If you enjoy coffee, you will have likely heard of Allpress Espresso – a New Zealand business success story that grew from a coffee cart in Auckland to sharing coffee with 1000s of cafes around the world.

Four one-bedroom apartments on a 405sqm site in the inner city could conjure an image of tiny, cramped, joyless spaces where the need to maximise the potential of a site has won out over creating quality, liveable homes. But once you clap your eyes on the latest development designed by Greg Young of Young Architects in Christchurch, you will see how comfortable and engaging small apartment living can be. You will also never drive by a challenging small site without seeing its true potential again.

Prefabricated transportable homes. Once a thing of the future, the rise in popularity of tiny homes and the need for alternative, more affordable housing options, has pushed the concept into the now with New Zealand being a growing market place.

Research estimates that between almost zero and 30 percent of the hours worked globally could be automated by 2030. This means that the skills needed today in our working environment will quite possibly not be the skills required by 2030. Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are changing the way we use data and make decisions, the way we operate within our business and home and the expertise we will need to be successful in the future. A quick glance though history from a design perspective illustrates the shift from hand drawing and design to CAD systems – a quantum shift in skill base. Today’s design community need to be computer savvy as well as understand excellence in design and core design concepts.

With Wellington based Holmes Construction as the family business, going back 60 years to his grandfather’s time, it was perhaps inevitable that Mike Holmes should forge his own way. After a brief but eventful high school career Mike found himself in the family trade, but resisted completing an apprenticeship, opting to travel around New Zealand and Australia working in hospitality instead.