Te Rau Karamu in Wellington took a national award. Photo / supplied
A new marae at a Wellington university campus, an Auckland Zoo cafe and the city’s biggest new inner-city social housing project won national architecture awards tonight.
Te Kāhui Whaihanga the New Zealand Institute of Architects announced 29 winners in 11 categories at the Christchurch Town Hall.
Te Rau Karamu Marae at Massey University’s Wellington campus won two awards for Athfield Architects in association with Te Kāhui Toi: education and interior architecture. Judges said it had subtle use of light and shade to enhance the storytelling of a beautiful space.
The ātea or courtyard opens to the surrounding campus, reordering and expressing the access sequence to the new whare wānanga.
Recognisable elements derived from traditional forms are given contemporary expression through the use of technology. The judges, headed by convenor Andrew Irving of Irving Smith Architects, said the wharenui interior was rich, warm and superbly detailed.
Surfaces were alive with story and pattern speaking to the close collaboration between architect, client and artist in the uplifting and engaging cultural project which was a place of welcome and retreat that fosters education and understanding.
Judging convenor Irving said of the awards: “We had a whirlwind tour of New Zealand, assessing a series of great buildings, with talk about little else. We covered 47 projects in 12 towns and cities during 10 days.”
Stevens Lawson Architects in association with Jack McKinney Architects won two awards in the public architecture category: for the new cafe Te Puna at Auckland Zoo, and for HomeGround, the new Auckland City Mission Te Tāpui Atawhai.
The new zoo cafe was a deceptively simple building that resolved modern zoo needs while providing visitors with an observation platform while the new City Mission building included a sensitive heritage restoration, they said.
“Te Puna is a hub at the heart of Auckland Zoo’s ongoing transformation. This public space provides a seamless observation platform and, intriguingly, perhaps one from which to be observed,” the judges said.
A fluid geometry, reminiscent of a coastline, was anchored by two solid brick forms supporting expansive outdoor viewing terraces and a series of glazed interior public areas extending into the zoo landscape. Constructional rigour overlays three structural and material geometries with seamless visual integration. This deceptively simple building cohesively resolves modern zoological needs, animal welfare, acoustics and light spill
HomeGround also won in the multi-unit housing category, praised for providing much-needed housing for those most in need, showing how architects can contribute more broadly to this typology.
“While the programme caters for the homeless, the building provides lessons in applying this architectural solution to a multi-unit residential environment,” the judges said. The arrangement of the living units reads as a series of clusters around a common core, breaking down the overall internal mass from a user experience, as well as externally in the urban realm. Services are provided on the ground floor, where commercial tenancies connect with the public through community spaces. The top floor is dedicated to common areas, decks and gardens to provide joy and an outlook to the city, they noted.
Ōpuke Thermal Pools and Spa at Piwakawaka Methven won a public architecture award for Sheppard & Rout Architects. Architectural form and material selection reflected the approach to this site at the foothills of the Southern Alps, the judges said.
A singular folded timber roof, floating above expressed gabion elements, compressed the experience of entry, which opens as a sheltered inner environment. Sustainability principles were apparent in ordered banks of solar water heating. The roof grid ordered a diverse brief of requirements: solid forms enclose the materially rich and carefully resolved changing rooms and treatment spaces.
In the residential additions and alterations category, Guy Tarrant Architects won for changes to an Auckland property, praised for clever handling of light and aspect.
The alteration created an inner-city sanctuary, the judges said. An existing pair of townhouses were carefully restored and reconfigured, with history not forgotten through the retention of sections of the existing brick party wall. The scrupulously crafted single-storey addition was sympathetically scaled and skillfully handled the relationship to the north.
A northern courtyard with an elegant pool punctured what would have been the darkest part of the plan. Through the integration of the courtyard and clerestory windows, natural light washed down and reflectd off the pool to animate the new living spaces and terraces, the panel said.
The new Caddick and Caldwell blocks by Athfield Architects at Christchurch Boys’ High School won an education award. The judges said the notion of the quadrangle provided space and time between new and old, as well as a series of outdoor spaces suited for many educational uses.
The new build was broken into two separate blocks to create a series of outdoor spaces and pathways across the site, as well as moderate the overall scale and composition of the intervention.
Traditional teaching spaces and modern learning environments had been arranged around breakout spaces to suit the school’s teaching needs. Contemporary materials and colours contrast and complemented the heritage buildings.
The new Auckland apartment,132 Halsey, won Athfield Architects a multi-unit award: “The key to the success of this multi-unit project is the integration of a public space in the urban realm at the ground level. Apartments are arranged around a courtyard that interfaces with the street network on three sides of the development via a series of openings and walkways.”
Commercial tenancies connect to provide an activated and porous public realm. A range of apartment types are efficiently grouped around common cores to provide dual aspects and cross ventilation, reducing the need for mechanical ventilation and enhancing the urban living experience. The roofscape is imaginatively treated in form, colour and texture to positively contribute to the skyline, the judges said.
* A full list of award winners will be posted on the institute’s website.
'Apartments on the site and more than likely offices' – Andrew Moore, CMP Construction.