LOCAL AWARD WINNING DESIGNS

home Winning, inspirational designs

WORDS LYNDA PAPESCH Every year architects, builders and contractors are judged by their peers in a variety of competitions that showcase the best in new homes and commercial buildings throughout New Zealand.

Winner of the Resene Total Colour Commercial Interior Public + Retail Award: gin gin – Cocktail Bar + Eatery by Brett and Hollis Giddens. Photo Sarah Rowlands Many of the award-winning builds feature on these pages and in industry magazines, providing readers with inspiration and contacts for building their own future homes and projects.

If you are looking for ideas, here are some of the places to head:

Master Builders House of the Year

This prestigious competition celebrates building excellence in New Zealand. It awards the best homes and builders and the craftsmanship behind them, starting with regional competitions, then picking the Top 100, before settling on the national winners. Visit houseoftheyear.co.nz

Architectural Designers New Zealand Awards

A professional body for architectural designers and architects in New Zealand, the ADNZ also hold annual awards, from regional up to national level. They are strong champions of promoting and enhancing New Zealand design and architecture. Visit adnz.org.nz

Resene Total Colour Awards

A celebration of all things colour, these awards judge building interior and exterior colour schemes, from neutral to bright, pastel to weathered. From classical architecture to retail outlets, restaurants and homes, these awards are all about colour choices. Visit resene.co.nz

Proud to have partnered with Gregg Builders on this award-winning project.

Renowned for Exceptional Joinery

home Planting trees that count

Known for their ingenuity and DIY solutions, Kiwis constantly fi nd ways and means to better our country. Among those are initiatives designed to help mitigate New Zealand’s carbon footprint by planting native trees, and another that helps to save our native kiwi species.

About Signature Homes

Signature Homes is a privately-owned New Zealand-based company, working with franchise and construction partners. It offers design and build packages, plus a range of house and land packages and pre-designed homes. Now helping both those initiatives is Kiwi housing company Signature Homes, partnering with both the Trees That Count movement and the Save the Kiwi organisation.

Trees That Count plants native tree species to help reduce emissions, strengthen New Zealand’s biodiversity and help forest ecosystems to thrive.

Signature Homes approach to delivering better for the environment building methods is already underway, focusing on counteracting their emissions by planting native trees. Under their current build programme, they expect to be planting around 45,000 trees per year, which will absorb approximately 19,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions over the next 50 years as those trees continue to grow.

Company Chief Executive Paul Bull expects Signature will plant around 45 native trees for every home it builds. It commissioned its own research to determine how many trees would be required to counter the emissions from building a three-bedroom home, from supply chain and materialsourcing to transport and fuel.

“We currently sell approximately 1000 homes a year, and realised that results in a significant carbon footprint,” he says. “We were determined to make our contribution to New Zealand’s goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050 and build a better future for Kiwis.”

The company also plans to lead the industry in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from housing construction.

“We have been building homes since 1983 and our name is synonymous with quality and continuous improvement. This is part of our commitment to New Zealanders that building a new home should not cost the environment.”

To support the native tree initiative, Signature Homes has also signed on as a sponsor of Save the Kiwi, the national kiwi recovery programme.

“They [kiwis] are a strong indicator of the health of our natural environment. More kiwis in our native bush means there are fewer predators around and few predators means more opportunities for other native birds and insects to thrive,” says Mr Bull.

Award-winning solution for extreme site

Low key and timeless, the award-winning Black Quail House in Central Otago is both home to its owners and also a wine tasting room for their business.

Designed by Barcelona-based Bergendy Cooke Architects, the contemporary masterpiece nestles into a rocky hillside on a site dotted with wild thyme and rosehip. Located within historic mining tailings in a craggy, dry and at times inhospitable landscape, this house recently won the HOME magazine House of the Year Award for 2021.

Needing protection from the elements without hiding from its extraordinary surroundings, created a unique home.

“We wedged the house into the hillside (like the former stone miners’ huts still visible further up the valley) for protection from the elements, and opened up views to the river below and to the family’s vineyard above,” says Bergendy.

A courtyard located to the south of the main living area has dictated a typically orthogonal floor plan, offering an essential, secondary, protected exterior area and an opportunity to grow a lush garden, directly contrasting the harsh environment outside.

Smaller courtyards to the east and west offer varying extended living scenarios and enhance the transparency throughout the building.

Inspired by the rocky terrain, precast concrete walls were chosen as the main form of wall construction. A gentle sloped roof covered with shingle from the site accentuates the idea that the house is firmly imbedded in the landscape. Stone from site interspersed with precast concrete creates the outlying walls. Weathered steel cladding around the entry and garage make up the exterior palette, while to the interior wood panelling and wooden joinery items offer a warmer contrast to the robust exterior.

Joinery specialists

The kitchen and joinery, including doors, are the work of Waimate-based McMaster Joinery.

Founded in 1981 by Des McMaster, the business was built on manufacturing house joinery in the Waimate, Otago and Central Otago regions. Projects have included large houses such as Black Quail, in addition to hotel and motel fit-outs.

Kitchens are a specialty, with both a design and an installation service available, along with incorporating specialised cabinet and benchtop finishes.

A member of the Master Joiners Association, McMaster Joinery also creates staircases, vanities, and high spec double-glazed wooden windows and doors, complete with drought seals.(NZS4211 Affiliated), plus retro fitting of double-glazed units into existing wooden windows and doors.

www.mcmasterjoinery.co.nz

• KITCHENS • VANITIES • WOODEN WINDOWS & DOORS • STAIRCASES

Raising the bar

Designing and developing an inner-city health club proved an opportunity not to be missed. The end result is a Supreme Award-winning, resort-like facility, thanks to Christchurchbased Wilson and Hill Architects.

Providing architecture of a high calibre, Wilson and Hill is driven by a consistent philosophical approach, not a predetermined style, says director Stuart Hay.

Its philosophy to embrace modernist architecture and produce clean, spacious and light designs came to the fore in IHF Health Club, located in The Crossing in Cashel Street, in central Christchurch.

Turning three separate buildings, from the 1930s to 2016, into a relaxing health club was an “amazing opportunity,” says Stuart.

Health club director Dan Hood agrees. “There’s never been a well-thought-out health club here before and now there is. Even though it has its activity zones, it still has a resort-like feel,” he says.

Having different identities for each space was an important part of the project, both in its design and the end look and feel. The club blends heritage and contemporary features throughout, and includes a yoga studio, various exercise apparatus areas, and a full members’ lounge that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

At the New Zealand Exercise Industry Awards this month, the IHF Health Club - Christchurch won the Supreme Award and was named Idependent Facility of the Year.

Judges noted that the club “is at the pinnacle of high end facilities”.

www.wilsonandhill.co.nz

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