2019 New Zealand Architecture Awards announced

2019 New Zealand Architecture Awards announced

Nineteen projects, located at sites from Great Barrier Island in the north to Dunedin in the south, won New Zealand Architecture Awards at a ceremony in Queenstown on Saturday 9 November.

Four of the projects, two of them neighbours in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, also received category awards named for distinguished New Zealand architects in the awards programme run by Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA).

Wynyard Central East 2, a sophisticated apartment complex designed by Architectus, received the Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing. It is the first time in the Awards' history that a multu-unit housing project has taken the supreme housing award. 12 Madden, an office building designed by Warren and Mahoney Architects, received the Sir Miles Warren Award for Commercial Architecture.

Ngā Wai Hono–AUT School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences Building, the latest addition to Auckland University of Technology’s city campus, won the Ted McCoy Award for Education.

Architectus won its second category award – the John Scott Award for Public Architecture – for Tūranga, the new Christchurch central library, which it designed with Danish practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and in close cooperation with Matapopore Charitable Trust and Ngāi Tūāhuriri.

The awards jury, which was led by Auckland architect Malcolm Walker and included architects Jeff Fearon (Auckland), Melanda Slemint (Christchurch) and Penny Fuller (Sydney), toured 44 shortlisted projects over nine days in late August and early September.

In the public architecture category, in addition to Tūranga, the jury bestowed a New Zealand Architecture Award on Lakeside Soldiers Memorial Hall in Leeston, Canterbury, designed by Architecture Workshop.

Awards in the Planning and Urban Design category went to Ellen Melville Centre and Freyberg Place, Auckland, a collaborative civic project involving Stevens Lawson Architects, Isthmus Group and artist John Reynolds, and Kumutoto Pavilion, a shelter and urban landscape intervention on the Wellington waterfront designed by Isthmus Group.

A second project alongside Wellington harbour, 20 Customhouse Quay, an office tower designed by Studio Pacific Architecture, joined 12 Madden as winner in the Awards’ commercial category.

B:Hive, a “flexible space” office building at Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore designed by Jasmax and Australian practice BVN received a New Zealand Architecture Award in the Interior Architecture category, and Lindis Lodge, a small luxury lodge in the South Island’s Ahuriri Valley designed by Architecture Workshop, received its award in the Hospitality category.

Two very different projects won awards in the Heritage category. Rose Historic Chapel is an early twentieth century Christchurch convent chapel that was extensively damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes and has been painstakingly restored by Dave Pearson Architects.

The Nelson House Alteration by Sharon Jansen Architects is a sensitive reworking of an early 1960s house designed by Ernst Plischke, an Austrian émigré who was a key figure in New Zealand post-war modernist architecture.

Chen-Anselmi Units, two town houses designed by Bull O’Sullivan Architecture in the Christchurch suburb of Sydenham, won an award in the Housing-Multi Unit category, and another Christchurch project, Menzies POP!, located in Sumner and designed by Architects’ Creative, received an award in the Housing–Alterations and Additions category.

Awards in the Housing category went to two homes at either end of the country. Pinwheel House was designed by Architecture+ for a site near a beach on Great Barrier Island, and Arrowtown House is a sculptural composition designed by RTA Studio for artist clients at Arrowtown.

In the Small Project category, Bivvy House, Queenstown, designed by Vaughn McQuarrie, and Kōwhai House, Dunedin, designed by Rafe Maclean Architects, won awards.

The jury made one Enduring Architecture Award, a distinction given to buildings at least 25 years of age that have proved their lasting worth, to the Athfield Home and Office, the extraordinary amalgam of structures on a Khandallah hillside in Wellington designed by the late Sir Ian Athfield over a 40 year period from the mid-1960s.

At the awards event six personal awards were also announced, three Distinguished Fellow Awards and three NZIA President’s Awards.

NZIA Distinguished Fellow awards, of which there are only 10 at any one time, were bestowed on architects Anne Salmond of Wanaka, and Graeme Scott and John Sutherland, both of Auckland.

Anne Salmond has been a trail blazer for women in architecture for more than 30 years. She has led a successful practice producing high-quality architecture from a base in a small provincial centre, and has championed important concerns such as sustainable design, prefabricated construction and the study of post-occupancy building performance.

Graeme Scott has led large Auckland practice ASC Architects for more than three decades, during which time he has designed many award-winning projects. He has also been a tireless advocate for the protection and improvement of the public realm through his voluntary work on Auckland’s Urban Design Forum, and his contributions to Auckland’s Urban Design Panels and to the preparation of the Auckland Unitary Plan.

John Sutherland was a director of New Zealand’s largest architecture practice – the forerunner of Jasmax – for 25 years and was then founding head of the School of Architecture at Unitec in Auckland. He is renowned for his command of the technical aspects of building design and has significantly advanced the understanding of building performance.

The three NZIA President’s Awards went to Tony Watkins, Peter Fehl and Engineering New Zealand.

Tony Watkins occupies a unique position in New Zealand architecture. He has been an architect, builder, teacher, writer, environmentalist, urbanist, advocate and agitator. Over the course of 50 years, he has demonstrated a tireless commitment to engaging with the public about architecture and reminding the profession of its ethical responsibilities.

Peter Fehl has served as director of Property Services at the University of Auckland for 15 years. In that time, he has made a huge contribution to the development of one of the most significant architectural sites in New Zealand – the central city campus of the University of Auckland. He has shown consistent support for this country’s architects and has expected them to meet his demanding standards.

Engineering New Zealand has collaborated closely with Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects as both organisations have sought to advance professional standards and advocate for the greater good of the wider industry. In particular, the organisations have worked closely together on the development of the Diversity Agenda that aims to increase the rate of female participation in the architecture and engineering professions.

The New Zealand Architecture Awards is a programme of Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects that has been sponsored by Resene since 1990.

ENDS

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