New public buildings for healthcare, policing and sports figure highly at the
2015 Waikato–Bay of Plenty Architecture Awards
The quality of public buildings in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty was recognised on Friday (1 May) evening, with significant architecture awards for a patient-centric radiotherapy clinic in Tauranga, a police station in Rotorua, and new sporting centres for cricket and cycling.
New housing, a traditionally strong design category in the region, was also well represented at the 2015 Waikato–Bay of Plenty Architecture Awards.
Camden Cummings, convenor of the four-person jury that visited 28 shortlisted projects, described the overall standard of design as very high. Of the shortlisted projects, 18 received awards.
“Judging awards is not an easy role, but it is an enjoyable one,” says Cummings. “It is an opportunity to gain insights into the stock and state of architecture in our area, and to meet architects and observe the results of the strong collaborations they undertake with their clients.
“For me, successful architecture is a product of these relationships, but also it should aspire to exceed client expectations, and at its heart have an inherent simplicity and beauty.”
The other members of this year’s jury were architects Lindley Naismith and Les Matthews, and lay juror, Alasdair Christie, a Tauranga lawyer.
Awards winners
In the public architecture category, the jury was impressed by a new radiotherapy clinic in Tauranga. The Kathleen Kilgour Centre, designed by Wingate + Farquhar, was “a striking addition to Tauranga Hospital’s health precinct”, said the jury. The regard the building’s architects had for both the physical and psychological needs of patients, and steps taken to ensure greater energy efficiency, meant this building succeeded at “human, healthcare and environmental scales”, they said.
A building detailed with abstracted images from stories of the Rotorua region was another success at this year’s awards. The Rotorua Police Station – Te Amo Whakaruruhau, designed by Leuschke Group in association with Australian firm Vincent Chrisp, is draped with an intricately laser-cut aluminium korowai (or cloak). The building “deftly manages to balance objectives of community accessibility with the technical sophistication required for effective policing and a safe working environment”, the jury said.
Two sporting facilities also received honours for public architecture; both were designed to meet the different requirements of high performance and community users.
The Bay Oval Trust Carrus Pavilion, the new home for Bay of Plenty Cricket designed by Jasmax, is “robust and elegant” said the jury. “Thick timber beams and in situ concrete walls ensure the building will endure any hard knocks, while the distinguished curve of the pavilion roofline, echoed by the sweeping terraces of the foreground, reflects the sweeping geometry of the oval itself.”
While the Bay Oval Pavilion focuses attention to exterior, Cambridge’s Avantidrome, designed by Chibnall Buckell Marovic Team Architects, is all about an inner purpose. The jury was impressed by the velodrome’s “elegantly and functionally impressive” track, constructed from 250 metres of splinter-proof Siberian spruce. The lightweight roof structure, supported by the exterior circumference of the building to guarantee obstruction-free views, was also considered an impressive design feat.
Thames is a town with a rich heritage but few examples of exemplary modern architecture. The Treasury Research Centre and Archive by Architectus, encompassed the careful restoration of a former Carnegie Free Library and the addition of a “refined and shamelessly contemporary building”. The two buildings in tandem, the jury said, “have the power to transform the town’s view of the value of good architecture, in terms of both its historic and future heritage”.
Housing projects accounted for ten architecture awards this year, with courtyard houses, as a type, prevalent as an architectural solution for challenging sites.
The Lakeside Holiday Home, by Fraser Cameron Architects, uses a courtyard to solve the “irksome architectural conundrum of sun and views occupying different compass points”. The architect of the Taupo cliff-edge house solves the riddle with extensive glazing on two long sides, providing a “sun-welcoming, sheltered living court that is protected from the cold southerly wind”.
The Maniatutu Road House, designed by Edwards White Architects, uses the courtyard as a device to achieve a modest and practical farmhouse that can accommodate greater numbers of visiting family when necessary. Visitor’s bedrooms occupy one wing; the main accommodation is self-contained in another. It was, said the jury, “a sophisticated and crafted composition”.
Xsite Architects’s Ngarimu House is a collection of timber-clad boxes grouped around a sheltered, north-facing courtyard. The house, which descends a steep challenging site to make the most of views of the Firth of Thames, was described by the jury as “superbly matched to its context and environment”.
