Home Magazine Finalist Lighting Design 2024

Strowan House Alteration is a transformative renovation of a 1910s villa in Christchurch. This project aimed to preserve the villa’s historical charm while introducing modern amenities and design elements to create a home that embodies robust elegance and refined practicality.

The renovation focuses on creating a space that is both modern and timeless, emphasizing tactile luxury and ensuring that the spaces are light-filled and inviting. The design concept seamlessly integrates the villa’s historical charm with contemporary features, striking a perfect balance between opulence and understated elegance.

We carefully reorganized the circulation of the main spaces—kitchen, living, and laundry—to enhance day-to-day functionality, incorporating a scullery and improving the connection to the outdoor living areas.

NZIA 2023 Awards

Winner - Housing award

Awards citation:

The architect achieved a variety of spaces despite working within the constraints of a prefabrication module and a rational structural and thermal envelope. The steep site and infrastructure constraints are cleverly negotiated, resulting in a compact house with well-defined outdoor rooms that provide the opportunity for living to expand and contract. The house services the needs of a family of five and creates space for interaction and refuge by integrating an outdoor room into its heart. Skilful architecture affords this family a low-energy, low-maintenance, high-delight life.

Tucked away in a serene spot overlooking Sumner valley in Christchurch this four bedroom ‘suburban apartment’ sits perched on exposed steel framing. The home features a pair of picture frame windows that look out over the valley and sea.

The spaces are designed to be efficient, however the sloped ceilings provide a sense of additional volume and space. A limited colour palette provides interest through contrast.

When approaching an interior we look at the whole space as opposed to room by room and enjoy the process of collecting materials that promote a sense of harmony. The repetition of materials, including oak flooring, quartzite, whitewashed birch ply joinery, leather & linens, promotes a sense of calm & order.

The home organises itself around the kitchen & dining area where guests are informally received giving the home a relaxed vibe. In the summer, walls open to extend the space to the exterior decks.

NZIA Awards 2022
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

Awards citation -

This addition to the Ōtākaro East Frame area of Christchurch CBD is a masterful display of multi-unit housing. Well resolved and deceptively simple forms come together to achieve a considered relationship to the adjacent heritage façade to the north, Rauora Park to the west, and an existing carpark building behind.

Thoughtful spatial planning has achieved lofty, light-filled interiors, with services and storage components cleverly tucked out of view. Elegantly proportioned windows and refined brick detailing achieve an economical and robust outcome for this urban setting.

AW Architects’ attention to detail, and thoughtful urban response, has delivered an exceptional contribution to the ongoing residential densification of Ōtautahi Christchurch.

NZIA Awards 2021
Winner - Southern Architecture Award

Awards citation -

Three separate pods organised in a clear, geometrical form are oriented to the lake and connected by a glazed passage, which creates a set of courtyards. These spaces, responsive to sun and wind, invite occupation at any time of day, throughout the seasons. The central pod contains the living activities of the family, a second pod accommodates guest bedrooms and garages, and the third is the owners’ bedroom. A robust palette of natural cladding materials and quirky details enlivens the exterior.

Designed as a modern suburban cottage, the design intention was to provide a home that wrapped around the owner to feel comfortable for solitary living. Yet it is big enough to embrace and entertain family and friends.

Comfort and light in daily routines were emphasised in the planning of the house. The kitchen sits neatly behind a leathered concrete bench top with bar seating for informal interactions. The connection with the street front allows interaction with nieghbours and passersby with a sense of security.

A restrained material palette of natural oak flooring and birch joinery allows the owners eclectic art collection to stand out. It also conveys a sense of peace and harmony. This is echoed in the link between interior and exterior created by the meticulously manicured landscape.

The house was designed using prefabricated panels designed by AW Architects in conjunction with the builder Avon Dickie Construction. This minimised time onsite with a total build programme of 6 months.

The panels incorporate an vapour barrier with an external membrane and over sized walls for extra insulation to ensure a comfortable low energy home.

NZIA Awards 2022
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

Awards citation -

A private, rear section alongside the Wairarapa Stream provides a tranquil setting for this serene new home. Two offset gabled forms, joined by a glazed entranceway, create a connection to the stream environment to the west and a garden courtyard to the north, ensuring its owners have multiple options for entertaining, relaxing, and gardening.

