Sue Evans

Senior Urban Designer, Housing New Zealand    

Throughout her purposeful career, Sue Evans has championed the cause of good urban design in Auckland, and New Zealand. She has made a valuable  contribution to the significant improvement in urban design policy and practice in Auckland, and is now performing an equally valuable service in her urban design leadership role with Housing New Zealand. Sue has brought perceptiveness and tenacity, in the face of entrenched opinion and established interests, to the challenging task of realising well-designed public spaces in the Auckland CBD and on the revitalised waterfront. She has been a dependable ally of and advocate for architecture, and for the public good, and has lent generous support to design education, having taught at the University of Auckland, AUT and Unitec, and to professional organisations, including Architecture+ Women and the Institute of Architects.

Veronica Green and Sean Duxfield

McGregor Wright Services

Veronica Green and Sean Duxfield have been integral to the campaign to represent New Zealand at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Through the exhibition support company McGregor Wright Services they provided valuable assistance to the Institute in staging the inaugural New Zealand exhibition, Last, Loneliest, Loveliest, in 2014, and assumed greater responsibility for many of the logistical aspects, including staffing and de-installation, of the 2016 Venice exhibition, Future Islands. Veronica and Sean were then closely involved in the touring of Future Islands around New Zealand in 2017–18, installing or helping to install the exhibition in venues in five cities. Their commitment and proficiency, and their collegiality and very helpful attitude, are much appreciated by the Institute of Architects. 

Amisfield Wines

Amisfield Wines’ generous and enthusiastic support for the activities of the Institute  of Architects started with the company’s involvement with New Zealand’s inaugural  pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. It continued at the 2016 Biennale and the subsequent New Zealand tour of the 2016 Venice exhibition, Future Islands, and has extended to other Institute events. Amisfield’s presence at the opening Biennale functions greatly enhanced those events: Venice showed that the ambitions of the company, and of the Institute of Architects, to showcase New Zealand creative talent are perfectly complementary. The Institute greatly appreciates Amisfield’s assistance, and applauds its ongoing interest in and support for New Zealand architecture.

Rhana Devenport

Director, Art Gallery of South Australia 

In her five-year tenure as Director of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Rhana Devenport gave consistent and valued support to the Institute of Architects and its activities. Under her leadership the Gallery generously accommodated and promoted Institute events, shared its contacts and took a collegial interest in Institute activities, and the Gallery’s exhibition programme made the most of an award-winning building. Rhana’s support for New Zealand architecture pre-dated her time at Auckland Art Gallery. As Director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, Rhana was closely involved in the process that realised the much-acclaimed Len Lye Centre, one of the stand-out projects in recent New Zealand architecture. The Institute thanks Rhana for her energetic support for New Zealand’s architects and architecture.