Xsite Architects also picked up two awards for its Big Sky Farm House, winning in the Housing and Interior Architecture categories. The lightweight house, located in the great wide open of the Hauraki Plains, is evidence of an “exceptional” collaboration between architect and client, the jury said. “Cowshed building technology, extensive prefabrication and industrial materials of structural steel, in-situ and precast concrete, and composite insulated panels, have allowed rapid construction at a cost rarely seen, particularly for the quality of the living environment achieved. Exuberant interiors reflect the passionate commitment of the owner in the process and celebrate domestic farming life.”
Kaiwaka Point Terrace Apartment, by Fraser Cameron Architects, was also an Interior Architecture winner. The two-level townhouse, beset by the challenge of strict unit title constraints that didn’t allow alteration to the exterior cladding, was deemed a “coherent response to client requirements”, with a “high degree of design and material resolution, well-defined spaces within an open-plan public area and careful use of lighting”.
John Henderson Architecture’s renovation design for a modest 1920s Arts and Crafts-style home was this year’s only winner in the Housing Alterations & Additions category. Convincing additions to period homes can be challenging. On this project, the jury described the architect as having a “keen eye for modernisation and a particular eye for period detail”.
Compact house designs were also rewarded in 2015.
The River House, by APG Architects, created within the footprint of a modest pre-existing 1940s house, “celebrates a uniquely strong connection with the river, with indoor and outdoor living areas articulated along the water’s edge,” said the jury. Clever concealment devices that allow order and neatness within the compact home were also acknowledged.
At Waihi Beach, the discrete design of the Bagge-Des Forge House, by Roger Course Architect, was also complimented by the jury. “Refreshingly compact” and achieved with an “economy of means”, the house was also praised for being “warmly expressive of its place and the personality of the family that lives there”.
In Cambridge, a townhouse designed by Antanas Procuta Architects was carefully site planned to provide privacy against the street while inviting in the “magnificent distant views” to the east. “The relaxed ambience and good connections to the landscape are a testament to a collaborative working relationship between architect, interior designer and landscape designer,” said the jury.
In Hamilton, two commercial refurbishment projects show how architects can breathe new life into a city’s urban fabric. 408 Anglesea Street, an example of “urban renewal on a budget”, brings rhythm to the streetscape through a façade of vertical steel battens. The interior is enlivened with design “flourishes that serve to heighten the sense of overall quality”, said the jury.
554 Victoria Street, another Edwards White Architects project, is “evidence of architect, developer and contractor reaping the rewards of a close working relationship” the jury said. “The once worn-out bank building has been opened up to the street, and through the large, newly glazed entranceway a window into a commercially sophisticated interior has been created.”
Innovation in education – and recognition of past innovation – was also acknowledged at this year’s awards.
Wintec’s new Engineering & Trades Facility, by Chow Hill Architects, a new home for 1000 students is “not just a place to go and learn; it is an integrated part of the learning experience,” said the jury. The building, designed with its services and structural systems left on display, is a vital tool for aiding student understanding of a working building.
In 1968, Deanwell School, formerly known as Melville Experimental School, signalled New Zealand’s first move away from the one teacher, forty children, forty desks educational typology prevalent at the time. Designed by the Educational Division of the South Auckland Education Board (Chief architect: S.V. Mrkusic; Project architect: J.W. Kellaway) , the school was the first in New Zealand to introduce large, open-plan teaching spaces with good outdoor connectivity – an educational design style still typical of modern schools.
“Today, the original buildings are superbly maintained and utilised, serving as evidence of their enduring relevance”, said the jury when awarding the school an Enduring Architecture Award.
The New Zealand Architecture Awards programme has been supported by Resene since 1990. The awards are judged by juries appointed by the New Zealand Institute of Architects and its branches.
All winners of 2013 Waikato–Bay of Plenty Architecture Awards are eligible for consideration at the top tier of the annual Architecture Awards programme, the New Zealand Architecture Awards, which take place in the first week of November.
Full project citations and rights-cleared photographs of award-winning projects are available for download here.
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