Updated: World Architecture Festival - the NZ finalists

Seven New Zealand projects have been listed as finalists in the World Architecture Festival, to be held in Singapore in October. 

The Auckland Art Gallery, designed by FJMT and Archimedia, is a finalist in the festival's 'Culture' category (photo below by Patrick Reynolds). 

 















The Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre (below) by Irving Smith Jack Architects (a recent winner in the NZIA national awards), is a finalist in the 'New and Old' category.

A housing development at 387 Tamaki Drive, Auckland, by Sydney-based Ian Moore Architects is a finalist in the 'Housing' category (below).

The Mackelvie Street development in Ponsonby, Auckland, by RTA Studio in is a finalist in the 'Shopping' category (below, photo by Jackie Meiring).

Also by RTA Studio, the planned 'Ice Hotel' in Queenstown is a finalist in the 'Future Projects - Leisure Led Development' category.  

An Alexandra house, also by Irving Smith Jack Architects, is a finalist in the 'Villa' category (photo below by Patrick Reynolds; look out for this in an upcoming issue of HOME).

 

The Auckland Zoo giraffe house (rendering below), by Glamuzina Paterson and Hamish Monk Architects, is a finalist in the 'Display' category. 

Congratulations to all the finalists! We'll keep you up to date with details later in the year when the winners are announced at the festival.

California Design - an interview with co-curator Bobbye Tigerman

The epitome of California style: The Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, designed by Richard Neutra in 1946.
Photo by Julius Shulman, 1947.© J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute.

Design aficionados, pay attention: starting this Saturday, Auckland Art Gallery plays host to California Design: Living in a Modern Way, a major (and majorly successful) show that originated from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It showcases the best of a golden and globally influential period in California design and architecture, and we can’t wait to see it. HOME editor Jeremy Hansen talked to the exhibition’s co-curator, Bobbye Tigerman, about the show (this interview is also featured in our current issue of the magazine).

HOME First of all, some context: what is California design to you – and what was going on in California at the time that created the energy that this show encapsulates?
BOBBYE TIGERMAN, CO-CURATOR The California Design show we organised [co-curated with Wendy Kaplan] covers the years from 1930 to 1965. This was a time of incredible innovation and extraordinary growth in California. The population grew significantly with the Depression, when people were looking for jobs, and with the onset of World War Two a lot of industries were located in northern and southern California. You had a huge population of educated people coming here and they all needed a place to live. There was a big demand for new home construction and, as a result, there was a lot of opportunity for new design and architecture. There was this widespread recognition that California was a place where things were possible: the rules could be bent and even broken. It drew a lot of very creative people who did a lot of interesting things during that time.

What made you want to do the show?
When Wendy and I realised that there had never been a show on the subject we were kind of shocked. We knew it was important to do and do quickly because so many of the artists were still alive and we could talk to them and capture their stories. The show turned out to be wildly popular — we had 363,000 visitors, making it the fifth most-attended show at LACMA.

The show draws on examples of architecture, design and craft. What do these sometimes disparate occupations have in common?
Including both design and craft was an easy choice, as the designers of the era didn’t really make distinctions between them. We started off thinking we’d focus on design for the home, but we quickly realised we were going to have to break our rules and include fashion, jewellery, and graphic design, because they were so compelling and so connected to the other designers and industries. We were trying to reflect the era.

Why has this period of design remained so influential and potent to this day?
I struggle with this question a lot. I think there are a couple of reasons. One is I think we have a nostalgia for a time – even if we didn’t live through the post-war era – when there was a lot of opportunity, the ability to achieve the good life. It seemed much more possible then than it does today. I think aesthetically it’s very simple and clean; it was always meant to be futuristic and it’s still the future, so if you’re interested in being a modern person it still has those connotations. It’s still widely available, it’s not wildly expensive.

Almost all the items in the show could be characterised as possessing a certain sense of optimism. What’s happened to that optimism? Does California still possess that cultural primacy?
The show ends in 1965 – the design industry changed rather drastically around that time, so that kind of design community that existed in the post-war years is no longer there. I think if you want to identify what California design means in the latter part of the 20th century it would be hardware and software focused in Silicon Valley. It’s now literally changing how everybody lives and interacts with each other. It’s different, but I think the region still has broad influence.

What’s your own place like?
I live in an apartment building that was built around 1948 or so. I do like mid-century design, and I have some things from the era in my house, but I try not to make it a time capsule.

For more information and to purchase discounted early-bird tickets to California Design: Living in a Modern Way, visit the Auckland Art Gallery's website here. The show opens Saturday July 6 and runs until September 29.

Design Awards 2013 - the winner!

