The new Whakaata Māori building which won a New Zealand Institute of Architects award.
The new Whakaata Māori building which won a New Zealand Institute of Architects award.
Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects tonight awarded a regional commercial prize to designers of Auckland’s new Whakaata Māori building.
RCG and Studio Pasifika designed Hawaikirangi with two new studios, offices, audience and guest hosting and live broadcast facilities for internal productions and the creative arts sector.
The building has been cited as Auckland’s largest television studio floor and training facility.
“Māori architecture has emerged as a narrative-based media and, like Whakaata Māori television, shares a responsibility to communicate local stories through the indigenous lens,” judges said.
The building was named after the Māori ancestral homeland Hawaiki and is opposite the main Whakaata Māori offices, Hawaikitangata at 433 East Tāmaki Rd, East Tāmaki.
Tonight, the institute announced 43 regional architectural award-winners deemed the best in the Auckland and Northland regions.
Te Iwitahi Whangārei Civic Centre won a commercial award for T Architects Auckland. The local council hub was designed according to biophilic principles, features two green-walled stairways and a four-storey atrium, and was commended by the jury for its “universal multi-cultural themes and a strong tikanga Māori narrative”.
Te Mātāwai on Grey's Ave, where Kāinga Ora has built 276 new homes for people on the housing register and others. Photo / Michael Craig
In Auckland’s CBD, Te Mātāwai by Mode won a planning and urban design prize for reinventing public housing on Greys Ave.
“An innovative mixed-use project that includes 276 homes operated by Kāinga Ora, it features an innovative design plan that includes medical services, a Homestar 7 rating, and warm, dry residences for the previously unhoused,” the judges said.
Warren and Mahoney Architects won a commercial prize for the Deloitte Centre Te Kaha in the refurbished One Queen owned by Precinct Properties.
This was a well-articulated adaptive reuse of an existing downtown waterfront building, the judges said. All had been thoughtfully integrated into the existing Commercial Bay retail centre.
Hotel levels are lower and office levels are higher at One Queen, the Deloitte Centre. Photo / Dean Purcell
Six new homes and three renovations won prizes.
Paper House by Crosson Architects is a new dwelling “small on square metres but large on personality, a clever design response. The house is playful and the compact plan exudes spatial generosity by virtue of a north-facing, double-height living space”, judges said.
Another small architecture prize went to a mechanic’s garage transformed into a chic photographer’s studio by Pac Studio.
Salmond Reed’s work on the restoration and seismic upgrade of the Auckland Domain Wintergardens building won a heritage award.
Warren and Mahoney also won an award for the new Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport Hotel, praised as the five-star 311-room nine-level destination 100m from the international terminal.
Athfield Architects won for the Albany Massey Innovation Complex, hailed as an ambitious yet successful, energising and inspiring building.
Dave Pearson Architects won an award for Hobsonville’s Bear Park Early Learning Centre, an elegant pavilion among trees and a counterpoint to an adjacent historic house.
More information about the winners is available on the institute’s website.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
