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Buildings ranging from small, square shed-like structures to the exclusive clubhouse at one of the world’s top-ranked golf courses were among the local winners in the recent 2018 Auckland Architecture Awards.
Four of the 46 projects that received awards were in the Mahurangi region this year, one less than in 2017, and they were in three categories: Hospitality – Tara Iti Clubhouse, Mangawhai; Small Project Architecture – The Camp, Matakana; and Housing – Kawau Island Bach, Harris Bay, Kawau Island, and Whare Koa, Opahi Bay, Mahurangi West.
Architect Rick Pearson headed the awards jury and said the number of entries – 107 in total, with 54 of those shortlisted – and the high quality of shortlisted works had made the judging process challenging.
All the Auckland award-winners will be eligible for short listing in the national New Zealand Architecture Awards, which will be announced in November.
Tara Iti Clubhouse. Photos, Patrick Reynolds
Tara Iti Clubhouse, Tara Iti Drive, Mangawhai
Cheshire Architects and Herringbone Interiors (USA) in association
Mangawhai’s Tara Iti golf course was recently ranked the 11th best in the world by Golf Digest and is reputed to be the most exclusive private golf club in New Zealand. Judges praised the clubhouse design for minimising the impact on surrounding sand dunes, with a compact building footprint and enhanced architecture. “Refreshingly restrained and intimate, the clubhouse nestles into the landscape, aided by a limited palette of immaculately detailed materials. This is a welcoming environment, perfectly scaled and encouraging of relaxed occupation.”
Tara Iti Clubhouse.
The Camp, Matakana
Fearon Hay Architects
Two small dark wood “pavilions” set into a bank at angles to each other form The Camp, near Matakana. The awards jury were swept away by the deep colouring of the project, enthusing that it was “sublime, rich, intense … like dark Swiss chocolate”. They said the design demonstrated a delicate response to an expansive site and a rigorous approach to material selection and detailing. “The angled siting of the two pavilions is poised and elegant. The solid louvred panels have an elemental effect in lighting and ventilating the interiors and connecting the inhabitants to the environment beyond.”
Kawau Island Bach. Photos, Simon Devitt
Kawau Island Bach, Harris Bay, Kawau Island
Crosson Architects
The fluted translucent front gives this Kawau Island property the air of a giant greenhouse or an “elegant shed”, according the awards jury, who praised it as a quintessential bach with a boatshed aesthetic. “Sympathetic in scale and situation to nearby dwellings, it benefits from a simple square plan that has been enlivened by a diagonal stair. Through massive folding front doors clad in translucent polycarbonate, it also fully embodies the lock-and-leave ideal.”
Whare Koa. Photos, Simon Devitt
Whare Koa, Opahi Bay Road, Mahurangi West
SGA – Strachan Group Architects
The brief for this house was slightly unusual, in that it needed to be part home, part workshop/studio and part community facility to accommodate weekly tennis games and regular community meetings. Judges said the resulting home was an easy, loose-fitting social hub that utilised a rich material palette on a difficult south-facing site with a clear, organisational plan across three levels. “Built-in furnishings and interior fittings that are rich with ingenious technical solutions blur the interior and exterior space throughout the house.”
