Mike Holmes of Mike Holmes Architecture grew up on a staple diet of building banter; it was the native language in his house. Given his mother tongue, and the fact construction is in his DNA thanks to his family’s predisposition to the trade, it goes some way to explaining his considerable success in the industry. There’s also the fact he’s very tenacious and has built a business that lives and breathes its craft.

Intelligent design that pays homage to the generosity of Mother Nature while working to protect all she offers was a governing approach that created a winning series of designs at this year’s Taranaki/Whanganui/Manawatu ADNZ | Resene Architectural Design Awards held on Friday 3 August.

An architectural design with latent potential was a major winner at this year’s Otago/Southland ADNZ | Resene Architectural Design Awards announced on Friday 27 July. Five awards and two commends were awarded to six designers in the Otago/Southland regional round. The award winners are Michael Holmes of Holmes Architecture, Brent Alexander of the design studio, Reece Warnock of Warnock Architecture, Sam Connell of Connell Architecture, Hamish McCaul of ArchiDesign, and Julie-Ann Ross for design arc Limited.

From a new build intergenerational family asset nesting into its landscape, to a Californian Bungalow led gently and gloriously into the modern era, intelligent design was the common denominator between the award winners honoured in this year’s Canterbury/Westland and Nelson/Marlborough ADNZ | Resene Architectural Design Awards.