Wei, a registered architect at Moller Architects, and Yuan, a undertaking supervisor at Waipapa Taumata Rau College of Auckland, have been awarded the fellowship to analyze Unfastened-fit Futures, an idea that explores tips on how to cut back the insulated core of a house to solely important features, whereas extending further areas with loose-fit constructions.
Such areas are multi-functional areas designed for gathering, working and different actions however don’t carry the price or regulation burden of absolutely enclosed rooms. Impressed by Māori, Pasifika and migrant populations in Aotearoa, these areas may remodel reasonably priced housing typologies.
As a part of their analysis, Wei and Yuan will examine spatial prototyping, efficiency testing and regulatory evaluation of Unfastened-fit areas to develop housing designs which can be reasonably priced and resilient throughout completely different web site sorts.
“We’re grateful and honoured to be the recipients of the 2025 fellowship,” says Wei. “Flexibility and flexibility have lengthy been integral to architectural traditions in Aotearoa and we’re excited to discover how these elements may be reinterpreted in modern contexts to create progressive and environment friendly options for reasonably priced housing.”
The Fellowship is called in honour of influential New Zealand authorities architect F. Gordon Wilson and helps analysis that challenges conventions and pushes the boundaries of architectural pondering in New Zealand.
Julia Mandell-Kerr, granddaughter of F. Gordon Wilson, architect and member of the 2025 jury, says the jury was very impressed with this 12 months’s F. Gordon Wilson fellows. “We discovered them to be each daring and pragmatic. Their proposal rethinks how we reside in home areas, retooling the essential organisation of our houses and their relationship to our pure environment. We’re excited to see the place they take their concepts and the way they switch them into real-world purposes.”
Mark Abbot, Chief Government of Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects says: “Cynthia and Norman are precisely the form of recipients the F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship was designed to help — important thinkers with a drive to enhance the social outcomes of structure. Their Unfastened-Match Futures undertaking responds not simply to the housing disaster however to the broader problem of making structure that adapts to the cultures and life of occupants.”
The Unfastened-Match Futures undertaking was considered one of 5 tasks shortlisted in July 2025. The jury comprised of Julia Mandell-Kerr, Dr Kay Saville-Smith, Marko den Breems, Peter McPherson and Brian Donnelly, ONZM. Earlier Fellowship winners embody Patrick Kelly in 2024 and Third Studio in 2023.
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Concerning the F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship
Created in reminiscence of F. Gordon Wilson in partnership between the Wilson household and Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects, the Fellowship is designed to generate analysis into Aotearoa’s unmet housing wants. It seeks to advertise artistic design pondering, downside fixing, and new concepts and approaches via a self-directed analysis and design undertaking. The programme additionally cultivates new housing leaders who can contribute to the continued transformation of reasonably priced housing in Aotearoa New Zealand.
