Regional architecture award winners highlighted

From a ‘bookend’ to a ‘pukeko’, major new landmark construction projects have carried off honours in the New Zealand Architecture Awards.

From a ‘bookend’ to a ‘pukeko’, major new landmark construction projects have carried off honours in the New Zealand Architecture Awards.
The first winners of this year’s awards programme, organised by the New Zealand Institute of Architects and supported by Resene, were unveiled in Nelson/Marlborough and Auckland.
2009 Nelson/Marlborough Architecture Award winners included the striking Trafalgar Centre, the southern extension to Nelson’s events centre. Designed by Arthouse Architecture, it was hailed by the Nelson/Marlborough jury, led by architect Gary Hopkinson, as “already a sculptural icon” and has won the affectionate nickname of ‘the bookend’.
2009 Auckland Architecture Award winners included the slender Hillcrest Road Bridge, by Jasmax. The only overbridge on the Northern Gateway Toll Road, it is already a landmark for drivers and known as the ‘pukeko bridge’.
The Auckland jury found the ‘constraints’ of building the bridge using the ‘top down’ method had been turned into an opportunity to echo the old ridgeline with an elegant slim deck structure. The citation read: “Creative thinking from the architect and engineer replaced the usual centre pier with two struts that narrow the motorway and reduce the excavation. The struts are brightly coloured, forming an appropriate highlight in the landscape.”
Auckland winners also included the striking Ironbank in the city’s CBD. The seven-storey, five-tower development, designed by RTA Studio, won awards in the commercial and sustainable architecture categories as well as urban design.
Judging panel convenor, architect Mario Madayag, said: “Ironbank is created to international standard from the completely 007 car park upwards. This is what New Zealand is capable of, and this is what we should be doing.”
Mr Madayag said that it was also encouraging to see excellent architecture being applied to more commercial buildings, and increasing emphasis on sustainable elements, particularly in the commercial sector.
The NZI Centre, the insurance company’s head office, by Jasmax, took awards in Auckland’s commercial, sustainable and interior architecture categories. The AUT Lecture Theatre and Conference Centre, also by RTA Studio, and Saint Kentigern School’s Jubilee Sports Centre, by Architectus, were among winners in the public architecture category.
The Beaumont Quarter inner-city mixed-use development, by Studio Pacific Architecture, and the Matakana Village Complex, by Noel Lane Architects – which includes new shops, cinemas and a central market place or ‘village heart’ – took honours in urban design.
Nelson/Marlborough winners included the new teaching block for the NMIT School of Tourism, Hospitality and Wellbeing, by Jerram Tocker Barron Architects, and the Solid Energy Centre in Westport by Boon Goldsmith Bhaskar Brebner Team Architecture. Both took awards in public architecture. The Solid Energy recreation and events centre was hailed as “an astonishing multi-sport facility”, with sophisticated planning and innovative use of natural light.
The artistic Contour Factory in Nelson, also by Jerram Tocker Barron Architects, was among the commercial architecture winners. The building, including bands of complementary colours on the roof, was inspired by optical effects in the work of French artist Georges Seurat and pop art exponent Bridget Riley.
A commercial architecture award also went to Nelson’s Wakatu House, the new HQ of the Wakatu Maori incorporation. The building by Matz Architects includes a 9 m high Po guarding the entrance. It was praised by the jury as subtle yet well defined with a “confident presence”.
As well as visiting all shortlisted properties, the judges met with the architects and clients. The buildings were judged against a series of key criteria, including their contribution to the advancement of architecture as a discipline and enhancement of the human spirit.
Other regional winners will be profiled in the next issue of NZ Construction News; for further information, visit www.nzia.co.nz