Posts by Box

When it comes to home design, hero rooms such as the kitchen or outdoor entertainment area, tend to steal the limelight. But we think the quiet achievers deserve some acknowledgement too. Your average wardrobe is, well, not so average. Dig a little deeper and you’ll quickly realise that, when it comes to planning, ratio wise…

We asked four Box™ team members to highlight some memorable style-setting and pragmatic design details of homes they’ve worked on. Secrets and surprises Ensuring a building is weathertight is an important part of the role for architectural technician Conor O’Brien, who has been draughting up Box™ homes on the computer for three years now. As…

Record-setting statistics, a suburb in a circle and a new boutique hotel that could become a habit What’s caught our attention: Although Kiwis traditionally hanker after a stand-alone home on their own patch of dirt, the pendulum is swinging towards medium-density solutions and, particularly in our biggest city, residents can’t help but notice how many…

We’ve said it all along: when you combine a design-and-build crew under one roof, you achieve better results for clients. But although these two disciplines have existed side by side for eons, they have traditionally operated as separate businesses, so surely when they are integrated there are challenges? How does this actually work in the…

Robyn and Leighton Langley felt conflicting emotions as they stood road-side on a wet and somewhat blustery day and watched a gigantic mechanical arm lift their bedroom pod up and over a specimen pohutukawa to its place on their section. On the one hand they felt very excited; on the other, it was the most…

It’s a familiar story: when youngsters enter the picture, the excitement of the big-city dream tends to pale. Childhood memories of beaches, open space and a more relaxed pace suddenly become irresistible. Expat Luisa Andrew and her Scottish husband Stephen Dewar were living with three young children in a Hong Kong terrace house when they…

If Box™ co-founder Dan Heyworth could wave a magic wand to solve the big issues facing the design-and-build industry, what would he do? In this interview with Ryan Castle from Master Builders, Dan looks for answers. Q: Box™ bucked the traditional model by combining an architecture practice and construction company under one roof. Has it…

Unless you were a local, you’d never know that behind the street façade of this home, is a leafy-and-lovely view of Grey Lynn park. Admittedly it looks a little different to its colonial-era neighbours. The site is long and skinny (think 40 metres x 11.7 metres wide), but also steep. That might seem tricky for…

Design manager Tony Borland-Lye discusses his favourite Auckland building   As an architecture student at Auckland University, when Tony Borland-Lye headed off on food-finding missions between lectures, he usually took the scenic route through Albert Park, before dropping down into the laneways and alleys that run between High and O’Connell Streets. Then, as now, this…

https://youtu.be/nb9GBxr5J9c Dan Heyworth, one of the Box founders, discusses the approach Box™ takes when building a new home and how we address the difficult question of cost in a highly complex process.

A cluster of cabbage trees stretching into the sky, against a backdrop of islands and ocean, is an iconic indicator that locates this property immediately in New Zealand. The Cordyline australis that grow here are well-loved because the owners of this spectacular site are not only nurturers of nature but keen gardeners too. When they…

Box™ Design and BuiltFor Sale – 12a Helen Place St Heliers Auction 12th AugustOpen Homes. | Saturday 1st August 1-1:30pm, Sunday 2nd August 1-1:30pmPaul Neshausen MBA. | Barfoot & ThompsonMOBILE 021 345 887 Packed with inspired details that make everyday living more enjoyable, this spacious brand new 4-bedroom home is a chic modern hideaway in a super-quiet, super-safe…

How we tackle a problematic site Is there such a thing as the perfect site? That depends on how you look at it. While many believe a roomy, flat section is the ultimate find, Box™ designers would argue that having challenges to face actually gives them some interesting parameters to work with. Under pressure, we…

Dan talks about how lockdown has changed the way we think about home. Check out the full article in the New Zealand Herald Magazine – Viva – https://www.viva.co.nz/article/at-home/Home-Where-I-Want-to-Be/

Box™ advocates incorporating a splash of rainbow attitude into your new build or renovation Black is not back Any colour as long as it’s black. While that is a broad-brush statement, this does seem to be the motto of architects everywhere – you see it in their clothes and in their cars so little wonder…

It may seem gauche to launch into talking about money from the get-go but, when you’re considering who will design and build what is probably the biggest investment of your life, cost is always front of mind so it’s bound to come up sooner or later. We prefer sooner. Really we do. And when the…

When it comes to building in city-fringe suburbs where villas and bungalows predominate, protecting Auckland’s architectural heritage is important. But that doesn’t mean slavishly copying the design ideas of the past. Showing respect is a given but equally vital is to create good-looking homes that key into the wider neighbourhood without compromising lifestyle. When zoning…

Auckland’s architecture has around 150 years of colonial built history to look back on, a residential suburban landscape pocketed with examples that morphed with the times through the decades. Box™ is well-known for its commitment to the modernist style – the architecture of the mid-century – in particular the case study houses of California that…