brendon, Author at MODO Architects

The Price of Wood!

Thought this meme pretty much sums up the price of timber around the world in the aftermath of Covid19 lockdowns, monetary quantitive easing and resulting inflation of materials and assets. ..

Remote Bach Revisited

We stopped in and stayed at this holiday house I designed in the Marlborough Sounds a while ago. It's still looking like new and the spot in Queen Charlotte Sound is as magical as ever. ..

A national strategy for Sustainable Housing & Urban Development is more important than ever. Brendon has been working on a sustainable housing and urban development policy for The Opportunities Party (TOP). Here’s a link to that policy: https://www.top.org.nz/building_aotearoa_new_zealand..

A Question of Density

The latest NZIA newsletter discusses the origins of the age-old question of high-density housing in NZ and the rural mindset of Pāk󠄁ehā kiwis. The single-family home is being celebrated across NZ, by the general populous and politicians alike, as the only desirable option and resisting urban d..

Relevancy of Registered Architects

Jared here today - Over Christmas I had a discussion with my brother around the relevancy of Registered Architects these days. The discussion mainly went in circles around the point of hiring an Architect over an LBP Designer and the confusion this causes with the public in general and the Architec..

Papua New Guinea

Jared here today, Graduate Architect @ Modo Architects. Recently I visited Papua New Guinea to visit family and re-visit the family home from 25 years ago (green house). Being in the business of architecture, I’m always on the lookout for some cool buildings and architecture when I travel. In PNG..

Architecture Now Top 5

Here’s Architecture Now’s “Top 5 Houses of 2019” - featuring our “Tasman View House”. This house floats on the hillside and is inspired by the concept of “engawa” - a Japanese word for the screened transitional deck wrapping around the front of the house.See more of the house here:&..

Estuary Views – New site visit

We were in Mapua (Tasman district) recently, looking at the site for a new House. What fantastic views over the Mapua Estuary! Here are a few images of that site. We'll be aiming to produce a house that both addresses the site and views whilst staying low key and low impact in the coastal enviro..

MODO at the NZIA conference

Brendon was at the NZIA conference recently where Archicad distributor, Central Innovation, had a stand. They featured Tasman View House as an example of what Archicad is capable of. This brochure has an Archicad image by MODO and a finished pic from the same view...

Fashion in Architecture

I'm not really qualified to post on fashion ........ but these pics were taken at a house by MODO Architects. ..

On the cover of a magazine …

Tasman View House is on the cover of the current edition of Wild Tomato magazine. This edition includes the NZIA awards and a fashion shoot. If you want a read here's a link: https://issuu.com/wildtomato/docs/wt_issue144_july_18/1?e=13956096/62751385 ..

Tasman View House recognised

MODO Architects win at NZIA Awards. It was nice to catch up with clients and builder at the recent NZIA awards in Nelson. Tasman View house was one of five new houses to receive an NZIA design award. In announcing the awards the judging panel said, "Coming ashore after years on a yacht, ..

Engawa

A common theme in MODO house designs is the idea of "Engawa". In Japanese architecture, an engawa (縁側 or 掾側) usually referred to the wooden strip of flooring immediately before windows and storm shutters inside traditional tatami rooms. Nowadays it also has also come to mean the ..

Photo shoot with Oliver

Nelson Bays photographer Oliver Weber did a photo shoot at Tasman View house recently. The weather seemed a bit fickle, but the clouds and mist hovering around the plains below worked in our favour I think. The result was some stunning images. Here're are a few extra shots not added to the project..

Back to Basics

Here are a couple of charcoal sketches I did one weekend in Nelson, about 7 years ago now. Gosh time flys. These are both just simple charcoal stick over a plain watercolour wash (on water colour paper). For any non-Nelsonians, the sketch above is of Arrow Rock in in Nelson Bay, near the entra..

2020 Vision

Not at all loath to post something done years ago that is still relevant today, 2020 Vision - Connections is a little project I did with fellow architects Mark Barron and Richard Sellars some years ago. With the ongoing debate on the future of transport and urban response in our cities I thought ..

Hokkaido – the urban response

I just returned from a couple of weeks in Sapporo and surrounding areas. In all my time living in Japan and subsequent trips there, I'm still amazed at how well they have managed to get so many cities feeling like well activated urban spaces with distinct boundaries to the rural areas. IE no point..

Client Pic of New House

This is a pic from a client's phone - just after moving furniture into their Tasman View House. The uplights seem to be highlighting the Fijian Kauri ceilings just as we hoped. This has been a smoothly run and fun project. As architects, we see projects reach the finishing stage all the time, but..

Drone Pics of Tasman View

Had fun the other day flying a drone around on site at Tasman View House, currently under construction. It's interesting seeing the house in real life from the same angles that I view it from on the computer throughout the design process. This drone is awesome - Thanks to Jon Maunsell for the loa..

Modern Heart to Historic Home

A young family family have started enjoying MODO's modern kitchen and alterations to their historic home in central Nelson. The kitchen has become the modern heart to the house and opened the inside up to the outdoors. The joinery is kept to a simple palette of whites and neutrals so as to n..