SemiCreative

Dyers Pass Road, Cashmere. Site survey complete - documenting our second Don Donnithorne renovation, and we feel lucky to be working on one again. These are buildings worth caring about, not just for their bones but for what they represent in the story of Christchurch's domestic architecture. Split levels, original terracotta cobbles, built-in seating and bookshelves that aren't going anywhere. A house that has real opinions about how you should live in it - where you cook, where you sit, how the afternoon light arrives. The brief is a careful tightrope - keeping what makes the house what it is, working with the original design thinking, while reworking the parts that don't quite meet how someone lives today. A kitchen to be designed for cooking with people. A dining nook between the living and kitchen that the house has always had the logic for. And bringing those classic Donnithorne bathrooms - angular, compact, with a very considered opinion on personal space - dragged gently into the present. @christchurchmodern @christchurch__architectural

Selwyn Street. 2023. One of the bolder elements a client has ever brought to us - and one we were very happy to say yes to. Inspired by Tūranga Library's famous yellow bathroom (Christchurch's most photographed selfie spot?) the brief was simple: we want that, but in our home. We took the yellow tile inspiration, paired it with traditional chrome tapware to reflect the era of the home, re-milled shelving from the home's original mantel, selected a curved freestanding bath to soften the strict grid of the tile and popped the feature lighting on its own switch for when bath time requires a certain level of ambience. Bold, playful, and a very happy client. Interiors: @semi_creative Build: @locconstruction Photography: @sarahrowlandsphotography

Day and night. Same room, same materials - different space entirely. Seven is clad in glass joinery on three sides - during the day it's flooded with light, looking out over the east frame and the city beyond. After dark that all disappears, and the focus shifts inward. To the food, the company, the room itself. What stays is the warmth. The timber, the grain, the light pulling across texture - during the day it reads open and connected to the city, at night when the city lights up, so does Seven. The music gets turned up, and the room becomes something else. There's something important about designing for both - and something very enjoyable about seeing them both come to life. Interiors: @semi_creative Photography: @sarahrowlandsphotography

Three tiles. Three jobs. The floor tile at Grizzly does a few things at once - a pop of colour, hard wearing, and cost effective. But its main role was setting the grid. Every element in the space - the benches, the leaners, the counters - extruded up from the 300mm module it created. The dark terrazzo tile was chosen for the base of everything that takes a hit. Counters, bench bases, leaners - the surfaces that scrape, chip and wear over time in any hospitality space. The speckle runs through the full thickness of the tile, so if it gets knocked around, it still just looks like terrazzo. A material that's honest about ageing. The small format white tile was there to do the opposite - to quiet everything down and let the food do the talking. A clean, minimal surface that steps back when it needs to. Same space, same palette, three very different briefs. Design: @semi_creative Build: @greyburnbuilding Photography: @marygaudin

On Wednesday we were invited to an evening talk hosted by Olivia Moon of @nodi.studio_ at the Low Slung House by @johnstone_callaghan_architects , with JCA's Prue Johnstone in conversation alongside her, moderated by @jessica__close who was excellent. The conversation kept coming back to the same themes - materiality, process, craft, and intentionality in every decision. Hearing about Nodi's origin and how they've built what they have today, alongside JCA's collaborative approach to a site with real constraints, was a good reminder of why those things matter. In a world that's moving fast toward automation and systems-led design, evenings like this feel more important than ever. The makers, the suppliers, the collaborators who bring genuine craft to a project - that relationship is part of the design process, not separate from it. It's also a reminder of what we value in our own work - the makers we collaborate with bring as much to a project as the design thinking itself. Great panel. Great space to be in. High chance the first thing we specify on the next project is a rug.

Every project we ask for a few images to be taken without artificial lighting. We put a lot of thought into how a space is lit - but soft daylight and natural shadow have a way of showing you what a material is actually made of. These images in particular show how a curved surface catches light differently - the way it rolls across texture and form in a way a flat plane never quite does. They're rarely the images that make it into a final marketing campaign or award entry - but they're often our favourite. Interiors: @semi_creative Project: Antoun Nichols Orthodontics, 2025 Photography: @sarahrowlandsphotography

Cicchetti. The kind of place where you order the same thing twice. A small pasta bar concept for central Christchurch - moody, unhurried, built around a short menu of simple dishes done really well. Pull up a stool, let someone pour you a house wine, and stay longer than you planned on a sporadic Tuesday. An unrealised concept from the SemiCreative archive. Design & visualisation: @semi_creative

The laundry doesn't have to be the room you close the door on. A little bit of colour, a warm timber, some open shelving, or simply a banquette seat for putting your shoes on (or just sitting and thinking about the washing). The same thinking that goes into every other room. Though it tends to get a bit messy, the design doesn't have to. Interiors: @semi_creative Photography: @sarahrowlandsphotography

Starvation Hill. WIP. A compact, concrete form informed by the nearby long-standing family homestead - borrowing small details, materiality and proportions to feel grounded in its setting. Softened externally with low, shrubby New Zealand native planting. Designed as a simple dwelling for a single elderly couple, with the ability to host wider family when needed. Large glazed openings capture the surrounding farm landscape. More to come. Design & visualisation: @semi_creative

Progress → outcome. These shots track the development of a space over the course of a project. Documenting key spaces along the way helps us identify key moments and refine lighting, material, and styling decisions as the space comes together.

The Hidden moments. Not everything needs to announce itself straight away. Sometimes it’s a shift in material or geometry - a neutral palette opening into something warmer, a hit of colour just out of view, a door hidden amongst wall claddng or linear timber giving way to a gridded tile. Revealed only as you move through or use the space. Interior Architecture: @semi_creative Photography: 1,2 & 4 @semi_creative 3 @sarahrowlandsphotography

Bradshaw Terrace. 2025. A 1930s New Zealand bungalow, reworked for a young family and conceived as a quiet, pared-back backdrop for a growing art collection. The brief centred on a neutral, restrained palette - allowing the interiors to recede and the artwork to take focus as it evolves over time. Original heritage profiles and proportions were retained and re-run, with moments of soft minimalism layered through tiled bathrooms, restrained detailing, and carefully edited finishes. Warm oak flooring and cabinetry bring depth and balance to the quieter tones. Square tile grids are used deliberately through the wet areas, giving the modern interventions a sense of order and calm rather than contrast. The result is a home that feels rooted in its era, but comfortably contemporary. Set within an established garden shaped over time by the clients, the interiors feel settled and connected without needing to compete with what’s outside. Interior Architecture: @semi_creative Build: @mckellar_builders Joinery: JB Joinery Electrical: @rayzolight_electrical Plumbing: @yp_plumbing Tiling: noahsarc_tiling Photography: @sarahrowlandsphotography