Wellington Architecture Awards recognise civic values

3 November 2011

Capital awards recognise civic values

Sixteen projects have risen above the economic difficulties of a challenging year to win recognition in the Wellington Architecture Awards, the annual design competition run by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects.

“The number of entries may have been down this year,” says the Awards jury convenor, architect Warren Young, “but the quality of architecture was reassuringly high.”

Young says the jury was particularly impressed by the number of buildings making a positive impact on the civic realm.

“There was a strong showing in what could be broadly termed public architecture,” he says, citing Athfield Architects’ design for Taranaki Wharf West, described by the Awards jury as “the last piece in the jigsaw of Wellington waterfront’s public domain”, and Te Wharewaka, by architecture+, which, the jury said, “re-establishes the presence of local iwi on the water’s edge”.

Among the other award-winners performing a public function are Wellington Airport’s new International Passenger Terminal, by Studio of Pacific Architecture and Warren and Mahoney, a gymnasium at Mt Cook School, by Designgroup Stapleton Elliott and Kimi Ora School, Naenae, by Bell Kelly Beaumont Team Architects.

Young says the awards jury was pleased to acknowledge several commercial buildings carefully designed for the capital’s urban context: Asteron Centre, by Warren and Mahoney, an “elegantly and humanly scaled” 15 storey building; The Customhouse, by Studio of Pacific Architecture, “a building in which sustainability is integrated seamlessly into architecture”; and Pipitea House, by Athfield Architects, “a well balanced composition of complex elements”.

“All of these projects, whether they are urban spaces, distinctive or large buildings, make a significant contribution to our city,” Young says. “They have succeeded because the architects and their clients shared a responsible intention to improve the urban environment.”

Young says this year’s awards also prove that architectural quality is not dependent on scale. Residential architecture – traditionally a forte of New Zealand’s architects – is represented among the award winners by six buildings.

Two of the residential winners have a striking public presence. In Kelburn, the Concrete House, by Simon Twose Architects, “goes beyond the usual notions of a house”, the jury wrote, demonstrating “how experimentation can lead to exciting results”. And in Seatoun, a house by Novak + Middleton “staunchly locates itself at the edge of public space”.

John Mills Architects’ Hataitai house clings to a compact and steep site –“clearly, this is a Wellington house”, the jury noted – but has both “spaciousness” and “homeliness”, while at Pauatahnaui, the Bradey Road pavilion by McKenzie Higham Architecture, imparts “a sense of retreat for the activity of family life”.

For a “delightful family home” in Seatoun, Watt Architects have designed a “small addition with a huge impact”, and in Thorndon, Herriot + Melhuish: Architecture have renovated a house owned by the Maori Women’s Welfare League to achieve a “seamless relationship” of traditional and contemporary elements.

The expert merging of past and present also characterises the conservation of Government House by Athfield Architects. “This is a significant heritage project”, the awards jury noted, in which the architects and their collaborators “demonstrated an exceptional duty of care”.

Young says that the jury believed it important to emphasise that the architectural heritage of Wellington, and of the nation, deserves respect.

“Government House is a hundred-year-old treasure,” Young says. “But there are more recent works of heritage architecture that should also be valued.”

Acting on that conviction, the jury gave an Enduring Architecture Award to Lower Hutt’s Civic Precinct, designed in the 1950s by Structon Group Architects and King, Cook & Dawson. The precinct, comprising the Council Administration Building, Town Hall, Horticultural Hall, War Memorial Library, Little Theatre, St James Church, and the Civic Gardens, is, the jury said, “unique in New Zealand as a planned and completed civic composition”.

“Collectively, the buildings continue to symbolise local identity and civic pride in Lower Hutt.”

Joining Young on the 2011 Wellington Architecture Awards jury were architects Chris Wilson and Sheryl Lewis, and urban designer Paki Maaka.

Award winners from the eight branches of the New Zealand Institute of Architects are eligible for the national level of the awards programme, the New Zealand Architecture Awards. Those awards will be announced on 25 May, 2012.

ENDS

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