Three projects recognised with Supreme Awards

Media Release

27 May 2007

Three projects recognised with Supreme Awards

Three outstanding architectural projects have been honoured with 2007 New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) Resene Supreme Awards for Architecture.
Supreme Awards are made annually to projects that have already won a New Zealand Award for Architecture and recognise “exceptional New Zealand architecture deserving the status Supreme”.
The awards were presented at a black tie dinner at Wellington’s Town Hall on Saturday night.
The three 2007 winning projects are: Wellington’s Waitangi Park development, a joint venture project by Athfield Architects Ltd and Wraight and Associates Ltd; a newly renovated 1970’s Remuera family home by Auckland architects Jeff Fearon and Tim Hay (Fearon Hay Architects Ltd); and an Otaki residence designed by Otaki architect Dave Launder (Dave Launder Architect Ltd) as his own home.

National Awards Convenor and Auckland architect Pip Cheshire said the Supreme Awards are confirmation for the winning architects that they have produced something very special.

“The winning projects not only meet all the demands, qualities, and values of architecture, but they ultimately move the spirit. The architects can be proud of the fact that they’ve each created a piece of architecture that makes the blood pump a bit faster when you experience it.”

Mr Cheshire said the projects reflect the increasing sophistication of both New Zealand architecture and New Zealand society.

“We have a history of undervaluing buildings in this country, and often disregard a building’s origins, history or values. The winning architects have, however, been very sensitive to the pre-existing buildings and their sites.

“We are experiencing an unprecedented period of building in New Zealand, with a fantastic amount of work being done to demanding standards. But what is so great about the winning projects is that the designs don’t just respond to the size of the budget, they respond with intelligence to complex demands. The three designs are all heavily underpinned by strong ideas,” said Mr Cheshire.

In addition, three early 1960’s residential homes in Wellington and Auckland have received a 2007 NZIA Enduring Award for Architecture. The three recipients are Toomath House (Mt Victoria, Wellington), Alington House (Karori, Wellington) and Manning House (Devonport, Auckland).

“These homes are great examples of experimental architecture of the 1960’s that explored new ways for the nuclear family to live in our emerging post-war New Zealand society,” said Mr Cheshire.

“All three designs have a strong focus on comfort, health, sunlight and outlook. The homes mark the beginnings of open plan living, with the kitchen moving from the back of the house into the living area, reflecting a fundamental change in society during this period.”

Each house explores family living in a quintessential New Zealand environment: the Alington house in the bush, the Manning at the coast and the Toomath high on a city hill suburb.

ENDS

High resolution photos of all properties are available on request

For more information please contact –
Mark Russell
Ideas Shop
(04) 381 2200
027 297 0178
mark@ideasshop.co.nz

or

Lynette White
NZIA Resene Awards for Architecture Event Manager
(09) 623 6080
lwhite@nzia.co.nz

2007 NZIA Resene Supreme Awards for Architecture – Judges’ Citations

SARGENT HOUSE 1973 > DUNN HOUSE 2005
NZIA Practice: FEARON HAY ARCHITECTS LTD

The noble skeleton of Ron Sang’s Sargent House has been carefully analysed and reordered by means of additions, insertions and alterations. The architects have responded with maturity and subtlety; drawing out the building’s original strengths, highlighting previously underdeveloped aspects and, above all, adding to the composition in a way that is perfectly suited to contemporary use.

KAITAWA RD HOUSE
NZIA Practice: DAVE LAUNDER ARCHITECT

This house is an excellent model of the architect’s own home as tested of ideas; a home that is at once inventive and familiar. A shed skewed across a shallow gulley has a regular arrangement of structure and enclosure that is highly ordered yet relaxed and loosened by the overlap of domestic use and the playful creation of visual connections within.

WAITANGI PARK
NZIA Practice: Joint Venture between ATHFIELD ARCHITECTS LTD and WRAIGHT ASSOCIATES LTD

The varied demands of powhiri, skateboard bowls, kids’ playgrounds, sports fields and cleaning stormwater runoff among others underpin a project that offers a delightful experience for active users, passive observers and daily commuters. The park confidently mixes the robust and the gentle, visual and aural, contemporary and historic to create a sequence of spaces that are at once intimate and particular while adding to the greater identity of a major new city facility.

2007 NZIA Enduring Awards for Architecture

TOOMATH HOUSE (1964)
Presented to: BILL TOOMATH

The Toomath House arrays a sequence of well-occupied living spaces along a steep north face on Wellington's Mount Victoria and is at once intimate with its site and encompassing of the city below. The strong rectangular form is ordered by a clear tectonic structure and enlivened by the movement of light across the subtle manipulations of the exterior skin.

ALINGTON HOUSE (1962)
Presented to: BILL ALINGTON

The Alington House is an exercise in the use of mathematically determined proportioning that has produced a building that is both prototypical suburban house and highly particular family home. The exhaustive development of the plan grid within the constraints of the golden mean is accommodating, challenging and delightful.

MANNING HOUSE (1960)
Presented to: JACK MANNING

The Manning House is a romantic cliff top home that manipulates scale and proportion to engender a sense of intimacy with its site, the surrounding Pohutukawas and the building fabric itself. Heights and widths are carefully chosen to closely fit the human frame while the choice of materials and direct detailing are used to make a house that is both noble and modest.

ENDS

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