The results are in! Congratulations to Simon James and Scott Bridgens, whose 'Hex' pendant light takes top honours in our furniture and lighting Design Awards 2013. 

The 'Hex' pendant is a sleek, minimal beauty designed for Resident Studio that combines cutting-edge LED lighting technology with an elegant aluminium frame suspended from three slim wires (two of which, rather miraculously, also supply electricity for the light). It was launched at Milan Design Week in April and is already attracting serious international attention - deservedly so.

See this and our stellar lineup of Design Awards finalists in our new issue, on newsstands from Monday June 3. The photo is by Toaki Okano, and was styled by Sarah Conder and Juliette Wanty. Thanks also to Blum, our Design Awards partner, for their support. 

Our new cover

Here's the cover of our special Design Issue, featuring a group of our stunning furniture and lighting Design Awards finalists. The photo is by Toaki Okano, and the shoot was conceptualised and styled by Sarah Conder and Juliette Wanty. 

We don't like to brag, but we think this issue's an absolute peach. It focuses on the homes of product designers like IMO's Sam Haughton and Hannah Brodie and their enviable inner-city Auckland pad, or industrial designer Ross Stevens, who worked for Philippe Starck in Europe and is building an amazing Wairarapa home out of recycled coolstore panels. 

In this issue, we also travel to Canada's icy Fogo Island to visit artist Kate Newby, who's on a residency in an incredible studio there. And we go to Antarctica to see the restoration job on Robert Falcon Scott's rudimentary huts.

Also! We check out typographer Len Cheesman's lovely Greytown garden, our correspondents report back from Milan Design Week, we inspect a delightful dessert restaurant in Auckland by Cheshire Architects, and much more....

We hope you enjoy it. The issue's on newsstands from Monday June 3.

The winners in the New Zealand Architecture Awards

There's a bunch of terrific buildings in the New Zealand Architecture Awards, bestowed at a function in Auckland last night (May 24) by the NZ Institute of Architects. 

First, congratulations to Fearon Hay Architects: The Imperial Buildings, a refurbishment of an abandoned Auckland theatre complex (featured in our February/March 2012 issue), won the highest honour, the New Zealand Architecture Medal. Well-deserved, we reckon. The photo is by Patrick Reynolds.

The judges' citation said "the conversion of older buildings to new purposes ... signals a greater awareness of the worth of existing buildings, and of the possibilities they offer to imaginative clients and architects." The building also won an award in the Heritage category.

We'll look at the winners of the New Zealand Architecture Awards for housing next. Nice to see the Lake Hawea courtyard house (below) by Glamuzina Paterson Architects, a finalist in our Home of the Year award, getting recognised here, too. The photo is by Patrick Reynolds.

Glamuzina Paterson Architects picked up a second housing gong for the 'S' house (below) in Auckland's Mount Eden, which featured in our August/September 2012 issue.

Stevens Lawson Architects picked up a housing award for this home (below) in Waiake Beach in Auckland. 

And another housing award went to the Regent Park Apartments for City Housing in Wellington (below), designed by Designgroup Stapleton Architects.

The First Light House by First Light Studio (designed while its members were students at Victoria University of Wellington) picked up an award for International Architecture. It appeared at the Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC, and is now located on a site in Hawke's Bay, which we're looking forward to showing you in an upcoming issue. 

This place (below) isn't technically a home - it's 'The Shack' at Cloudy Bay in Marlborough, a place where guests of the vineyard can stay. It was designed by Tim Greer and Paul Rolfe and it won an award for Commercial Architecture. You might remember it from our August/September 2012 issue. 

Patterson Associates picked up a commercial award for the Geyser building in Parnell, Auckland (below), as well as an award for Sustainable Architecture.

  
And the third commercial architecture award went to Architecture + for Telecom Central in Wellington (below). 

In the education category, Architectus won an award for their design of the St Cuthbert's College Performing Arts Centre in Auckland (below). 

We always enjoy the Enduring Architecture category, and this year's winner is a treat: the School of Music at the University of Auckland by Hill Manning Mitchell (below). This shot is of the lovely courtyard behind the lyrical blank facade. Go in for a look if you're passing by - the building's in lower Symonds Street.

In the Planning and Urban Design category, there were two awards. The first went to Architectus for their work on the Karanga Plaza and kiosk at Auckland's North Wharf (below). 

The other Planning and Urban Design award went to the Buchan Group for Re:START, Christchurch's lively container mall (below).

In the Public Architecture category, Tennent + Brown and SKM won an award for the ASB Sports Centre in Kilbirnie, Wellington (below). 

Also winning a Public Architecture award was Athfield Architects' Te Hononga/Christchurch Civic Centre (below). It also won a Sustainable Architecture award.

