Glory for Hundertwasser designs
Dual triumphs at national building awards
Two Northland buildings dedicated to Austrian artist Fredensreich Hundertwasser have won major accolades at this year’s NZ Commercial Project Awards.
Te Hononga, Hundertwasser Memorial Park, in Kawakawa won the Innovation Award and a Gold award at the NZ Commercial Project Awards on Friday.
And Whangārei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery won the Special Award and a Gold award.
Kings Theatre Creative entered Te Hononga, which was built off Kawakawa’s main street in homage to the artist who built his famous Hundertwasser Toilets in the town in the 1990s.
Te Hononga Hundertwasser Memorial Park in Kawakawa was officially opened by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in October 2021, combining the vision of the Kawakawa Hundertwasser Memorial Park Charitable Trust, Ngati Hine artists, and locals in the arts and crafts space.
Countless community representatives, local tradesmen and consultants came together with project manager Far North Holdings to create an outstanding community asset, the judges said.
Local collaboration underpinned all facets of the project, exemplified by the 20 unemployed youths who helped construct the rammed earth walls. Local rammed earth builder Hepi Construction mentored the trainees with specialist guidance provided by specialist Canadian company SIREWall.
The support of both proved invaluable. Access to key materials played its part in helping meet client aspirations, as illustrated by the cultural representation of pukepuke rau, the “rolling hills of Ngati Hine”.
It was an apt way to honour Hundertwasser’s unique connection with the natural environment and non-linear buildings, the judges said.
Te Hononga, which houses the Kawakawa library and Far North District Council customer service centre, won three awards at the 2021 Auckland/Northland Regional ADNZ Resene Design Awards. The project partners included: Avail Pacific Ltd (architect/designer), Far North District Council (local district councillor), Far North Holdings Ltd (project faciliter/project manager), Foxhanger Studio (mosaic artist), Harnett Builders (construction company), Hawthorn Landscape Architects (landscape architect), Hepi Construction (construction company), Hundertwasser Memorial Park Charitable Trust (trustee and treasurer), Hundertwasser NonProfit Foundation (Hundertwasser Entrance Design), J S Hepi Contracting Ltd (construction company), Ngati Hine Artist (artist — cultural design/cultural artist), Northland Regional Council (local regional councillor), PK Engineering
Ltd (engineer),
Sirewall Consulting (construction company), Story Inc (visitor experience), Te Runanga O Ngati Hine (iwi partner, trustee on KHPCT), and Woven Panels (bottle wall artist).
It is owned by Far North Holdings, Hundertwasser Memorial Park Charitable Trust and Te Runanga O Ngati Hine.
Trigg Construction entered the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery into the awards.
“This art centre is quite literally a piece of art itself,” the judges said.
It has been built to represent Hundertwasser’s philosophical standpoint, which is to be in harmony with nature. The building is an artwork dedicated to his teachings and is based on sketches prepared by Hundertwasser himself in 1993. It will be home to about $16 million worth of Hundertwasser’s works — the only permanent collection outside of Vienna — as well as the Wairau gallery, the world’s first gallery dedicated solely to contemporary Māori art.
The building was tightly managed by The Hundertwasser Foundation to ensure it followed his precise guidelines.
“This is arguably New Zealand’s biggest community-driven project with an estimated 50,000-plus hours put in by volunteers — some volunteering full-time. It was picked up by the Prosper Northland Trust, which ran the fundraising and building consent process over three years. As the project moved forward, the team needed to stay nimble in their approach and overcome hurdles with greater levels of innovation. All challenges were worked through with the design and construction team together with the client, in a collaborative way.”
The judges said this art centre had been 30 years in the making and was most impressive.
“There was extreme dedication from a group of local volunteers who pursued the dream of this unique build through many years of setbacks. In the end they emerged victorious. Absolute rationalism, geometric straight lines and the uniformity of modern architecture is abandoned in favour of new values like uniqueness, romanticism, individuality, creativity, especially creativity in harmony with nature.
“In keeping with his philosophy, the Hundertwasser Art Centre restores territories to nature with spontaneous vegetation, tree tenants and an afforested roof. It was a challenge creating something so contrary to all the training of many of the craftspeople involved. They were required to adhere to Hundertwasser’s quirky vision, which is guarded by his foundation in Vienna.
“The local tradespeople rose to the challenge and were also able to exercise their own creative ideas within the constraints of the overall design, adding many delightful touches. The result is something that Whangārei, and New Zealand, can be incredibly proud of for generations to come.”
This award may be given at the discretion of the judges for a specific project or element of a project that they feel is worthy of recognition.
The project partners were Harris Butt Architecture Ltd (architect/designer), Scope — Total Project Partners (client project manager), and Trigg Construction (construction company).
It is owned by Whangārei Arts Museum Trust.
Earlier this year the centre was awarded a Silver Tourism Award by Qualmark.