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. ( Full results table below).

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. 

Full 2011 Results:

Student Winner	Yumian (Dino) Chai	100 Rooms of Solitude
Student Runner Up	Clayton Prest	Tipu Spiritual Retreat
Student Highly Commended	Claudia Weber	Implementing permaculture into a refugee camp
Student Commended	Erxin Shang	A 'Pulpitumic' school
Student Commended	Raukura Turei	Looking Up Skirts
Student Commended	Anthea Du	Carbon Negative Architecture
Student Commended	Melanie Pau	Repopulating Chch Central City
Student Commended	John Kim	Weak Architecture
Student Commended	Benita Simati Kumar	Fale Va: How a Samoan ritual activates the construction of space
Student Commended	Jessica Mentis	Unfolding the Helen Clarke Prime Ministerial Library
Open Conceptual Winner	Graeme Burgess, Michael STrange, Vance Bentley & Sybyl Bloomfield, Burgess & Treep	A design for the East River between 38th and 60th street
Open Conceptual Runner Up	Jonathan Gibb	The Green Cage
Open conceptual Commended	Mike Hartley & Ben Lloyd	My dragon
Open conceptual Commended	Sean Flanagan	Playhouse
Open conceptual Commended	Fraser Moore, Mark Craven & Kenneth Li	Olympic Games Information Pavilion
Open Work in Progress Winner	Gerald Melling, Melling Morse	St Mary's Convent, Lyttelton
Open Work in Progress Runner Up	RTA Studio	Mixed use cafe/retail/office, Ponsonby
Open Work in Progress Commended	Barry Copeland, Copeland Associates Architects	Auckland Harbour Bridge Walkway

 

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