Auckland Architects Win Urban Design Competition

6 July 2001

Architects Euan MacKellar, Marko den Breems and Kendon McGrail, of Auckland architectural and interior design firm JASMAX are the joint winners of an Auckland City-sponsored urban design competition, Perfect Worlds.

The judges also commended Tracey Ogden, an urban designer with North Shore City Council, and Christophe Barkalaya, an architecture student at the University of Auckland, for their entry, Live and Let Live.

The winner of the student prize was Rohan Bailey, of Victoria University.

A $5000 prize was given to the JASMAX team, while Tracey Ogden and Christophe Barkalaya took home $4000 and Rohan Bailey won $3000.

The competition was organised by Auckland City, the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) and Fletcher Building.

The winners were announced last night (July 5) at a prizegiving ceremony held in the former Chief Post Office building in downtown Auckland.

The competition called for architects, landscapers and planners to respond to the challenge of Auckland’s growth and propose appropriate intensive residential and mixed-use buildings integrated with transport and social networks.

The aim of the competition was to explore the increasingly dense occupation of land within the Auckland isthmus. This growth will require new building types to fit the expectations of the owners and the occupants of the new communities.

Recently, Auckland City published a document, Growing Our City through Liveable Communities, which sets a framework for managing growth in the city.

Three sites were chosen for the design competition: Lion Breweries in Khyber Pass, a Housing NZ complex opposite MOTAT and Panmure’s Clifton Court. The winning three entries all chose to work on the Lion Breweries site.

Each site is typical of future potential development sites, with similar design issues needing new and clever solutions.

It is hoped that the building and development models generated in the competition will be taken up by private and institutional landowners as appropriate ways of providing for Auckland’s growth.

The competition attracted 42 entries, one from as far away as Austria. About half were from students. The judges described the entries as ranging from the whimsical, considered and ridiculous to the delightful.

Australians Kerry and Lindsay Clare were the guest judges for Perfect Worlds. Currently design directors for the Travis McEwen Group in Sydney, the two are also adjunct professors at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Architecture.

The other judges were Graeme Scott, of Andrew Scott Cotton Architects, Tony Gapes, of Redwood Group, and Auckland City deputy mayor Dr Bruce Hucker.

ENDS

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