2019/20
Open: Conceptual
Winner: Codex of the Third Landscape by Dan Castro
“Through rigorous extractions of our elemental conditions this project identifies the landscapes of our environmental worlds, as an active participant in this design. The design interventions illustrate the tactility of site as the six conditions facilitate and inform the architecture. However, architectural intervention is not the sole objective of this project and in its stance, this provokes a strong position that is relevant to us. Architecture becomes the negotiated party against the nature of these landscapes. This project plucks, pulls and explodes each earthly component critiquing how site is in both the minute occurrences of the whole. It destabilizes the concept of site being hosts in our practice we embrace its raw nature bringing forth the codex of the Third Landscape.”
Runner-Up: An Anthology of Fictional Objects by Cameron Spicer
Runner-Up: Te Waka Huia by Jesse Ewart, Tyler Harlen, and Jason Tan
Highly Commended: Death and Life of Flora by Akiko Liyanage
Highly Commended: Protest Academia by Jeremy Priest
Open: Work in Progress
Winner: Te Whanau Hou Hut by WIlliam King
“Te Whanau Hou Hut is highly considered and deliberate in its celebration of craftsmanship. Displaying a sensitivity to human scale and an understanding that details matter, that we should be building well, regardless of the limitations of budget. Acting as a subtle critique of consumerism, the mass-produced and easily attained is deliberately rejected in favour of the bespoke. Tactile components crafted from reclaimed materials become heirlooms, something to treasure, rather than dispose of once their initial purpose is fulfilled.”
Highly Commended: The Wood Pavilion by Daniel Fennell, Wenhan Ji, Dorien Viliamu, and Leo Zhu
Student: Undergraduate
Winner: Between Art, Activism and Architecture by Jingyuan Huang
“The winner has a deep understanding of the work of the artist Ai Wei Wei’s strong political agenda and at the same time architecturally resolved spaces. There was a cohesive nature between the act of protesting and protesting via architecture and the implementation of Ai Wei Wei’s political stance. Refreshingly provocative, especially at the undergraduate level, demonstrating a high degree of sophistication - balancing visionary thinking about current political issues with a convincing architectural proposal.”
Runner-Up: The Demise by Mikaela King
Runner-Up: Kāmura; Carpentry Guild & Workshop by Tane Pamatatau-Marques
Highly Commended: Te Kahui - A House and Studio for Ralph Hotere by Matthew Connelly
Student: Postgraduate
+ Supreme Award
Winner: Combobulation Station: Uncanny Architecture for Uncommon Objects by Nicole Teh
“As the title suggests, the Combolutation Station reinvents objects of the Anthropocene through an architectural investigation of a community recycling centre. By reassembling familiar items into new uncanny tools for climate change, the proposal triggers a reflection on the traces we leave, from objects to urban developments. It is a powerful yet subtle critique of the current conversation about the ecological crisis, communicated in a captivating visual language that feels familiar yet new; a distorted version of reality. Combobulation Station offers an immersive experience of a visionary development of our epoch which, although represented as a fictional proposal, confronts us with the reality of our profession’s significant anthropocenic footprint.”
Highly Commended: Happy Hour at the Grogzone by Maito Akiyama
Highly Commended: Faith in Fiordland by Abdallah Alayan
Highly Commended: Childish Architecture in the City by Finn Forstner
Highly Commended: Six Monuments from the North by Jihwan Jeon
Highly Commended: Finding the Mauri by Emily Zheng