Awards for the year’s best Southern Architecture

05 June 2018

Dunedin’s restored Law Courts, a modern counterpart to the historic Eichardt’s Building in Queenstown and a series of small shelters for an Invercargill Estuary Walkway are among the winners in the 2018 Southern Architecture Awards which were announced at an event at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin on 8 June.

The Southern Architecture Awards are part of the peer-reviewed New Zealand Architecture Awards programme run by the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA). The programme, sponsored by Resene since 1990, sets the benchmark for the country’s buildings and recognises the contribution of architects to their towns and communities.

Jury convenor Regan Hall said he was delighted to make 13 awards and was particularly impressed with those projects with a heritage aspect.

“These complex projects highlight the architect’s ability to positively influence and shape cities and towns,” Hall said. “Heritage restoration work needs to be nuanced and sympathetic, while inserting a new building into a heritage context requires a complete understanding of scale and proportion.”

“It also calls for a certain amount of bravery if you do not simply wish to echo the style of a previous era.”

Hall was joined on the awards jury by Queenstown architect Rafe Maclean, Christchurch architect Vanessa Carswell, and Tommy Honey, an Auckland-based arts and architecture commentator and educator.

View winning projects with abbreviated jury comments in the gallery below or scroll down for a list of winners by category.