Announcing the 2024 F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship Shortlist
Three proposals have been shortlisted for the 2024 F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship. Chosen from 27 entries, the shortlisted candidates will present their ideas related to unmet housing needs to the jury in October.
The Fellowship jury, composed of Huia Reriti, Dr Kay Saville-Smith, Marko den Breems, Peter McPherson and Julia Mandell (granddaughter of F. Gordon Wilson), agreed that it was difficult to narrow the field to three finalists.
“I’m very pleased with the first round of our jury process,” says Mandell. “We received a slew of interesting proposals, tackling a diversity of urgent issues. I’m excited to see where the process takes us from here and to choose the next winner of the Fellowship, so we can support their contribution to the future of public housing in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Here’s an introduction to each of the shortlisted proposals:
Lease the Land
Created by Kamelia Haydon, a development manager at Kāinga Ora, Lease the Land proposes a leasehold solution to deliver more affordable social housing. By looking at local developments, as well as overseas social housing developments that are a combination of public private partnership with the land leased to a developer, Haydon proposes investigating a guide for government agencies and private partners on how to create new, successful lease-based social housing.
Wrecking Ball or Refuge?
Princess Margaret Hospital in Ōtautahi Christchurch is the focus of Shaw & Shaw Architects’ proposal. The four-strong group proposes transforming the earthquake-damaged building into a multi-generational, mixed-tenure living environment. The research will also investigate how this adaptive reuse could be used as a blueprint for other sites across Aotearoa New Zealand. Team members include architects Geordie Shaw, Emma Shaw, Mikayla Exton and Johanna Smith.
Paint the Town Blue
Inspired by Bluefield development, an urban infill housing model developed in Australia, architect Patrick Kelly’s proposal looks at how it could be applied to unlock Aotearoa New Zealand’s public housing potential. Employed by Breathe Architecture in Melbourne, Kelly is keen to apply his architectural experience to the Bluefield model to ascertain how Aotearoa New Zealand could densify and improve existing public housing developments.
The recipient/s of this year’s Fellowship will be announced at the New Zealand Architecture Awards on November 22.