In the 2019 Warren Trust Awards for Architectural Writing entrants were asked to write about the work of an architect, of any place and time, and to answer the question: What’s so interesting about this architect and his or her work?
Essays were entered in two categories, Secondary School and Open (that is, everyone else), and were judged by: Nicola Legat, publisher, Massey University Press; Lucinda Bennet, an editor of the online publication The Pantograph Punch; and John Walsh, Communications Director of the NZIA.
Ten Warren Trust Awards essays, including the two winning and three highly commended essays, are published annually in a book in the ongoing series 10 stories: writing about architecture. This year, the fifth volume in the series transgresses against precedent by smuggling in another two essays. It does so because in several cases – the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch and Eileen Gray’s E.1027 house in the south of France – authors produced interesting essays on the same building, offering opportunities to compare viewpoints (if not alternative facts).
About the Awards
The Warren Trust Awards for Architectural Writing were established by Te Kahui Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects, with the support of the Warren Trust, in 2015. Their purpose is to encourage longer-form writing about, and an informed interest in, architecture. The annual competition has two sections: open, and secondary school students.
The Institute of Architects thanks all those writers who entered the competition, and encourages anyone interested in the craft of writing and the subject of architecture to enter the Awards in the future.
10 Stories: Writing About Architecture / 5 is available for purchase from the NZIA shop.