Coast gem vies for top award

The Scrubby Bay farmhouse. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi architects’ designs compete among world’s best in Singapore.

A windswept farmhouse nestled in the depths of the South Island is one of 12 New Zealand designs up for the coveted World Building of the Year title this week.

The Kiwi buildings have been selected alongside 338 innovative finalists, including a ribbon-shaped Japanese chapel, a wooden grotto in Canada and the zinc-clad Stonehenge Visitors Centre.

The buildings will be judged across 31 categories at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore from November 4 - 6.

PHOTOS: See the New Zealand designs

Of the handful of New Zealand designs, Patterson Associates Architects have three projects shortlisted.

The Scrubby Bay House sits on a remote farm in Banks Peninsula and is only accessible by dirt track or helicopter.

The Scrubby Bay farmhouse. Photo / Supplied

It was conceived as "a piece of slowly aging farm driftwood, around which stock can graze" and can be opened from both sides, the designers said.

The building also hits more than 5m in height at some points and boasts a stone fireplace made of rock quarried at the station.

Another Patterson design for a multi-purpose guest house on the station has also made the shortlist.

The pair are the only New Zealand residential designs to make it big, with the other finalists consisting of public designs - including the Christchurch Botanic Gardens Centre, also designed by Pattersons.

Pattersons Associates' Olive Grove guesthouse. Photo / Supplied

A theatre in Christchurch, gallery in Auckland, Nelson bridge and Tauranga radiation centre have also nabbed top spots.

It's not the first time New Zealand buildings have been in the limelight at the awards, with the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki taking out the World Building of the Year title in 2013.

Last year, the distinguished awarded went to The Chapel - a community space in Vietnam built with recycled materials - but with 11 buildings from New Zealand in the mix, Kiwi designers will be crossing their fingers they can bring the title home again.

Warren and Mahoney's Isaac Theatre Royal. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand buildings on the list

• Rore Kahu - Marsden Cross Heritage Centre, Northland, Cheshire Architect

• Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, Mitchell & Stout Architects

• Christchurch Botanic Gardens Centre, Christchurch, Patterson Associates

• Kathleen Kilgour Centre, Tauranga, Wingate + Farquhar

• Olive Grove, Banks Peninsula, Patterson Associates

• Scrubby Bay, Banks Peninsula, Patterson Associates

• Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, Warren and Mahoney Architects

• Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ngati Kahungunu o Te Wairoa, Wairoa, RTA Studio

• Upper Queen Street, Nelson, Irving Smith Jack Architects

• MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange, Auckland, Warren and Mahoney Architects

• Canada Street Bridge, Auckland, Monk Mackenzie Architects

• Mapua Park Structures, Mapua, Irving Smith Jack Architects