Waikato, Bay of Plenty Architecture Awards 2024: Wai Ariki Hot Springs and Spa, Tauranga Boys’ College among winners

A luxury spa in Rotorua, new classrooms in Tauranga and “a tiny home for hobbits” are among the 29 award winners in the 2024 Waikato and Bay of Plenty Architecture Awards.

And a “standout project” for the jury was a red corrugated iron home in Tauranga, which successfully used colour to create a “calming environment”.

The winning projects were announced at an event at the Cargo Shed in Tauranga tonight.

The awards jury convenor and architect Matt Grant told the Bay of Plenty Times the jury was impressed with the quality of the work and the “rich environment” the Bay of Plenty offered, including beaches, lakes and rivers.

Grant said successful projects used local knowledge and materials, for example, Wai Ariki Hot Springs and Spa in Rotorua used a lot of scoria and volcanic material.

“It’s the connectedness to the place,” he said.

Grant said Wai Ariki was “incredible” and the building drew upon its history.

“At every turn, there was some narrative and it was so locally informed as well.

“There’s a real circular form of spatial arrangement, like in floor plan, which is traditionally Māori … .”

Grant said the House on a Hill by Stufkens + Chambers Architects in Tauranga was a “real standout project”.

“We loved that – we didn’t want to leave that one.”

Grant said the architect – who designed the home for himself – had children who were sensitive to “extreme colour”, light, noise and sounds.

“He needed to create this sort of calming environment, so colour was used very deliberately to, I guess, soften the internal environment visually and create a calm space. And it works, it’s amazing.”

He said the architect had an attitude that “if there was something that didn’t quite fit, he just went with it”.

Grant said his attitude “created some really cool spaces” and saved the project time and money.

“When you make mistakes, you’ve got to take things out, you’ve got to correct it and you’ve got to put things back in and there’s all sorts of implications. So that wasn’t his intention but it was a positive benefit and it’s such a cool attitude to life and perfections.”

Māori-influenced architecture ‘thriving’ in region

In a New Zealand Institute of Architects press release, Grant said the judges were impressed by the presence of te ao Māori in projects in many categories.

Wai Ariki Hot Springs and Spa, Te Rito O Manaaki Ora (a kaupapa Māori service provider in Rotorua), Te Kura o Manunui (Brookfield School in Tauranga), and Hamilton Kirikiriroa Airport were among the winning projects, imbued with a deep sense of Māori culture and design, the press release said.

Grant said it was clear that iwi consultation was taken “very seriously” in the region and Māori-influenced architecture was “thriving”.

The use of colour to “transform the experience” of being in a building was another theme found in this year’s winners, the press release said.

Six projects would receive Resene Colour Awards including House on A Hill which featured “soothing interior colours to intentionally imbue a sense of calm”.

A “tiny home for hobbits” – nestled by Tilt Architecture into a hillside at Hobbiton – was awarded in the Commercial Architecture category for “their ability to transport visitors to Middle Earth”.

And a new teaching block at Tauranga Boys’ College by Stapleton Elliott was awarded in the Education category.

Grant was joined on the jury by Malcolm Taylor of Malcolm Taylor and Associates, Carl de Leeuw of WSP Architecture, Colette McCartney of GHD Design, and lay juror Anna Wilkinson from Area Design, Hamilton.

Full list of Waikato and Bay of Plenty winners by category

Commercial Architecture

Education

Housing

Housing – Alterations & Additions

Housing – Multi Unit

Interior Architecture

Public Architecture

Small Project Architecture

Enduring Architecture

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.