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| First Trans-Tasman Timber Design Awards announced |
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| Monday, 20 December 2010 00:00 |
In this, the first year of the Trans-Tasman Awards, three award categories were offered:
Judges were drawn from the judging panels of the Australian and the New Zealand Timber Design Awards. They comprised Elvon Young and Ross Davison from New Zealand, and Kate St James, Richard Hough, Michael O’Donnell and Brian Hopper from Australia. “We are delighted that such a classy line-up of projects was available for our judges to pick from,” says Geoff Henley, Programme Manager of NZ Wood, the New Zealand sponsors of the Awards. Australian designers won two of the three categories on offer. Winner of the residential category was Burridge Read Residence by architect David Boyle of David Boyle Architects. Set on a sloping wooded block adjacent to a national park, this project is notable for its sculptural quality and for the assured manner in which it captures the essence of its setting. “The imaginative design and detailed crafting of this building propelled it into first place in the recent Australian Timber Design Awards – and it is a worthy winner of a Trans-Tasman Award,” says Andrew Dunn, chief executive of the Australian Timber Development Association, the Australian organiser of the Awards. The category for commercial construction was also won by an Australian entry: Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa by Turner and Associates Architects and Taylor Thomson Whitting Consulting Engineers. The architecture of this luxury lodge is honest, refined, and quiet. It defers to the natural beauty, scale and complexity of its unique site: a national park at the base of the Blue Mountains. The design references identifiable Australian rural building forms, enriching them with refined contemporary elements. “This is another structure in which wood is used to express the essence not only of the building but its location. Also a category winner in the Australian Timber Design Awards, this is an example of a trend towards using traditional materials such as wood and stone to produce a structure of human scale and affinity,” says Andrew Dunn. The recently opened Visitor Centre at the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves, New Zealand, won the community award. This highly imaginative project was brought to life by Dunning Thornton engineers, Architecture Workshop, Hunter Laminates and Hawkins Construction. It features an innovative wooden-ribbed gridshell, a design as unique as its location. “This project captures the environmental and cultural values of the location with its complex wooden structure containing echoes of the Maori traditions which are so much part of the area,” says Geoff Henley. “Creating this structure was clearly a very challenging undertaking. From a timber design and construction point of view it shows what can be achieved in wood, in multi-storey and multi-dimensional timber construction. It also demonstrates what can be achieved through collaboration between the various parties to a construction,” he says. “There is a strong trend towards the use of wood in all sorts of design and construction. While these awards celebrate top-end design, the use of wood in a wide range of residential and non-residential, and commercial applications, is bringing new dimensions to the built environment in which we live, work and play,” says Geoff Henley. The finalists were: Residential: Burridge Read residence (Aus), Coromandel Beach House (NZ) Hilltop House, Mountain Range House Commercial: Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat Spa Sanctury (Aus), MAF Multipurpose Building (NZ), Sales Pavillion/Community Centre for Fraser (NZ), Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa Community: Arts, Conference and entertainment Centre, Regatta Foreshore Kiosk and Amenities Building, Supreme Court (NZ), Waitomo Caves Visitors’ Centre The Australian and New Zealand Timber Design Awards may be viewed at: Aus: www.timberawards.com.au NZ: www.nzwood.co.nz/timber-design-awards-2010/ |
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