Extraordinary images and videos from 2018

8 of the best of 2018

As one of New Zealand's leading home renovation, additions and building groups, we come across some extraordinary sights in our work and our travels.

We wanted to share with you some of the most extraordinary images and videos we're come across during the course of the year. Enjoy and best wishes for 2019!

Best tiny home

The tiny house movement grew in momentum in 2018, driven by rising house prices, the scarcity of land and increased awareness of the need for sustainability. Situated on Great Barrier Island, this bach looks more like an outhouse with a deck. It also has an outdoor shower and kitchen and the canopy over the deck folds away like a Swiss army knife. You can see more at Homes to Love.

Best invisible house

Mirrors are amazing for distorting reality and there are a growing number of houses around the world which are sheathed in mirrors, making them invisible because they simply reflect the surrounding environment. You wouldn't be able to see this house at all if the doors weren't open and there were no brightly coloured objects outside.

You can see more of these kinds of houses here.

Most over-the-top house

The honour of owning this house goes of course to Donald Trump, who for the last forty years has been building some of the world's most excessive and downright ugly buildings. If you don't know what we mean, just visit Trump Tower in New York.

For a tour of the rest of this house, check out this Architecture and Design page on Facebook. The best part is the Comments section under the photos.

Best meme

This doesn't have a lot to do with building and homes but it does describe why many people don't ever get round to making a decision about renovating their homes, even if they're out-dated and no longer meet their owners' needs.

Also, it just made us laugh, which is as good a reason as any for being included here.

Most exciting place to build a house

No, this isn't one of ours. In fact, it's not one of anyone's, just an example of what you can do with 3D imagery these days. It has quite a few of Architecture & Design's Facebook followers going, though, with priceless comments such as:

"These must be just ideas...no place like this exists"
"How do you go all out like this, and not make the bottom of the pool see-through!?"
"Ask your guests to go down to the cellar to grab another bottle of wine!"

Best places to live on Mars, according to NASA

This year, NASA ran a unique design competition – a competition to come up with a concept for housing astronauts on Mars. The 3D-Printed Mars Habitat Challenge asked engineers to design houses that could be built on Mars by robots using 3D printing technology. NASA recently announced winners of phase three of the competition and each house has a futuristic design.

You can see the concepts produced by the five finalists here.

Best 3D optical-illusion wallpaper

This is Los Angeles-based artist Katy Ann Gilmore and no, she's not being sucked into some giant vacuum cleaner or science fiction vortex. She specialises in combining art and mathematics to transform ordinary, flat surfaces into incredible three-dimensional illusions. And no, she doesn't use digital software to do it - she meticulously hand-draws each detail using pens and markers.

You can see more of her incredible work here.

Best holiday home if you're not going to Kaikoura

Kaikoura topped Airbnb's Top 19 Destinations to Visit in 2019 but this three-storey treehouse also took our fancy. It's a bit further away, in Costa Rica, but it's also on the shores of the Pacific and you can go whale watching and swimming with the dolphins. It costs around US$60 per person per night to rent it on Airbnb.

Take a look at Punta Jaguar here.

Only we offer you all this

You can trust us with your biggest asset

That's because we’re specialists in home renovations and extensions. That’s what we do. In fact, we were New Zealand’s first nationwide trade-based renovation group. Over the years, we’ve built a reputation for quality, service, reliability and value that’s second to none.

Leave everything to us

We’ll take care of everything from design, planning and consents to providing all the materials and project management to complete your project to your 100% satisfaction.

We make renovating uniquely easy and stress-free

We’ll give you a written proposal complete with a fixed price, project plan and even the option of 3D design video concepts so you’ll know exactly what to expect even before we start work on your new bathroom, kitchen, outdoor area or home addition.