Bay brains help pool triumph

The Coastlands Aquatic Centre in Wellington drew rich praise from the award judges.

A transparent aquatic centre designed by a Hastings firm is a joint supreme winner for this year's NZ Wood Resene Timber Design Awards.

The Coastlands Aquatic Centre in Paraparaumu has a 2000sq m double-curved transparent roof and was designed by Toby Mason while working for LHT Design of Hastings.

The building is also supported by a dramatic grid of curved laminated timber beams.

"This provides a light, warm and beautiful space for the pool," judges said.

"The building demonstrates that timber is not only an appropriate durable material for a humid pool environment, but that with good design it can provide lightweight elegant structures. This is an outstanding example of contemporary timber technology," they added.

The aquatic centre shared the the 2014 award with a tiny family bach at Otago's Taieri River mouth built in only eight weeks.

The awards, which have been running since 1975, were judged this year by Timber Design Society president David Scheibmair, leading architect David Sheppard and MBIE chief architect Duncan Joiner.

NZ Wood director Brian Stanley told the awards function in Wellington that the world is seeing amazing developments in timber-based construction.

Mr Stanley said the Wood Council of New Zealand is asking the government to adopt a "wood-first" policy. He describes this as an enlightened approach to encouraging wood use in public buildings already in place in countries as diverse as Japan, France and Canada.