Posts by Andrew Senn

Kitchen trends we’ve loved, from the fast and fashionable to timeless and classic by Caitlin Bartlett https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/community/109907369/kitchen-trends-weve-loved-from-the-fast-and-fashionable-to-timeless-and-classic

Hologram homes and more by Dan Heyworth http://www.buildmagazine.org.nz/articles/show/hologram-homes-and-more

Bespoke and broke: Why New Zealanders are overdosing on over-design By DAN HEYWORTH, 07 Nov 2018 https://idealog.co.nz/urban/2018/11/bespoke-and-broke-why-new-zealanders-are-overdosing-over-design What makes a piece of architecture well designed – is it its surroundings, sustainability, longevity, performance and return on investment? Or is it just the aesthetics? Director of new projects at design-and-build company Box, Dan Heyworth, explains why he…

8 Ways to design and decorate to maximise the summer sun! https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/houses/105380778/A-light-and-art-filled-Auckland-home    

Prefab building, the great hope for the housing crisis, is teetering on disaster      

This stunning Box™ home in Westmere features in the August issue of NZ House & Garden. https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/houses/105380778/A-light-and-art-filled-Auckland-home    

Box™ scoops 4 awards at the 2018 Master Build House of the Year competition The Creative House https://www.box.virtualtag.co.nz/portfolio/the-creativehome-2/ won Gold and Overall Regional Award for PlaceMakers New Home $450,000 – $550,000 Hutt City Builders, Wellington http://huttcitybuilders.co.nz https://houseoftheyear.co.nz/houses/2018/ww-11993-1-5/ The Tropical House won Gold for Nulook New Home $700,000 – $1million https://www.box.virtualtag.co.nz/portfolio/the-tropicalhouse-2/ and…..The Private Haven won Silver for Carters New Home $1million…

The challenge for the Box™ design team was to create a spatially efficient home that maximized the panoramic views of the Manukau Harbour. The end result was happy clients who were thrilled with their new home and its modest footprint and bespoke design. The house is 2 storey, split-level. Inside, the ground floor is open…

Written by Claire McCall The proposed co-housing development in Grey Lynn (see cohaus.co.nz) is a vision for urban living that includes less reliance on cars and features shared facilities such as a common room and laundry. With a focus on community, a central courtyard is integral to the masterplan. At Box™, we’re ever on the…

Written by Dan Heyworth It’s important to separate the science fiction from the facts in the construction sector, writes Dan Heyworth When I first read The Guardian article “Netherlands to build world’s first habitable 3D-printed houses”, I was inspired by the innovation of the Dutch construction company Van Wijnen behind this development. They call it…

The latest addition to the Box™ family is a stunning rural retreat in Kaiwaka, Northland. We recently uploaded this project to “Our Work”, but we love the look and feel of this home and thought you would like to see a few more images. Abodo have featured it in their latest Project Showcase https://www.abodo.co.nz/stories/projects/box-living-in-coastal-mangawhai-new-zealand

When a prime city-fringe site has a storm-water drain right in the middle of it, what do you do? You work around it. By Claire McCall    

Written by Dan Heyworth Lang House by Ernst Plischke 1948 There is no exact record of the number of homes or developments designed by architects, the general consensus is that between 2% and 5% of the built environment has been designed or deemed worthy of the title architecture.  By the same token, productivity in the…

Incorporating a 20sqm visitor accommodation unit for a client who had built with us before, provided Box™ with an opportunity to construct a dwelling using a panelised off-site building methodology. This kit of parts was transported via ferry to a challenging Waiheke site.    

Our Box™ Home Every journey begins with a single step. It feels like our first step took place about 6 years ago. I won’t bore you with too many details, suffice to say that after living in old draughty homes for years, it became our dream to build our own home…. Follow our journey as…

Written by Claire McCall We were pleased to hear that an advocate of low-cost housing had been named the winner of architecture’s most prestigious award last week. Balkrishna Doshi is an Indian architect who has worked with luminaries such as Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn and was awarded the 2018 Pritzker Prize. He’s 90 years…

Tiny Gem! Written by Claire McCall Small houses are big news – which is as it should be. We’ve always believed that, with clever design, ‘quality’ gives a better result than ‘quantity’ any day of the week. So when Box™ sales and marketing manager Peter (and his partner Hannes) built a 110-square-metre everyday escape on…

The Beauty of Built-In Furniture Written by Claire McCall Frank Lloyd Wright was infamous for wanting to direct every aesthetic aspect of his clients’ lives (including the artwork they chose to put up) and, while we’re not advocating such control freaked-ness, we do agree with him on one thing: his desire to design the furniture…

Our First Workshop-Built Home Written by Claire McCall It was with enormous pride (and admittedly a little trepidation) that last month we installed our first workshop-built home on a hair-raising site in Waiheke Island. Constructed in our Henderson facility, it was designed in six ‘modules’ in the controlled environment of the shop floor before, like…

What has climbing a mountain in Africa got to do with Box™? Well, if we’re honest, not a lot, although we could draw parallels with how much preparation goes into the planning of this exciting journey, how expecting the unexpected is a smart tactic for success without stress, how it takes absolute teamwork to reach…