The natural cedar exterior complements the home’s riparian setting, while large, slatted sliders allow owners to close-off-from, or open-out-to their green surrounds at different times of day, or year. With a high standard of design detailing, material use and moments of surprise within, the architect has created a relaxing, calm and warm home for his clients to enjoy.

NZIA Awards 2021
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

Awards citation -

The He Puna Taimoana development in New Brighton consists of five hot pools, a plunge pool, sauna, steam room and an enclosed relaxation area. It is conceived as a careful reconciliation between the dynamic nature of the ocean and man-made forms. That tension and balance is translated through the architectural and sculptural forming of the landscape, pools and buildings. The site is terraced to provide shelter from the prevailing wind, while the built forms “wrap, crack and push out” to create shelter and shade. The material palette enhances the building’s architectural integrity through the everchanging weather and landscape conditions.

Perched in the Port Hills above Christchurch, this house commands a panoramic outlook over the city from the Southern Alps up to the Kaikoura ranges.

The dark hued solid plaster ground floor anchors the house while the light bronze anodised top box floats above like a lantern.

The design creates multiple sheltered zones with large roof overhangs and deck spaces in a setting exposed to high winds and heat. Extensive landscaping features volcanic rock walls, lawn terraces, paving and gravel pathways softened with grassy mounds, shrubs and trees.

The entry contains a slate wall and full height cedar pivot doors. Warm oak flooring continues throughout, while full height glazing flows seamlessly to the exterior. A mixture of white and birch joinery along quartzite benchtops feature in the home, and neutral walls provide space for the owners large works of art.

NZIA Awards 2020
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

Awards citation -

Confidently positioned on the crest on an undulating landscape, this dwelling snakes along its underlying topography. The built form results is a play between mass and transparency, lightly touching the site at the upper level and hunkering in at the lower to create a clear connection to view, landscape and gully. Multiple outdoor living areas are provided by the simple plan, forming shelter from prevailing exposures, while a gentle crank in roof form allows this dwelling to sit unobtrusively within its wider setting. Despite use of prefabricated and modular construction elements, this building feels anything but off-the-shelf. A simple, well considered architectural response that provides a new model for living in more sympathetically within our grand landscapes.

NZIA Awards 2016
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

Awards citation -

On a narrow Sumner section, this modest home - a rebuild option for clients who were red-zoned further up the valley - wraps considerately around a large maple tree and a private courtyard.

From low-slung street frontage, the house subtly bends and folds up to accommodate a second level to the rear. With a simple palette of new and recycled materials, clever planning and intelligent composition this is an award winning contemporary home.

NZIA Awards 2012
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

This house is an exciting insertion into a drab suburban landscape. A well-considered use of materials, in particular, cor-ten steel, artful detailing and a well laid out plan combine to form an exciting home.

The cladding in its raw form wraps and protects the house, while the planning configuration opens the rooms to an expansive vista. Clever details such as the glazed wall stair and glazed garage assist to float the form above the landscape and place the occupant in the view.

Hidden down a long drive the house rises stoically on a generous section bordered by trees. An East - West running plan gives the spaces a common view of the leafy garden to the North. A series of bifolding doors from the dining space allows the interior to connect with an external deck and wider site.

The precast concrete wing walls add a veil of privacy between the interior and exterior life of this voluminous home. The exterior finishes focus on a natural material palette of steel, concrete and timber. Meanwhile the interior spaces are playful with colourful tile selections and bespoke finishes. The dramatic double height full glazed open living spaces contrast the more intimate spaces of the home. This shift in ceiling height and change in materiality helps to delineate between the varying functions of the rooms.

NZIA Awards 2017
Winner - Canterbury Architecture Award

The Christchurch Adventure Park (CAP) consists of four simple building forms wrapped in black metal cladding and lined with pine plywood that are placed within a forest of pines to create a Village Green atmosphere.

The cafe concept is based on a folded roof plane draped over a series of timber posts and beams. The roof cantilevers out over a large deck area, with views out to the wider park. The cafe is sited to be slightly elevated, however sits well in its landscape.

Elements were prefabricated to help ease constraints of the project such as a tight time-frame and budget. Clear definition of architectural elements and a consistency of approach have resulted in an award winning outcome.

AW Architects and 1.618 Architecture Studio were approached by Fletcher Living Development (FRL) in late 2016 to review a previously consented Multi Unit proposal for the Old School Site at 350 Colombo St in Sydenham.

