And it's all in Kaitaia

Kaitaia's Te Ahu, and more specifically the contribution made to it by Kaitaia Glass and Aluminium, took centre stage at the 2012 Window Association of New Zealand awards in Wellington, the firm collecting the award for best use of glass in a combined effort with Auckland firm Metro GlassTech (Kaitaia Glass and Aluminium completing the aluminium joinery and helping Metro GlassTech glaze the glass panels).

The aluminium joinery alone took some eight weeks to complete, but it was the atrium glass work that won the award. And while owners Kevin Wilson, Craig Aspin and Reg Andrews were delighted, they weren't claiming all the credit.

"At the end of the day it's an award for all involved in the job and for Kaitaia itself," Kevin said.

"And it proves that just because we're in Kaitaia doesn't mean we can't do award-winning work such as this."

The judges came to a similar conclusion, saying the expertise that had made the Te Ahu atrium a showcase for the modern use of glass had come from the Far North, Christchurch, Auckland and Australia - "And it's all in Kaitaia."

There were three finalists for the award, and it had been a closely-fought contest before Te Ahu was finally declared the winner, they added.

The atrium, they said, was enclosed by a two-tier pleated, suspended structural glass wall using 12mm safety glass. The wall was laterally supported by special angled spider fixings back to a central ring beam, with a faceted structural glass stairwell with a dot-printed, toughened laminated roof for good measure.

And, apart from the technical challenges, the job had not been made easier by the fact that the glass had had to queue for the toughening oven in Christchurch, which had been damaged in last year's earthquakes and had had to be replaced.