New Zealand’s top architecture student prize announced

27 November 2014

New Zealand’s top architecture student prize announced

Victoria University student Tom Dobinson has won the premier award for New Zealand’s architecture students.

Dobinson’s scheme for a public wharf on the Lyttelton waterfront beat out 11 other finalists in the 2014 New Zealand Insitute of Architects (NZIA) Graphisoft 5th Year Student Design Awards, a prestigious competition contested by the top four final year students at New Zealand’s three Schools of Architecture: the University of Auckland, Unitec and Victoria University of Wellington.

The two Highly Commended Awards went to Unitec’s Ji Min An, for a proposed building in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, and the University of Auckland’s Norman Wei, who devised a craft to accommodate sea-borne communities displaced by rising sea levels in the Pacific.

Jury chairperson Pip Cheshire, the President of the New Zealand Institue of Architects, said the students’ proposals were highly impressive in their content and presentation.

“The students are amazingly proficent in digital technology, and the quality of the illustrations submitted by the finalists was very high,” Cheshire said. “At the same time, it was pleasing to see the students also produced beautiful hand drawings and physical models.”

“All the entries were imaginative and innovative, and many addressed big issues that will confront the world during the students’ future careers – challenges such as global warming, the livability of cities, and the permanent nature of slums in developing countries.”

“The students’ evident talent, and their commitment to make a difference, gives me a lot of confidence about the future of architecture in this country,” Cheshire said.

The finalists’ Student Design Awards proposals – the culmination of a year’s work – traversed a wide variety of subjects.

The winning entry by Tom Dobinson explored the character of Lyttelton, and took inspiration from the work of one of the town’s celebrated, and reclusive residents, the artist Bill Hammond. The focus of the work was a design for a wharf that would allow the public access to Lyttelton’s waterfront, which is at present out of bounds to the town’s residents.

The jury said Dobinson’s “clearly and legibly presented”work “reveals a talent for analysis, skill in assembly, and a deep interest in the social and architectural condition of Lyttelton”.

Ji Min An’s Highly Commended entry was a design for a building that might achieve a measure of co-operation between North and South Korea. Noting that one of the few things the divided nations have in common is a fondness for the Korean dish, kimchi, An designed a kimchi factory in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone.

The jury said this proposal was “was a well-judged means of using architecture to explore an intractable poltical problem”.

The other Highly Commended entry, presented by Norman Wei, drew inspiration from Tongan legend in its proposal for a hydraulically powered, lightweight mother-ship that could accommodate Pacific Islanders displaced by rising water levels caused by global warming.

“The horizons of this inventive and exuberant scheme stretch well beyond the Islands to the shores of Asia,” the jury said. “It is an ingenious and very optimistic scenario.”

Two finalists from the University of Auckland proposed solutions for issues affecting their city. Raimana Jones addressed the damaging effect of vehicle traffic on the architecture and community in his Royal Oak neighbourhood. “Light-touch interventions reveal a respect for the exising buildings and a sympathetic understanding of local social conditions,” the jury said.

Zee Shake Lee developed architectural proposals for the site of the Three Kings volcanoes, which have been deeply scarred by decades of quarrying. “The polemical and provocative scheme is a dramatically unorthodox option for the development of one of Auckland’s much-abused volcanic landscapes,” the jury said.

Siting her scheme in Rotorua, Natalee Tan, also from the University of Auckland, produced a playful take on the city’s major enonomic activity in combining roading infrastructure and tourist pursuits. Fun on the move was the theme of this “hyperbolic, hyper-real version of Rotorua” which was “engagingly presented in sulpher-yellow renderings”.

Extreme conditions and circumstances were the prompts for two of the finalists from Victoria University of Wellington. Benjamin Allnatt envisaged a government building in the Kapiti Coast foothills that would be occupied in the event that an earthquake destroyed the Beehive. “Clever siting, a bold and singular formal treatment, and a strong polemic distinguish this scheme,” the judges said.

Hamish Beattie’s proposal was heavily influenced by his experience of working for a United Nations agency in an African ‘informal settlement’. The scheme combined basic digital technology – including the hugely popular children’s building game, Minecraft – and sophisticated design skills to produce a waste recycling system that would yield construction material for slum dwellers. This was “a brilliantly illustrated presentation of an ambitious proposal”, the judges said.

The final Victoria University entry came from Carinya Feaunati, who presented a scheme for the regeneration of a Samoan fishing village damaged in the 2009 tsunami. Scientific data and extensive fieldwork in the village were allied to good architectural judgment in a proposal that was, the judges, said, “a sensitive amalgam of craft traditions and modern architecture”.

Sustainability issues were explored by two Unitec finalists. Shane Tregidga’s project examined the process of beef production – a messy business conducted out of site of modern urban consumers. A processing tower provides for the rearing and rendering of animals, confronting city-dwellers with the realities of beef production. The cow cradle to grave system, the jury said, “is supported by in-depth research and revealed an enterprising, problem-solving attitude”.

Mayank Thammalla’s “innovative and research-driven proposal” presented a solution to the crisis that will engulf the Maldives when the low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean are threatned with inundation. Oil rigs are re-used as living platforms housing people whose homes have been lost to the sea. “The scheme is logical, knowledgable, and clearly explained and presented,” the judges said.

Unitec’s Flora Kwan took as her inspiration the famous prison drawings from the 18th century Italian artist, Piranesi. “The scheme is a brave attempt to make design sense, though physcial and digital models, of Piranesi’s claustrophobic and labyrinthine vision,” the jury said.

The winner of the 2014 NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards received a $5,000 prize. The two Highly Commended students each received a $1,500 travel prize. All three students are invited to Australia to meet with Australian Architects and view their work.

With Pip Cheshire on the judging panel were Louise Wright, a director of Assembly Architects in Arrowtown, and Professor John Macarthur, the director of the Research Centre for Architecture, Theory, Criticism and History at the University of Queensland. The competing students presented their proposals to the judges over the course of a two-day exhibition at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland.

The NZIA Student Design Awards are proudly sponsored by Graphisoft New Zealand.

Winner of the 2014 NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Award: Tom Dobinson
Highly Commended: Ji Min An; Norman Wei

Complete list of finalists, by University (secondary school also noted):

The University of Auckland
Raimana Jones (Macleans College, Auckland)
Zee Shake Lee (Malaysia)
Natalee Tan (Epsom Girls Grammar School)
Norman Wei (Rangtitoto College)

Victoria University of Wellington
Benjamin Allnatt (Wellington College)
Hamish Beattie (Napier Boys High School)
Tom Dobinson (Hagley Community College, Christchurch)
Carinya Feaunati (Sacred Heart Girls College, New Plymouth)

Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland
Ji Min An (Mt Roskill Grammar School)
Flora Kwan (Carmel College, Auckland)
Mayank Thammalla (Mt Maunganui High School)
Shane Tregidga (Dargaville High School)

ENDS

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