Auckland Design Manual Blog

Client desperately seeking designer… Think of your search for a designer as being on par with your search for a life partner.  After all, at the close of your  relationship your design partner won’t just leave behind their old CDs and a few unwanted socks – they will leave you with the blueprint for your […]

Whether you are renovating, building a stand-alone house, or undertaking a more complex development, using sustainable processes may at first seem complicated, daunting or expensive.   But when you consider your design decisions in a broader context (as part of the Auckland city landscape, as well as over the long-term life of the building) you may […]

When I was a kid, the weekend ‘family outing’ usually involved ambling through the neighbourhood and pointing out the homes we liked to each other. My mum was a teacher and I think she loved that me and my brothers were her weekend students. As we walked through Napier, NZ’s art deco capital, my mother […]

After my grandfather died, to everyone’s surprise, my grandmother happily moved into an old folks’ home five minutes’ drive from the house she’d lived in for half a century. She was a sociable creature who adored arts and crafts, and group activities in general, and leaving her home was nothing compared to her still active […]

Auckland is now on the path toward becoming a more compact city and what we build today will shape the neighbourhoods of tomorrow. Density done well can foster thriving neighbourhoods and help to sustain public amenities such as public transport and great local parks. However, density done badly can isolate people, and even contribute towards […]