The client brief was to rework the typology mix through the development, and potentially reuse some of the inground infrastructure that had already been built. Working closely with FRL, the team looked at various options but landed on a strategy to reuse as much as possible of the built elements so as to minimise unnecessary waste.

The revised scheme was to better respond and reflect the context of the light industrial urban setting, and recognise Sydenham as an up and coming city fringe location that is attractive to those looking for affordable housing within 2km of the city centre with great public transport links.

The site is bounded by Brougham St (a main arterial route), Colombo St, (Christchurch’s main North / South axis) and two inner city feeder streets being Waverley St to the North, and Buchan St to the East.

The Masterplan is organised around a central communal space, with walkways linking it to the surrounding urban amenity and public transport nodes. The inward focus fosters a sense of community and repose in the bustling urban industrial environment.

The mixed use commercial building fronts Colombo St, with ground floor retail and two level, 2 bedrooms terraces over. The balance of the site comprises of a mix of one bedroom units and two bedroom, two storey terrace homes arranged to create village type pedestrian streets.

The building forms reflect shapes found locally in the Sydenham area, with low slope roof pitches creating a playful rhythm across the site. Although only two storeys, the built forms are purposefully tall, using the roof pitch to create additional volumes to better bound and frame the internal spaces. The Colombo St building is broken down into finer grained modules to enhance the streetwall and ultimately frame the entrance to the city from the South.

Landscape features are used to cluster parking which is positioned to be accessed by all buildings but does not dominate the central lawn and communal gathering spaces. Care was taken to retain the original trees from the school site.

The generous use of colour as wayfinding reinforces the playful nature of the development and again reflects the wider use of colour through Sydenham’s built form.

Sustainability

The key idea in this multi-unit development is to create modern, affordable and attractive living environments that promote a compact approach to living. Each apartment offers a full depth floor plan providing natural cross-ventilation. Either north or east-west facing allows daylight and sun penetration into the spaces. The buildings are positioned and set apart to minimise over shadowing, and creates space for courtyards and planting which allows good outlook and ensures high levels of natural light.

Low maintenance fibre cement and metal cladding has been used. High spec thermal and acoustic insulation, along with double glazing aims to reduce energy usage. LED lighting and efficient appliances all contribute to an appealing living space.

The design and site layout look to promote alternative modes of transport including walking and cycling. Reduced car park numbers as well as quality cycle parking facilities and additional storage facilities encourage non car based transportation modes.

The Tai Tapu house is situated on a west facing hill on the lower slopes of the Port Hills, falling within the Outstanding Natural Landscape zone, and was subject to a rigorous resource consent process in regards to its visual impact.

The building is nestled into the land, bunkering in with upper level landscape walls, allowing the prevailing winds to roll over the top of the house and courtyard and reducing its imprint on the landscape.

The material palette emphasises the sculptural form – a slick black wedge of Swiss Pearl expressed panels, with has areas of relief cut into it in monolithic white. The retaining walls are treated in a monolithic natural plaster rising out of the landscape. Timber decking and flooring brings warmth to the material palette.

Volcanic ridge lines are echoed by the angular dimension of this unique roof profile. Taking cues from the nature, the cedar cladding, decking, and exposed corten steel give a sense of place. The laser cut corten steel screens break up the natural elements and add visual impact to the entrance.

Interior Awards 2016
Winner - Workplace (Up to 1,000m2)

Best Awards 2015 - Silver
Colour Award Spatial

Best Awards 2015 - Bronze
Office & Workplace Environments

Accommodating multiple businesses into half the previous space while maintaining comfortable areas was key for this Christchurch workplace. Housing architects, designers, interior and landscape architects, the space needed to reflect its inhabitants and their design ethos with inherent flexibility.

A building penciled in to be demolished was the canvas, and we started by restoring the roof to its original rimu sarking and finishing the insides of the external walls in a natural plaster, leaving all the beams exposed. A real feature is the black strandboard producing a tessellated, almost psychedelic look.

The Interiors Awards Judges described the design as “ingenious space planning and the judicious use of colour produce an unexpected cross between grunge and minimalism; between bohemian art studio and a successful hovel of creativity”

This contempory building is designed to maximise the connection to the pedestrian spaces, incorporating extensive ground floor glazing and entrances, complimented with upper floor Juliet balconies.

