CRAFT WORK
A BUMPER YEAR OF THE COUNTRY’S BEST BUILDINGS.
Every year, a panel of our top architects travels the country to view dozens of buildings, just a handful of which are included in the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) national awards. It’s something of a bellwether for the industry and judging by this year’s bumper awards, New Zealand architecture is in fine health.
A number of our favourite houses from recent years won awards in the various Housing and Commercial categories – including the 2016 winner of our Home of the Year award, the K Valley house by Herbst Architects. Built from timber and rusting corrugated iron, it both delights and challenges notions of what a house should look like. (The Herbsts also took out an award for a house at Waimauku known as Bramasole, which we featured last issue.)
We were delighted to see Zavos Corner, by Parsonson Architects, win the Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing, while three wonderful houses at Annandale by Pattersons Architects – Olive Grove, Scrubby Bay and Seascape – won the Sir Miles Warren Award for Commercial Architecture.
Other winners might be familiar from the pages of the magazine, including the Cardrona Hut and E-Type House, by Richard Naish of RTA Studio – two dwellings that show the singular vision that can be achieved when architects design their own homes – and Tom’s House, by Anna-Marie Chin.
The awards also celebrate New Zealand’s architectural legacy. This year, the jury gave an Enduring Architecture award to the late Sir Ian Athfield’s own bach, Awaroa House – as delightful now as it was when it was built 40 years ago. And fittingly, the institute also awarded a Gold Medal to that other rogue of 1970s Wellington, Roger Walker, whose playful structures have continued to delight in the decades since they were built.
nzia.co.nz
Top Richard Naish’s family home in Grey Lynn, Auckland, won a 2016 NZIA Housing award. Middle left Naish’s holiday home in Cardrona took the award for Small Project Architecture. Middle right Zavos Corner in Wellington by Parsonson Architects won the NZIA Multi-unit Housing Award. Left Anna-Marie Chin designed this Queenstown home, a winner in the Housing category.