourne.

Bush Block, Titirangi, Auckland

This home by Wellington’s Patchwork Architecture was built in a bush-clad valley, with access via an entry bridge instead of a driveway.

Despite a constrained budget and challenging site conditions, it delivered practical and even poetic solutions, judges said.

Bush Block, Titirangi: design delivered practical solutions. Photo / Simon Wilson

An elevated walkway with a storage hut replaces the garage, enriching the arrival sequence with dual purpose.

A simple box showcases efficient planning, innovative materials and the clarity of their application.

Roof lights and generous apertures extend the interiors into the surrounding treescape.

The house hovers above the forest floor and anchors itself on a raised terrace.

Bush Block, Titirangi, brings the outdoors in. Photo / Simon Wilson

Modest in scale, the project demonstrates the significant impact architects can deliver within tight constraints, the judges said.

The same practice also won a national residential award last year for Whanganui’s Gonville pool house.

The Gonville pool house, Whanganui, was an adaptive reuse of a derelict public swimming pool and a 2024 national award winner. Photo / supplied by NZIA

Kaka Pod, Wānaka

Rafe Maclean Architects won for this 60sq m, double-height holiday house; a cavernous space generated by a triangular plan and curved corners.

Judges found it cleverly capitalised on a shady, underutilised corner of a site.

Kaka Pod, Wanakā, is on a shady, underutilised corner of a site. Photo / Simon Devitt

The compact, triangular building positioned itself as a landscape element within an established native garden, they noted.

Its form follows the sloping topography, gently stepping down.

Its curved corners soften its presence on site and relationship with the existing dwelling.

Kaka Pod, Wanakā, where wood brings warmth. Photo / Simon Devitt

Openings are thoughtfully placed to frame views and skylights bring natural light while maintaining privacy.

Warmth comes from interior timber, which also gives a sense of comfort and resilience, where the exterior curved forms are echoed inside, enriching the experience of the building’s form.

A bunkroom loft up a ladder makes the best use of the double-height space, which also extends the home’s capacity.

Openfield House, Crown Range

This was designed by Keshaw McArthur in association with British architects Matheson Whiteley.

“This assured composition of stacked platonic forms holds its ground against the vast scale of the landscape and volatility of the environment,” judges said.

Openfield House in the Crown Range, where an iron roof is a reference to older buildings in the wider area. Photo / Samuel Hartnett

A corrugated roof recalls the region’s older buildings.

Sculpted earth mounds cradle and protect the house, settling it firmly into the foothills.

Inside, geometric rigour is expressed via a nine-square grid.

Openfield House offers refinement throughout. Photo / Biddi Rowley

Sliding screens play against robust concrete elements to animate the interior.

The main suite, carved into the roof void, is crowned by an oculus that gathers light and telescopes the view.

Refinement is evident in the acute attention to materiality, tonal harmony and texture, all hallmarks of a design of high calibre, the judges said.

Popadich house, Hahei, Coromandel

This house is a sensitive and understated insertion into its rural setting, with careful and extensive plantings that ground the building and provide shelter.

The Popadich House won a Te Kāhu Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects’ 2025 regional award and then a national award. Photo / Sam Harnett

An L-shaped plan enables the house to adapt and respond to its environment, while the placement of a separate studio completes the notion of a courtyard, forming a sheltered and recessed outdoor space.

The Coromandel home of architect Davor Popadich. Photo / Sam Harnett

Planning is organised on a 600mm grid aligned with rafter spacings, allowing for cost efficiency and a variety of spatial outcomes.

This is the home of the architect who designed it, Davor Popadich.

Popadich House is described as a “home of quiet character”. Photo / Sam Harnett

Simple forms and a low-pitched roof with generous eaves create a modest scale and a thoughtful relationship to the landscape.

Inside, the relaxed atmosphere is supported by detailed and crafted finishes, extending to the custom wardrobe doors and drawer pulls.

The garage is a flexible, multi-functional space rather than one solely for cars, reflecting the pragmatic needs of family life.

Together, these qualities produce a home of quiet character, accommodating the complexities of family living with clarity and care, the judges said.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.

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