An impressive 29 projects were submitted for the inaugural F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship for Public Housing — a heartening and exciting indication of the enthusiasm the profession has in addressing unmet housing needs in Aotearoa.

The Fellowship jury, composed of Judith Taylor, Dr Kay Saville-Smith, Marko den Breems, Julia Gatley and Julia Mandell, was struck by the originality and innovation contained in the proposals, which focus on research into solutions for public housing. They have now narrowed the applications to a shortlist of five projects.

“The calibre of entries in the first year of this Fellowship has been truly impressive,” says jury chair and Institute president, Judith Taylor. “It wasn’t easy getting to a shortlist of five, but we’re excited to see and hear more about each of these shortlisted proposals, and to understand better how they could transform future public housing projects in Aotearoa.”

Here’s an introduction to each of the shortlisted proposals:

ALAGA

Alaga, a practice-led research project dedicated to developing regenerative living environments for Moana Pasifika communities, is the proposal of MOANA LOA, a recently formed collective of Moana Pasifika architectural practitioners. The team, made up of Albert Refiti, Charmaine 'Ilaiū, Rau Hoskins, Joanna Jack and Tau Lelaulu are committed to addressing the housing inequities affecting their communities. Their project proposes to develop design frameworks, a range of housing typologies, and an accessible platform that amplifies the work of Moana Pasifika housing organisations in Aotearoa.

Converting Carpark Buildings to Affordable Housing and Useful Community Spaces

Reusing old buildings is a cheap, low-impact way of creating new spaces for new needs. Bill McKay’s proposal investigates the feasibility of adaptive reuse of car parking buildings in central cities that are being used less and could become affordable homes. It’s a transformation that has been achieved overseas and could be done here; this project will create practical guidelines on how we can create new, affordable housing in these spaces, through smart architectural design.

Radical Retrofit

A proposal from pre:fab collective puts forward a radical refit of existing low-density residential building stock to create public housing in inner-city and satellite-centre suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau. This focus on new ways existing housing stock can be modified to accommodate a range of denser housing scenarios is combined with investigating ownership and development models in otherwise low occupancy areas. Team members in the collective include Tessa Forde, Simon Glaister, Leonard Hobbins, Sakina Ali, Joseph Bjelic-Webster, Vanessa Coxhead, Nick Denton, Hannah Broatch, Mason Rattray and Isaac Sweetapple.

The Value of What We Value

Elyjana Roach and Yun Fu suggest that the conversation around public housing needs to be made more public to have greater impact. They propose that surveys and interviews with New Zealanders about housing, a series of editorials sharing the research obtained, a public travelling exhibition and a book about The Value of What We Value could be a critical component in how we change public housing.

Towards Public Housing that Proactively Adapts to the Impacts of Climate Change

The principals of Third Studio, Ellie Tuckey and Mitra Homolja, have focussed their proposal on the public housing built on Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai, Aotearoa’s most densely populated flood plain. By undertaking interviews and workshops with local iwi, environmental innovators, Kāinga Ora personnel and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development key personnel, the pair intend to investigate circular economy construction methods that might allow public housing in the area to proactively adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The inaugural recipient/s of the Fellowship will be announced at the New Zealand Architecture Awards on November 16th.