A suburban family home by studio LWA, the sustainable yet luxurious Hotel Britomart and one of the country’s most iconic heritage buildings, by Warren and Mahoney have won New Zealand’s top architecture awards.
Our House by studio LWA, The Hotel Britomart by Cheshire Architects and Christchurch Town Hall by Warren and Mahoney Architects are all winners of 2021 Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects’ named awards.
The awards, named after influential New Zealand architects Sir Ian Athfield (housing), Sir Miles Warren (commercial architecture), and John Scott (public architecture) have been presented annually for outstanding projects since 2015.
The winner of the 2021 Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing, Our House by studio LWA is a modest bungalow built on a tight, subdivided section in the Auckland suburb of Westmere. Designed by architect Lisa Webb of studio LWA for her own family, Our House is described by the jury as “an inspirational window into what the future of Auckland could look like”.
This year, the Sir Miles Warren Award for Commercial Architecture went to The Hotel Britomart by Cheshire Architects. The 5 Green Star-rated hotel in Tāmaki Makaurau “interfaces gracefully with adjacent heritage architecture, creating intricate spatial experiences for those who move through this building and the laneway it creates”, the jury says.
Named after architect John Scott, who was known for his melding of Pākehā and Māori architecture to create his own inimitable style, this year’s award for public architecture goes to the Christchurch Town Hall by Warren and Mahoney Architects. Recently restored after the devastating Canterbury earthquakes rendered it unusable, this award recognises both the magnificence of the original 1970s building, and the immense effort made to bring it back to life.
A fourth award, the Ted McCoy Award for Education, was not awarded in 2021.
About the Named Awards
In 2015, Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects’ named awards became the country's highest tier of architectural achievement for an individual project.
Named awards are conferred in categories of public, commercial and residential architecture. They are named for influential New Zealand architects Sir Ian Athfield, Sir Miles Warren and John Scott. Each of these architects, in their own way, has made a powerful contribution to the practice of architecture in New Zealand.