2020 New Zealand Architecture Awards

Twenty-seven projects, located at sites from the Tutukaka Coast in Northland to Lake Hayes in Central Otago, with an exotic outlier in Taiwan, have been recognised in New Zealand’s leading construction industry awards programme.

The winners in the 2020 New Zealand Architecture Awards range from private houses to a high school, a bowling club to an eco-sanctuary shelter, a chapel to an opera house.

Four awards, named for celebrated New Zealand architects, constitute the top tier of the New Zealand Architecture Awards.

This year, the John Scott Award for Public Architecture went to the Hihiaua Cultural Centre in Whangārei. The Māori education and exhibition centre, designed by Moller Architects, occupies a converted boatshed alongside the Hatea River, and comprises the Whare Toi, accommodating arts and craft activities, and Whare Waka, home to a collection of waka.

The Ted McCoy Award for Education was won by Western Springs College Ngā Puna O Waiōrea, Auckland. This project, designed by Jasmax, involved the near complete rebuild, on remediated land, of a state co-educational secondary school and the construction of a Māori immersion kura.

The Sir Miles Warren Award for Commercial Architecture was won by Nelson Airport Terminal, designed by Studio of Pacific Architecture. A striking roof form and innovative structure signal the building’s status as a gateway to the region and showcases local timber manufacturing technology.

The Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing went to Toto Whare, a Lyttelton state house re-designed by Bull O’Sullivan Architecture and re-constructed by its builder-owner. “Lived in, and loved up,” was the awards jury’s verdict on this family home.

The awards jury visited 46 shortlisted projects over nine days in September. Judging in the New Zealand Architecture Awards, unlike other industry awards programmes, is based on physical visits not the perusal of photographs, and jury convenor, Auckland architect Michael Thomson, was pleased the tour could take place in such a disrupted year.

“The jury was impressed by the standard of work presented to us,” Thomson said. “Many of the projects we visited seem particularly relevant in a year in which we’ve all had time to consider what’s important in our own lives, what matters in our communities, and what is special about our country.”

“On our tour, we encountered a determination to realise the potential of architectural projects, whether the jobs are big or small, and whether the clients are individuals or organisations,” Thomson said.

Thomson said he and and his fellow jurors – Auckland architect Lynda Simmons, Christchurch architect Fiona Short, and University of Auckland architecture professor Anthony Hoete – saw encouraging signs for the future of architecture and building in New Zealand.

“It was great to see clients and architects making use of existing buildings as well as making the most of spectacular sites,” Thomson said. “There was plenty of innovation and imagination on display, and an evident commitment to often-lengthy engagement with clients and communities.”

“Projects also revealed considerable wit, and a sheer enjoyment in the art and craft of making buildings.”

In the Awards’ Public Architecture category, in addition to the Hihiaua Cultural Centre, the jury recognised St Peter’s Chapel, designed by Stevens Lawson Architects for the campus of St Peter’s College, a Catholic boys secondary school in Newmarket, Auckland.

An award in the same category went to Naenae Regional Bowling Club in Wellington, a sports facility designed by Tennent Brown Architects that also includes a restaurant, an RSA and a healthcare centre.

In the Education category, Western Springs College Ngā Puna O Waiōrea was joined by the University of Waikato Tauranga CBD Campus, a pioneering university project in the Bay of Plenty city, designed by Jasmax.

The Commercial Architecture category headed by Nelson Airport Terminal also includes two other very different award-winners.

At Fabric Warehouse 2, located in the emerging Auckland inner-city neighbourhood of Morningside, Fearon Hay Architects have redeveloped a warehouse as a commercial building that incorporates an office space that functions as an art gallery, as well as a generous storage area.

Bathroom Pavilion, designed by Architype, is an ‘experience-centred’ toilet facility that serves as a welcome pit-stop for the busloads of tourists visiting an alpaca and lavender farm near the south Canterbury town of Ashburton.

The sole award in the Heritage category was made to Hawke’s Bay Opera House in Hastings, a landmark 1915 building that has been fully refurbished and sensitively restored under the direction of Dave Pearson Architects.

A single award was also made in the Interior category. It went to Wyborn Capital, the premises of an Auckland investment company designed by Bureaux to accommodate a sophisticated art collection and maximise the natural advantages of a waterfront setting.

