This Just In: 2018 NZ Architecture Award Winners Announced
The 2018 New Zealand Architecture Awards celebrate the best projects of the year
Seventeen residential and commercial projects were announced as winners of the 2018 New Zealand Architecture Awards in a celebratory dinner at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington last weekend, with Auckland architect Jeremy Salmond accepting the 2018 New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) Gold Medal in recognition of “an outstanding career in heritage and conservation architecture”. Also of note, Hamilton-based Edwards White Architects took out two commercial awards and one residential award. Four housing awards were presented, along with an alterations and additions award and one for Enduring Architecture – a category that recognises buildings at least 25 years old. As ever, New Zealand architects have outdone themselves in designing homes that are beautiful, innovative and liveable.
Category: Housing
Architect: Steven Lawson Architects
Project: Rawene House
Location: Westmere, Auckland, North Island
Judges’ notes: Volumetric control, a lovely spatial flow, adept handling of natural light and well-chosen and crafted materials combine to produce a calmly ordered and serene home. Courtyard spaces on either side of a central spine punctuate progress through the house and, without overt delineation, organise the building into discrete zones. The route from front door leads compellingly to the sea; anticipation generated by the journey is rewarded by arrival in light-filled living areas that look over the terrace to the inner reaches of the Waitematā Harbour.
Architect: Steven Lawson Architects
Project: Rawene House
Location: Westmere, Auckland, North Island
Judges’ notes: Volumetric control, a lovely spatial flow, adept handling of natural light and well-chosen and crafted materials combine to produce a calmly ordered and serene home. Courtyard spaces on either side of a central spine punctuate progress through the house and, without overt delineation, organise the building into discrete zones. The route from front door leads compellingly to the sea; anticipation generated by the journey is rewarded by arrival in light-filled living areas that look over the terrace to the inner reaches of the Waitematā Harbour.
Category: Small Project
Architect: Edwards White Architects
Project: River Retreat
Location: Taupiri, Waikato, North Island
Judges’ notes: This small but sufficient house for the architect’s own family is a labour of love and the product of considerable skill. It’s a case of the house as a homestead; a timeless type in contemporary guise. The design is an economic but also romantic response to site conditions – the busy highway to the east and the Waikato River right on the property boundary to the west – and the occupational demands for light and views, privacy and a sense of shelter. Strength of form and delicacy of detail combine in a modestly scaled and delightful work of architecture.
Architect: Edwards White Architects
Project: River Retreat
Location: Taupiri, Waikato, North Island
Judges’ notes: This small but sufficient house for the architect’s own family is a labour of love and the product of considerable skill. It’s a case of the house as a homestead; a timeless type in contemporary guise. The design is an economic but also romantic response to site conditions – the busy highway to the east and the Waikato River right on the property boundary to the west – and the occupational demands for light and views, privacy and a sense of shelter. Strength of form and delicacy of detail combine in a modestly scaled and delightful work of architecture.
Category: Housing
Architect: RTA Studio
Project: Tūrama
Location: Rotorua, North Island
Judges’ notes: Tūrama is an intriguing and innovative exercise in fusion architecture that blends house and whare (a Maori hut or house), and family dwelling and whānau (an extended family or community who reside together) retreat. The house makes its stand in Rotorua suburbia, amid a cluster of state houses, on land that has been in the client’s family for many generations. Rooted in familial whakapapa (or Maori genealogy), informed by genealogical ley lines, and sheltered by a protective korowai (a traditional cloak), the house is an overt attempt to express an indigenous architecture that is more than skin deep. A declaration of design intent, the jury felt that this house is an overt contribution to the conversation about architecture in this country.
