What it was like to design New Zealand's Best Small Home

Article by Home Magazine

Monastic yet welcoming, this small home shows the power of contained design. We speak to architect and owner, Braden Harford, about his award-winning home

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Q&A with Braden Harford of Maguire and Harford Architects

What were the main considerations in designing your own home?
I tried to imagine how I wanted to live in the house – what would it be like sitting on the sofa, or what am I looking at standing behind the kitchen bench? – then designing these moments.

Talk us through the approach to energy efficiency and design?
I enjoyed how the strategies I used for insulation and solar gain also added a layer of meaning and reason to the design, while being expressed aesthetically though details like the window placement and deep reveals.

Gallery | 7 Photos
Read the full story behind this award-winning home

What do you enjoy most about the home?
Waking up to birdsong and the sun coming across the valley through the windows. Then seeing the walls blending into the shadows outside when the sun sets and the orange lights of the city are turned on.

Apart from scale, how did you keep building costs within budget?
There was real consideration for what was important. All spaces were reduced in size to find what was workable. Construction and form were kept as simple as possible. Everything had a reason – there’s nothing superfluous.

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Irregularly sized and placed windows in Braden Harford’s 85-square-metre home break up its concrete-block solidity.

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The largest windows in the home stand at three-and-a-half metres.

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Acoustic panels line the ceiling in the double-height void above the living space, and MDF panels line the walls.

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An ‘Apex 90’ lamp by Anglepoise sits on an antique French trunk in the main bedroom.

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Metal-trimmed cork-lined stairs lead to the bedrooms and bathroom in the mezzanine.

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Harford commissioned Alicia Erceg of Bunch Floral to create the wall hanging above the sofa. The track lighting is from Halcyon.

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The cupboards of the kitchen island have a white lacquered finish. ‘Māori Alphabet’ blocks by Johnson Witehira sit on the rangehood. To the right is a postcard from Aroha & Friends; a painting by Miles Harty; and a lithograph by Marian Maguire.

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The exposed oregon joists and steel girders lend a sense of space. The ‘Liaison’ chairs and sofa are by Cameron Foggo for Nonn.

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Windows are sized for optimal solar gain and views, which take in northerly and eastern aspects. The piano in the living room belonged to Harford’s grandfather. The painting above the piano is ‘Awash’ by a Liam Dangerfield.