The Awards were on 28 April at an event at Onehunga Heliport.

Awards jury convenor, architect Michael O’Sullivan, said the winning projects in the peer-reviewed awards programme set the standard for good architecture in Auckland and Northland.

“Our part of New Zealand is blessed with a landscape full of potential for architectural work relevant to its surroundings,” O’Sullivan said. “We really don’t know how lucky we are. The variety of the region’s topography and the transitions between landscapes are the starting points for much of the great work we saw.”

O’Sullivan undertook a tour of all 48 projects shortlisted for Auckland Architecture Awards with fellow jury members and architects Briar Green, Anne Salmon and Patrick Sloan. In total, 112 projects were entered into the awards. (Winners gallery below. For more images of winning projects go here.)

“We saw a lot of accomplished work,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s clear that increasingly ambitious and knowledgeable clients are being well-served by talented architects practicing with real care and insight.”

Providing further evidence of a traditional strength of New Zealand and local architecture, 15 Awards – nearly half of the total – have gone to housing projects. Most of the Award winners in the residential categories, which include alterations and additions as well as new houses, are located in Auckland city.

O’Sullivan said domestic design projects, such as the E-Type House by RTA Studio, Omahu Road and City Beach House, both by Fearon Hay Architects, and ValleyM by McKinney + Windeatt Architects, show how new buildings can be sensitively inserted into neighbourhoods with heritage qualities.

O’Sullivan added that another Award-winner, the Maidstone Studio by bell + co architecture and Andrew Kissell, is a very engaging example of home-building in an inner-city, mixed-useneighbourhood where the challenges of tough surroundings are offset by a zoning regime that allows for buildings to fully occupy their sites.

The 2016 Auckland Architecture Awards reveal that one housing category remains relatively weak in quality even as its quantity is rapidly increasing, O’Sullivan said.

“Good multi-unit housing is desperately needed in Auckland,” O’Sullivan said, but many of the developer-driven projects of this type are mediocre. “It’s important, given the scepticism around intensification, that Aucklanders are presented with good examples of multi-unit or apartment buildings.”

Two apartment buildings that rise above the pack are Altera and Ilico Apartments, both designed by Warren and Mahoney Architects.

Another architectural type that has seen much recent activity but yielded a disappointing level of distinction is commercial building. O’Sullivan said that Central Park One, designed by Architectus on a site on Great South Road, is a standout project in a tough category.

On a brighter note, the Awards jury described  #LightPathAKL, a ribbon of hot pink that cuts a trail for cyclists and pedestrians through the heart of Auckland’s ‘Spaghetti Junction’, as “an heroic achievement” that provides a symbol of “optimism, ambition and progression” to the wider city.

Another winning project in the public realm had more than its fair share of criticism before opening to a welcoming reception. O’Sullivan said that Te Pātaka Kōrero o Te Hau Kapua – Devonport Library, designed by Athfield Architects for a site on Devonport’s seaside reserve, “won over many of the knockers with its open, accessible planning, connection to street and park, and low-key impact”.

O’Sullivan said the jury was impressed by two unusual projects: an installation designed by Warren and Mahoney and using artwork by Max Gimblett, that raised funds for the preservation of St David’s church, Grafton; and a mausoleum in Waikumete cemetery designed by Architect Associates.

“These surprising projects show that architecture, while attending to its many responsibilities, retains its capacity to delight,” O’Sullivan said.

All winners of 2106 Auckland Architecture Awards are listed below. These projects are eligible for shortlisting in the New Zealand Architecture Awards, which will be decided later in the year, and announced in November.