2011 AAA Cavalier Bremworth Unbuilt Architecture Award Winners
100 'rooms of solitude', a plan to create a new East River
walkway in New York featuring a disused aircraft carrier and the
integration of the earthquake-ravaged ruins of a Lyttelton convent
into a new structure are the three diverse winners in this year's
AAA Cavalier Bremworth Unbuilt Architecture Awards.
Guest international judge, architect Kerry Hill, from
Singapore-based Kerry Hill Architects, noted that the student
work was equal to that found internationally and augured well for
the future of architecture in New Zealand.

Yumian (Dino) Chai's winning entry in the student
section featured 100 models, all representing 100 days of
memories. The judges declared it "an intelligent,
experimental, poetic, universal, endlessly inventive, delicate and
sensitive project that fully expressed the potential of the award
and demonstrated a maturity that stood out from the
rest".
Student runner-up was Clayton Prest for 'Tipu Spiritual
Retreat'; Highly Commended was Claudia Weber for 'Implementing
Permaculture into a Refugee Camp.
This year the Open category was split into two sections -
Conceptual and Work-in-Progress.

Gerald Melling of Melling Morse in Wellington was the
winner in the Open Work-in-Progress section with
his St Mary's Convent residential project in Lyttelton. The
architecture is predicated on the idea of light, timber-framed
glazed 'boxes' perched on the heavy walls and/or footings of the
existing 'ruins'. The thin flat roofs were influenced by the
existing portico, acting as both the planning and architectural
hinge to the swing of the site. The judges said the proposal
displayed great clarity and maturity in planning, proportions, and
materiality.
Runner-up in the Work-in-Progress section was RTA Studio for
their mixed use cafe/retail/office project in Ponsonby.
The Open Conceptual section was won by a
quartet from Burgess & Treep - Graeme Burgess, Michael Strange,
Vance Bentley and Sybil Bloomfield. Their project to create a
new floating park on the East River in New York incorporating a
decommissioned aircraft carrier 'demonstrated the imaginative type
of thinking that could be applied to the Auckland waterfront' noted
the judges.
Runner-up in the Conceptual Section was Jonathan Gibb for The
Green Cage, a mixed residential and art space set into a bare inner
city lot.
This year's judging panel included Kerry Hill from Kerry Hill
Architects in Singapore, Andrew Patterson of Patterson Associates
and Nat Cheshire from Cheshire Architects.
The awards were held at the St Paul St Gallery in Auckland last
evening. For for the first time in the event's 20 year
history, the work will now be open for public viewing. The
gallery will showcase work until Sunday 20 November, 10am to 5pm on
Friday 18th, and then 12pm-4pm on Saturday and Sunday.