2021 Western Architecture Awards Winner
New Zealand Defence Force Waiouru - Officers Barracks & Mess (1984)
While hidden from public view for 36 years, those fortunate enough to have visited the Waiouru Officers Barracks and Mess Hall will know the building exudes both great mana and an understated sense of ceremony. Its enduring quality is a direct result of design decisions that its architect, Eddie Belchambers, made in collaboration with the Ministry of Works and Payne Sewell & Partners Engineers. The barracks were deployed as six north-facing terraces that step up the dramatic sloping site, hugging its contours. Internally, cranked corridors break the mass of the building into a highly coherent pattern of roofs and walls. Capped by the mess hall and bars, the barracks are a rare example of an eight-storey building with seven ground floors, organised around a central lift tower that rises like a concrete stack into the Waiouru sky. Reinforced concrete in a variety of finishes is softened by cedar cladding, trimmed with copper spouting, and blended into the landscape by the organic layout of terraces in varying lengths. The architect deftly steered his design away from the Brutalism that was common at the time and instead created a highly memorable legacy – an alpine wharenui with a rugged organic flavour that marries a rigorous government brief with a thoughtful design.
