Feather House

Awards

2023

• Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects New Zealand Architecture Award Housing 2023

• Nominated for 2023 ArchDaily House of the Year

• Nominated for 2023 ArchDaily Building of the Year

• Shortlisted for Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects New Zealand Architecture Award 2023

2022

• Habitus House of the Year Finalist 2022, Habitus Living, Australia.

• Finalist World Architecture Festival, Residetial House/Villa Rural/Coastal, Lisbon 2022

• Finalist World Interiors Festival Inside, Single Residential, Lisbon 2022

2021

• Small HOME of the Year 2021

• Finalist HOME of the Year

• Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Nelson Marlborough Award; Housing

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Publications

2024

• Jeremy Smith, “We can’t run”, HOME Oct/Nov 2024, pg 48-49

2023

• John Walsh, “Unfinished and Far Far Away; The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects”, Architecture Now, www.architecture now.co.nz, 6. 12.2023

• “2023 New Zealand Architecture Awards”, Architecture NZ, Nov/Dec 2023 pg100

• “Winners “2023 New Zealand Architecture Awards”, Architecture NZ, Nov/Dec 2023 pg100 announced: 2023 New Zealand Architecture Awards“, Architecture Now, www.architecturenow.com, 17.11.2023, pg81

• John Walsh, “Unfinished and Far Far Away; The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects”, Architecture New Zealand, Nov/Dec 2023, pg130-131

• “Feather House – A weightless Home”, The Plan, theplan.it, Italy, 7.3.2023

• Feather House Aaron Betsky, “Unfinished and Far Far Away : The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects”, Altrim Publishers, Thomson Press (India) Limited, 2023, pgs 68-77

• Jan Henderson, “Unfinished and Far Far Away: The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects”, Indesign, www.indesignlive.com, Nov 16, 2023

2022

• ‘Casa Feather Architectura’, Crest, www.crestmexico.com.mx, Mexico, 21.10.2022

• ‘Habitus House of the Year’, Habitus Living, www.habitusliving.com, Australia 14.10.2022

• Paula Pintos “Feather House / Irving Smith Architects”, Arch Daily, www.archdaily.com, USA, 5 August 2022

• “World Architecture Festival 2022 shortlist revealed – thirteen New Zealand projects are in the line-up”, Architecture Now, www.architecturenow.co.nz, 12.7.2022

• “A feather in the cap”, Habitus Living, www.habitusliving.com.au, 27.6.2022

• “The Feather House”, Archello, www.archello.com, 23.6.2022

• Jan Henderson, ‘Designing for Life’, Habitus Living, www.habitusliving.co.nz, 23.6.2022

2021

• “Revealed: The Best of HOME Online 2021”, Home Magazine, www.homemagazine.nz, 14 December 2021

• ‘NZ Local Architecture Awards 2021’ Architecture New Zealand, September/October, pg 93

• Bronwyn Marshall “From the Inside-Out – Feather House by Irving Smith Architects”, The Local Project, www.thelocalproject.com.au, August 26

• “Architect Interview : In Detail : Feather House”, HOME, https://homemagazine.nz/in-detail-feather-house/, 7 June 2021

• Small Home of the Year 2021: Feather House, HOME, www.homemagazine.nz, 3 June

  Click to View Video Small Home of the Year

• Federico Monsalve, “A Feather for a Friend”, HOME New Zealand, Home of the Year, June/July 2021, pgs 13, 96-108, 153-155

• Home of the Year 2021, Finalists Announced, HOME, April/May 2021, pg 26-27

• “Winners of the 2021 Local Architecture awards for two more regions inside”, Architecture Now, https://architecturenow.co.nz, 17.5.2021

• Adrienne Matthews, ‘Te Kahui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) Local Architecture Awards’, Nelson Magazine, July 2021, pgs 60-63

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We all love adventures with friends, imagine the fun with a family of builders and makers. Everyone builds when not everyone has a room, and you move in with only a roof. This is that kind of home; welcoming, informal, but prompting and outward looking; crafted from the inside-out.

The Feather House rests high on a hill overlooking Nelson, somewhere between town and country, land and air. Its life in a corridor, communal and meandering; a pathway for many or one, widening for an external welcome and braiding to a soap-box balcony. There are many ways in for this is a place to come home to. A home with a warm concrete wall to put your back on, find centre, and orientate outwards again.

The house elongates and feathers to achieve this, tapering ends to open external space and make connections. It feathers materials as layers, so things come in stages; off-form concrete, joinery, furniture, plants, even crafting a lapped-cladding with copper tips and lifting itself on a ladder to allow material racking underneath.

This is a house not just about the ‘here-and-now’ but the ‘there-and-then’. Buildings, like life, are never finished when they offer an invitation. Adventures are fun, thanks for having us along.