Norman Wei and Cynthia Yuan have been awarded the 2025 F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship for Affordable Housing
24 September 2025
The pair, a registered architect at Moller Architects and a project manager at The University of Auckland, have been awarded the fellowship to investigate Loose-fit Futures, a concept that explores how to reduce the code-compliant, insulated core of a home to only essential functions, while extending the additional spaces with Loose-fit structures.
Such spaces are multi-functional areas designed for gathering, working, and other activities, but don’t carry the cost or regulation burden of fully enclosed rooms. Inspired by the way people live in Māori, Pacifica and migrant populations in Aotearoa, these spaces could transform affordable housing typologies.
As part of their research Norman and Cynthia will investigate spatial prototyping, performance testing and regulatory analysis of Loose-fit spaces to develop typologies that are affordable and resilient. A handful of site types will be considered and prototypes will be created.
“We are grateful and honoured to be the recipients of the 2025 fellowship,” says Norman Wei. “Flexibility and adaptability have long been integral to architectural traditions in Aotearoa and we are excited to explore how these aspects can be reinterpreted in contemporary contexts to create innovative and efficient solutions for affordable housing. We look forward to the journey ahead — learning from the mentors and collaborators we will meet along the way, while also engaging in plenty of designing and making throughout the process.”
Julia Mandell-Kerr, granddaughter of the renowned architect F. Gordon Wilson and member of the 2025 jury, says “We’re very impressed with this year’s F. Gordon Wilson fellows. We found them to be both bold and pragmatic. Their proposal rethinks how we live in domestic spaces, retooling the basic organisation of our homes and their relationship to our natural surroundings. Norman and Cynthia are unafraid to offer a vision for living that really pushes the boundaries of current domestic culture. At the same time, they were able to ground that vision in a long history of flexible living in New Zealand. We’re excited to see where they take their ideas and how they transfer them into real world applications.”
Created in memory of F. Gordon Wilson, the fellowship is designed to generate research into Aotearoa’s unmet housing needs. It seeks to promote creative design thinking, problem solving, and new ideas and approaches through a self-directed research and design project. The programme also cultivates new housing leaders who can contribute to the ongoing transformation of affordable housing in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Loose-fit Futures was one of five proposals shortlisted for this year’s fellowship.