The immersive frontage includes vertical perforated bronze anodised aluminium fins set at contrasting levels to reference the site’s origin as two separate titles.

Recessed balconies are also a feature of the Cashel St façade, aincluding the top floor apartment being set back to give the building a smaller visual scale.

This modern abode uses a combination of texture, elevations and spatial awareness to truly highlight the space.

The main focus was the road appeal with the dramatic elevated wooden panel bedroom, framed by the multi textural entrance of formed concrete tessellation, large tile driveway, and complimentary plantings.

Particular attention was given to the indoor outdoor flow for the entertaining aspect of this suburban home.

This project is a refurbishment of pre-existing Buildings designed by Sheppard & Rout. The brief was to restyle the hot spring complex to align with the ethos of ‘wellness and being at one with nature’. The eco-resort generates its own hydro electricity and sustainablilty was a core value needing reflection in our design. We pared back the colours and patterns, to focus on a consistent palette of materials drawn from the surrounding alpine environment; the river, rocks, mountains, beech forest, local vernacular & found objects. Timber headboards feature throughout the accommodation rooms, and work with the timber ceilings in the existing mountainside rooms. Stones collected from the river are reimagined as coat, robe, towel hooks in the accommodation and the changing room facilities. A steam room and sauna room were added to the existing changing room block. Large glazed walls face the pools, river and mountains. The materials of timber and stone reflect the surrounding forest and mountains.

Best Awards 2018 - Gold
Hospitality

A microbrewery, restaurant & bar located in Sydenham, Christchurch. This multifaceted offering is unique in its commitment to sustainability and the desire to connect with local community. 

The clients were keen to integrate sustainable initiatives into the project. The Fermentist is a test bed for innovation - providing a commercial platform for new ideas. Solar panels on the roof, rainwater harvesting, repurposing of existing furniture, use of LED's and sourcing fare from suppliers who are similarly green-minded are some of the ways they aim to achieve this. 

The space itself is arranged to house the restaurant, bar and open kitchen in the main double height space with a small private tasting room tucked into a corner. Large glazed double doors and a series of windows separate this space from the commercial facilities. The brewery and the canning operation line either side of the back entry passage. Entry from the carpark directs patrons between the facilities where one can observe a close-up view of the process – the sounds, steam & smell.

After inheriting an existing building, we stripped back years of office fit-outs, false ceilings and fluorescent lights to expose the bricks, concrete-beams and a series of existing skylights, previously concealed. The resultant natural light adds another dimension to the space.

In the brewery the kettles and equipment largely speak for themselves. A clean stainless steel aesthetic contrasts the restaurant where we aimed to bring warmth into the industrial shell. The commitment to sustainability coupled with a limited fitout budget lead to a material palette of laminated pine for the custom furniture, recycled/reused oak for the bar, and a number of features in steel, pressed metal, mirror and brass. Bespoke handcrafted lighting unifies the space. A surprise of the fitout is the tasting room which is housed in the historic concrete bank vault. A hidden gem – occupants enter an intimate space where two circular mirrors see you enjoy a beverage in “infinity”, with feature lighting and a brass clad ceiling. 

Flexible furniture (much of which is strategically on castors) allows for the space to be easily transformed with longer shared tables and bar units along with more traditional tables.

The vision for the Governors Bay Community Centre called to integrate the ideas and aspirations of the community from the outset, fostering pride of place and sense of community ownership over the project.

The building is split into two forms, the Community Centre proper, and an external WC block that doubles as a public facility to service the large number of walkers that begin a coastal trail from the Governors Bay Wharf. These two main forms are connected via a polycarbonate canopy that extends to the street and creates a sense of entrance and arrival.

The single-pitch roof extends out at an angle from the southern and northern walls creating covered decks at each end and the external material palette consists of black vertical ribbed colour steel cladding, white fibre cement board and natural horizontal cedar weatherboards.

Integrate the ideas and aspirations of the community from the outset to foster a pride of place and sense of community ownership over the project. (copied text)

The St John Hub was designed to facilitate a fast moving, critical service for the city of Christchurch. Ambulances return to base to be cleaned, disinfected and restocked, ready for the next emergency. This location also had to accommodate storage for supplies, vehicles and staffing requirements.

Key directives were for practical pathways in this high use environment, with design focused on hygiene and cleanliness. Polycarbonate was used to enhance natural lighting in a high ceiling situation and the frontage was modern, clean and clear.