Inside the award-winning homes of four New Zealand architects

Potentially, there are no unrealistic expectations. Creativity is unbounded. Style is fully unleashed. But what about budgets?

Asked to pick recent award-winning homes which fit this category, the institute supplied these winners to the Herald.

Steph Roughan of Patchwork Architecture designed this house, which won a regional 2025 award from the NZ Institute of Architects. The house is at Strathmore Park. Photo / Grant Davis

All took 2025 regional awards.

Three awards were for homes. The fourth was for residential additions and alterations.

Citations by the judges describe why these places are worthy.

Additions and alterations at this house in Berhampore, Wellington, won a 2025 regional NZ Institute of Architects’ award. Photo / Simon Wilson

Davor Popadich said being the client and architect, “one learns a lot but it is harder”.

“You always hope to spend less, but we really wanted the richness of natural materials. This is the second time I’ve designed my own house. Our first house was at Narrow Neck on the North Shore.”

Jeremy Brick of Studio Brick Architects designed this Pāpāmoa house for himself and his family. This won an NZIA regional 2025 award. Photo / David Straight

Wellington’s Mark Leong of Studio MLYA said it was a “dream come true to live in a house I’ve designed. You learn a lot about the entire process from the client’s point of view – because you are the client. I feel like I’ve discovered architecture for the first time”.

Yet Leong has designed many other buildings in the 19 years since he graduated.

Popadich House

Designed by Davor Popadich, Davor Popadich Architects;Won a 2025 Waikato/Bay of Plenty architecture award for housing;Hahei, Coromandel.

Judges said this was a beautifully detailed and deceptively simple courtyard house.

The house is for a family of five.

Stepping stones and boardwalks provide the transition from the stone-walled courtyard to the house, which the judges said floats lightly above regenerating native plantings.

Popadich House won a 2025 NZ Institute of Architects Award. Photo / Sam Harnett

The development work includes a significant and ongoing rehabilitation of the farmed land.

Highly rational planning and overhanging hipped roof forms belie a richness of interior spaces and experience.

A low-impact and restrained palette of natural unfinished timber linings, timber flooring and cabinetry is complemented with black stained structural timbers, black joinery, local stone and corrugated steel roofing.

Interior of the Popadich House, which won a Te Kāhu Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects’ 2025 regional award. Photo / Sam Harnett

All that makes for a beautifully serene rural home, “a retreat at one with the whenua”, the citation said.

Popadich, who works from home, said he treated his family as the client “asking about their dreams and desires. It’s about what everyone wants and needs”.

The house won a national award on November 20 in Christchurch.

Steph’s House, Wellington

By Patchwork Architecture;Won a 2025 Wellington area award;For Steph Roughan, Strathmore Park, Wellington.

Roughan said it was probably easier to design for a client than for herself.

“It’s a different experience being on both sides of the process. If I did this again, I would probably spend more time working out my own brief. I spent most of the time on the budget, orientation, views, etc.”

Steph Roughan of Patchwork Architecture designed this house, which won a regional 2025 award from the NZ Institute of Architects. The house is at Strathmore Park. Photo / Grant Davis

She and partner Sam Gifford owned a house next door and subdivided a section to create the new home.

The judges said: “Carving off a slice of land above an existing attached home with walk-up access, the design captures sweeping, unexpected views of the Wellington skyline, from the harbour to Lyall Bay.”

The house is seemingly simple.

The design features are subtle yet powerful.

An inverted truss roof mirrors the ground before opening to the expansive view.

Steph Roughan of Patchwork Architecture designed this house, which won a regional 2025 award from the NZ Institute of Architects. The house is at Strathmore Park. Photo / Grant Davis

The house was built beside a well-used public walkway so it generously gives back to its surroundings, judges said.

The glass front door offers a sightline to the view, engaging passersby without compromising the privacy of the interiors – an elegant example of thoughtful densification.

Matuku Moana

By Jeremy Brick of Studio Brick ArchitectsWon a 2025 Waikato/Bay of Plenty housing awardLocated in Pāpāmoa, Tauranga.

Judges said this is an urban haven on a busy road for the architect and his young family.

Jeremy Brick of Studio Brick Architects designed this Pāpāmoa house for himself and his family. This won an NZIA regional 2025 award. Photo / David Straight

Matuku Moana means white-faced heron.

Architect Jeremy Brick said: “We purchased the section in 2019 from our new neighbours. They had subdivided the lot from their large old-world Pāpāmoa property where they had hand-raised a matuku moana [white-faced heron] in their woodshed after it blew out of a macrocarpa tree in a storm.”

The institute judges said the home’s thoughtful placement on the site allows a sun-filled sunken courtyard to feel private, connected to the trees, and is integral to the home’s success.

Brick told the Herald: “We moved in around April last year. We had a lot of fun, it was a joyful process. My wife Anna and I have similar tastes. I work from home so my office is in the wardrobe of our spare room.”

Jeremy Brick of Studio Brick Architects designed this home at Pāpāmoa for his family. It won a 2025 regional NZ Institute of Architects award. Photo / David Straight

The judges said the home had a deceptively simple form, is highly detailed and well-considered on a cost-conscious budget.

Downstairs is open and spacious and connected to the sun-drenched courtyard and upstairs has a more cocooned and retreat-like atmosphere.

This is all created by clever proportions, use of materials and a concise layout.

This home had most successfully achieved a true compound-like oasis in suburbia, judges noted.

Berhampore Perimeter House, Wellington

By Studio MYLAWon a 2025 Wellington area award for alterations and additionsLocated in Berhampore, Wellington.

Judges said this place was beautifully composed and considered.

Additions and alterations at this house in Berhampore, Wellington, won a 2025 regional NZ Institute of Architects’ award. Photo / Simon Wilson

Architect Mark Leong said the extension to the 1904 house “needed to have a conversation with the old house. We picked bricks because the original bricks in the old house came from the former local Berhampore brick works.”

The new bricks for the house on the street-front came from Canterbury because Leong did not want imported products.

Leong’s wife, Lucy Coote, is a potter as well as an interior designer, so the choice of bricks was key.

Warm tones at this house in Berhampore, Wellington. Photo / Simon Wilson

A new kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, and pottery studio were added in the 70sq m extension.

The judges said the extension featured three distinct forms, each clearly delineated, “that dance along the hard street edge, offering an aspirational response to Wellington suburbia”.

The original brick cottage was thoughtfully preserved. A carefully crafted modern extension was then added.

Old on the left, new on the right: additions and alterations at this house in Berhampore, Wellington, won a 2025 regional NZ Institute of Architects’ award. Photo / Simon Wilson

The kitchen opens to a private courtyard, while a playful roof deck overlooks the green belt.

A concealed studio space adds further intrigue.

“Generous in detail and full of surprises, this home is a true delight,” judges said.

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