Architect: RTA Studio
Project: Tūrama
Location: Rotorua, North Island
Judges’ notes: Tūrama is an intriguing and innovative exercise in fusion architecture that blends house and whare (a Maori hut or house), and family dwelling and whānau (an extended family or community who reside together) retreat. The house makes its stand in Rotorua suburbia, amid a cluster of state houses, on land that has been in the client’s family for many generations. Rooted in familial whakapapa (or Maori genealogy), informed by genealogical ley lines, and sheltered by a protective korowai (a traditional cloak), the house is an overt attempt to express an indigenous architecture that is more than skin deep. A declaration of design intent, the jury felt that this house is an overt contribution to the conversation about architecture in this country.
Category: Housing –
Alterations and Additions
Architect: Irving Smith Architects
Project: Bach with Two Roofs
Location: Golden Bay, Takaka, South Island
Judges’ notes: To a pronounced degree this project shows that architecture is a process, and design must sometimes adapt to circumstances beyond human control. A new house in a clearing among a stand of eucalyptus trees was suddenly exposed by a cyclone that felled the forest. Responding to the event, and the new circumstances of site habitation, the architect has adjusted the design so that the house provides the shelter once offered by the trees. The effect of the additions has enriched an already accomplished house; the contrast of the hovering roof over the box forms, which shelter dark, strong interiors, and the bright Takaka light is now even more effective.
Alterations and Additions
Architect: Irving Smith Architects
Project: Bach with Two Roofs
Location: Golden Bay, Takaka, South Island
Judges’ notes: To a pronounced degree this project shows that architecture is a process, and design must sometimes adapt to circumstances beyond human control. A new house in a clearing among a stand of eucalyptus trees was suddenly exposed by a cyclone that felled the forest. Responding to the event, and the new circumstances of site habitation, the architect has adjusted the design so that the house provides the shelter once offered by the trees. The effect of the additions has enriched an already accomplished house; the contrast of the hovering roof over the box forms, which shelter dark, strong interiors, and the bright Takaka light is now even more effective.
Category: Enduring Architecture
Architect: Mitchell & Stout Architects
Project: Heke Street House (built 1988)
Location: Ponsonby, Auckland, North Island
Judges’ notes: The Heke Street House is one of the best New Zealand urban houses of the last 30 years, and its intent is even more evident now as it was at the time of construction. David Mitchell and Julie Stout designed the house, which fully occupies a small Ponsonby lot, when they were sailors in the Pacific, and the design seems to float on this conceptual current. The building is delicate – Japanese architecture appealed to its authors – but requires its inhabitants to be hardier: the design does not defer unduly to the elements. Nature is embraced: the front terrace seems to reach the treeline; the rear is given over to a pond. As sufficient as a yacht and as magical as a spell, the Heke Street House is a compelling vision for Auckland life.
Architect: Mitchell & Stout Architects
Project: Heke Street House (built 1988)
Location: Ponsonby, Auckland, North Island
Judges’ notes: The Heke Street House is one of the best New Zealand urban houses of the last 30 years, and its intent is even more evident now as it was at the time of construction. David Mitchell and Julie Stout designed the house, which fully occupies a small Ponsonby lot, when they were sailors in the Pacific, and the design seems to float on this conceptual current. The building is delicate – Japanese architecture appealed to its authors – but requires its inhabitants to be hardier: the design does not defer unduly to the elements. Nature is embraced: the front terrace seems to reach the treeline; the rear is given over to a pond. As sufficient as a yacht and as magical as a spell, the Heke Street House is a compelling vision for Auckland life.
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Which project do you like best? Share your thoughts in the Comments, and don’t forget to like the story and save your favourite photos for future reference.
More
Find an architect near you
Architect: Herbst Architects
Project: Kawakawa House
Location: Auckland’s west coast, North Island
Judges’ notes: A sensitive understanding of local conditions underpins the interpretation of a holiday home as a retreat that balances the poetry of shelter and the provision of prospect. The building, elevated under a pōhutukawa tree canopy, is as much tree house as beach house; opening to the sky and looking out to sea, it draws in light through a deftly detailed clerestory beneath a lovely folded roof. Habitation is organised around an internal courtyard that nicely alludes to the small glade the house occupies. Clarity of expression, mastery of materials, and connectedness to the natural world characterise this very accomplished house.