Wynyard Central in the Wynyard Quarter. Photo/Simon Devitt
Wynyard Central in the Wynyard Quarter. Photo/Simon Devitt
High-density housing projects dominated Auckland's premier annual architectural awards with the chief judge saying such schemes were a mirror of the city's transformation and growth.
The waterfront's Wynyard Central, Stonefield's Bellus Apartments, Mt Eden's Botanica and Hobsonville Point townhouses won some of the 44 Institute of Architects' regional Auckland awards.
"The awards hold a mirror up to Auckland's significant issues," said judges' convenor Dave Strachan. "They show how to house people well in greater numbers, how to deal with our built heritage appropriately and how to provide focal points for communities."
The Buckley A superlot terraces at Hobsonville Point. Photo/Jessica Gernat, Geri Wang
Architectus won for its Wynyard Central East 2 between Daldy St and Madden St "terrific from the street and lovely to live in. It is Auckland apartment living at its finest."
Warren and Mahoney won for the Bellus Apartments, medium-cost homes that "showcase visual variety in their external form, with an appealing juxtaposition of materials, colour and form, and some lovely touches".
Peddle Thorp Architects won multi-unit and heritage awards for its Botanica project: apartments which "offer privacy to all their occupants and communal, sylvan splendour to all" and the Botanica Heritage ex-office building with "an energetic stylishness and very lovely sense of grace".
Construckt Associates won for Hobsonville Point's Buckley A housing superlot where a set of terrace housing on the corner of Mapou Rd and Rarahu Rd showed "a clean and deceptively simple row of three and four-bedroom terrace houses that form an elegant addition to the street, and are comfortable and extremely pleasant to live in."
Architectus also won for its Wynyard Central masterplan, which the judges said had transformed part of the city and "unleashed a great creative flowering of architecture and urban design, setting a benchmark for the entire city that all other precincts must now aspire to match".
Isthmus won for its Te Onekiritea/Hobsonville Point Masterplan, showing a "deep commitment to making human-scale spaces for people to live and play in, and for many residents to work in, too", the awards jury said.
Also in Wynyard Quarter, 12 Madden Street by Warren and Mahoney Architects won a commercial award.
No. 1 Sylvia Park by Architectus, furthered the mall's ambition of being a town centre with "angled lines and boldly contrasting black/white pattern speak of a commitment to design flair, and to the entrepreneurial confidence of the building's tenants", the jury said.
Takapuna's B:Hive at Smales Farm. Photo/John Gollings
Jasmax and Gensler won a commercial award for changes to Auckland International Airport's departures areas which now have "brilliant artwork, a crater pit for families, a boardwalk, instagrammable moments with photographic murals, and ceiling and wall features that evoke waka and paddles."
JWA Architects won for its new headquarters for freight and logistics company Rohlig, praised for creating "the excitement and possibilities of trading with the world" while mastering the challenges of large-scale building.
The airport's departure area won an NZIA award. Photo/Colleen Tunnicliff
Takapuna office block B:Hive at Smales Farm won an interior award for BVN and Jasmax. The block is designed around an eye-catching stair, "a magnificently inspirational bright orange ribbon". It brings "21st-century office planning to a 20th-century business park, in a five-storey building housing 800 people working for 100 different companies", said the jury.
Of the 11 stand-alone housing awards, three went to Rogan Nash Architects and the judges said the winning projects varied greatly in style, scale and budget. Four Waiheke houses and one Great Barrier home took awards.
