Andrew Patterson, the latest recipient of New Zealand architecture’s premier award, the Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for career achievement, this week embarks on a nationwide series of lectures about his work.
The lectures will be held in Taupo, Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin. An Auckland lecture is scheduled for this September.
Patterson has forged a reputation as a singular and original architect whose practice has produced some of the most striking New Zealand buildings of the past three decades.
He is the architect of such notable buildings as the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, Michael Hill Golf Clubhouse in Queenstown and The Lodge at Kinloch Club near Taupo.
Michael Hill Gold Club. Photo: Simon Devitt
In 2016 Patterson won the competition to design the French Memorial at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, Wellington, which will be unveiled later this year.
Other significant Patterson buildings are Cumulus, Site 3 and Geyser in Auckland, the AJ Hackett Bungy Centre in Queenstown, and Christchurch Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre.
Patterson is also the architect of New Zealand’s Pavilion at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair and the New Zealand China Concept Store in Shanghai.
Andrew Barrie, professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, said Patterson designs distinctive buildings in a wide a variety of styles.
“From his earliest days, Patterson has been one of New Zealand’s most exciting architects,” Barrie said. “The strength of his work comes from his great eye for forms and materials, and his determination not to repeat himself.”
Patterson is celebrated for producing buildings with a strong visual impact, and is unapologetic about his ambition to produce buildings that answer the very different challenges of New Zealand’s dramatic landscapes and more mundane cityscapes.
The late David Mitchell, one of New Zealand’s leading architects and architectural commentators, described Paterson as an “icon maker”.
“Only an architect as courageous and skilled as Paterson can get away with fanning our expectations so flagrantly,” Mitchell wrote. “He gets away with it because his buildings consistently deliver on the promise of his concepts.”
Andrew Patterson’s Gold Medal lectures, which are sponsored by Aon, are free to the public. Register a place at a lecture here (note: no registration is required for the Wellington lecture at City Gallery.
Lecture schedule:
4 May – Taupo: The Hilton Taupo, 4pm
11 May – Whanganui: Heritage House, 4.30pm
14 May – Wellington: City Gallery, 6pm
18 May – Nelson: School of Music, 4pm
7 June – Christchurch: Cardboard Cathedral 4pm
8 June – Dunedin: Toitū Museum, 4pm
Register here