Fearon Hay Architects received an award in the Kiwis abroad category – International Architecture – for the design of SOF Hotel in Taichung City, Taiwan. The project involved the conversion of a derelict 1950s building into a ‘boutique backpacker’s hotel’ that retained and made visible the existing structure.

Five awards were made in the highly contested Housing category.

Bowden House, on the Tutukaka Coast north of Whangārei, was designed by Belinda George Architects in association with Mandeno Design as a semi-circular arrangement of living areas and bedrooms organised around a grass courtyard on a flat, clifftop site.

The 10x10 House designed by Patchwork Architecture also occupies a steep, if not as vertiginous site, in the Wellingon suburb of Kilbirnie. The 100 square metre house for a young family, constructed by the builder-client, features a playful ‘bus stop’ on the rooftop, looking out to the airport and the sea.

Waiheke is a house on the island of the same name, designed by Patterson Associates. Stretching 60 metres in length, and topped by a massive overhead roof slab, the house commands expansive views of the Hauraki Gulf, enjoyed from a series of generous and relaxed interior spaces.

The interior of Parnell House, designed by Stevens Lawson Architects, is planned around an even more fluid arrangement of interior spaces. The jury likened progress through the house, with its curved, white walls, to a meander through the small streets in a Greek village.

#3 is a house designed for a large Remuera section by Studio2 Architects. The jury described the house, designed by the architect for his own family and featuring a parents’ wing, children’s tower and common living areas, as an “ordered, flexible and cheerful” arrangement of spaces that are both dedicated and complementary.

Besides Toto Whare, two projects in the Housing–Alterations and Additions category received awards.

At Lake Hayes Cottage, Anna-Marie Chin Architects moved and renovated an old cottage and connected it via a glazed link to a new barn-like bedroom wing. The jury praised a “seamless and well-proportioned” addition with its “subtle shifts from old to new”.

In the inner Auckland suburb of Parnell, Sayes Studio designed a two-bedroom, 90 square-metre apartment to sit on the base of a small existing commercial building. A clever sawtooth roof is used to bring daylight into a building overshadowed by its neighbours.

Two projects received awards in the challenging Housing–Multi-unit category.

At SKHY, in Newton, Auckland, Cheshire Architects stripped a 14-storey 1970s office tower back to its solid concrete structure and converted the building to apartments. Three mixed-use buildings were added around an interior courtyard to produce what the awards jury described as “an excellent example of successful urban renewal”.

The Grounds, designed by Peddle Thorp, is one of the latest housing schemes in rapidly growing Hobsonville Point at Auckland’s north-western edge. The Grounds responds to the need for low-cost, medium-density housing in Auckland, and the jury said the project “proves that well-designed housing can elevate a neighbourhod and build a sense of community.”

Three awards were made in the Small Project category.

Abodo Showcase Cardrona is a Central Otago showroom for a New Zealand timber supply company, designed by Assembly Architects. The building may look like a small house, but, the jury said, it functions excellently as “a beautifully crafted display box of the best qualities of its product”.

Longbush Ecosanctuary Welcome Shelter is sited on a reserve of regenerating native bush near Gisborne. Designed by Pac Studio and built by numerous volunteers from donated materials, the small collection of structures, which serves as an education centre, is, the jury said, “quite special and timeless”.

Pac Studio also designed the most charming project in the 2020 New Zealand Architecture Awards, the Point Wells Cricket Club. The tiny pavilion –“small, but perfectly formed,” the jury said – is in the tradition of the architectural folly, and is located at a site that is itself the product of whimsy – a private cricket ground near Matakana.

Two awards were made for Enduring Architecture, a category that acknowledges buildings of at least 25 years of age.

Jellicoe Towers, which dates from 1968, is a Wellington landmark building, sited on The Terrace in Kelburn. The apartment building, the jury said, “is impossibly slim and elegant, rather like its architect” – Allan Wild (1927 – 2019). In the building, “one generous apartment per floor provides residents with daylight and outstanding views.”

The second Enduring Architecture Award went to St James’ Church, Hastings, a 1963 building designed by Len Hoogerbrug (1927 – 2019). The jury said the church’s dramatic steeped roof brings to the architecture “a soaring Gothic quality”.

The New Zealand Architecture Awards is a programme of Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects, and has been supported by Resene for 30 years.

See all the winning projects here.

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