Still in the Public Architecture category: the third winner of a Public Architecture Award was Pearson & Associates for the Rotoroa Exhibition Centre on Auckland's Rotoroa Island (below). 

The last Public Architecture Award went to Nelson's Irving Smith Jack for their design of the Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre (below). 

Two to go, both in the category of Small Project architecture. The Wellington Zoo Hub by Assembly Architects (below) picked up one of these prizes.

Finally, the last NZ Architecture Award for 2013 went to Ken Crosson of Crosson Clarke Carnachan for the Hut on Sleds at Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula, a finalist in our 2012 Home of the Year award. 

Oh wait - how could we forget? Each year the NZ Institute of Architects also awards a Gold Medal for career achievement, which this year goes to Auckland architect Pip Cheshire (below) of Cheshire Architects (you might remember the Bambury house from our February/March 2009 issue, which he designed, and also the Mountain Landing house which graced the cover of our June/July 2011 issue). We've got an interview with Pip in our June/July issue, on newsstands June 3. Congratulations to him and all the New Zealand Architecture Award winners. 

Coming soon: The Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival

HOME is delighted to support the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival, which hits screens in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in May and June with a lineup of the best architecture and design films you'll see anywhere. 

Here are the dates. Mark your calendars!

Rialto Cinemas, Auckland: May 9-22
The Embassy, Wellington: May 23-June 5
The Rialto, Dunedin: June 6-9

For those who can't wait to inspect the programme, you can visit the link here. (Wellingtonians: the festival will screen at The Embassy in your town, so the programme is at the Event Cinemas website here - they haven't loaded ticket booking capability on there yet, but we're assured they will soon). 

One of the films we're looking forward to in the festival is Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line. Charles Renfro was a member of our Home of the Year jury in 2010, and we adore him and the firm's work. In our current issue, we feature an interview with the documentary's directors, Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper, which we're also pleased to share with you here:

Image courtesy of Checkerboard Film Foundation, photos by Iwan Baan. 

HOME What made you choose DS+R as the focus of your documentary? 

MUFFIE DUNN, Director I’d wanted to do a film on Diller Scofidio + Renfro ever since 2002 when I first set foot in New York City’s Brasserie restaurant. At the time, though, they didn’t have enough built work around which to focus a film.
TOM PIPER, Director At Checkerboard [Film Foundation] we’d been doing a series of architecture films begun in 2006. Subjects were chosen in conjunction with Suzanne Stephens, deputy editor of Architectural Record. Once the High Line and Lincoln Center were underway, she rightly urged us to move forward with DS+R. 

Elizabeth Diller (left), Ricardo Scofidio (centre) and Charles Renfro. Photo by Peter Ash Lee.

HOME What did you learn about the principals of the firm by working with them so closely?

MUFFIE DUNN Having made 11 architecture films prior to DS+R, let’s just say we’d become accustomed to a certain personality profile. But Liz, Ric and Charles were incredibly open and willing to share ideas right from the start, which we think is apparent in their work as well.

HOME What effect has their work had on New York City, where they're based?

TOM PIPER One of the ending lines of the film is from critic Martin Filler, who says they’ve had a “euphoric effect” on New York. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find disagreement with that. 

MUFFIE DUNN I would add that their work is inviting. They’ve removed the fortress-like elements at Lincoln Center and implemented design that beckons people of all walks of life to mix and linger. The same can be said for the High Line.

The High Line in New York City. Photo by Checkerboard Film Foundation.

HOME What’s your favourite part of the film? 

MUFFIE DUNN We both love the Blur Building sequence. I find the ethereal nature of what they built breathtaking. 

TOM PIPER The combination of Jeremy Linzee’s music for that scene and the video footage we were able to locate from within the structure really creates a moving surrogate for having been there.

Subscribe now and get a genuinely great free gift

We're hoping that those of you who aren't already subscribers to HOME might be tempted by this offer: subscribe now for one year (six issues) for $43 (which saves $17 on the cover price) and you'll receive a gift that's way better than your normal plastic giveaway tat: a free pair of decidedly non-plastic Riedel Ouverture tasting flutes worth $72. Visit the link here to take advantage of the offer (the terms and conditions are on there, but basically, every new subscriber before June 3 gets a pair of the flutes). Do it!

On film: Home of the Year 2013 by Stevens Lawson Architects

We're delighted to show you around the Home of the Year 2013 by Stevens Lawson Architects, a beautiful curvaceous dwelling on Waiheke Island. Enjoy this short web film - and also make sure to pick up a copy of our Home of the Year issue, on newsstands from Thursday April 4. It features exclusive coverage of this amazing home plus our five incredible finalists. Enjoy.