Winners revealed: Nelson and Marlborough Architecture Awards 2026

Fourteen architectural tasks throughout the highest of the South Island have been deemed the perfect in Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects’ Regional Awards this 12 months, together with a backcountry hut, an city parklet, and a number of other coastal houses that take advantage of their pure surrounds.

Most difficult for the jury this 12 months was Brass Monkey Hut, a winner within the Small Venture Structure class designed by Jacobs Architects and located excessive within the Southern Alps within the Lewis Cross Scenic Reserve as a Division of Conservation backcountry hut. The jury settled for an off-site briefing as an alternative of an eight-hour tramp, however had been struck by the design’s response to the acute alpine setting and the dedication of the volunteers and challenge crew in its building.

 The Queen Road Parklet by William Samuels was a winner within the Public Structure class, designed as a part of the Streets for Individuals programme, the place councils throughout Aotearoa trialled streetscape adjustments to allow people-friendly locations and neighbourhoods. The jury praised it as a artistic response to a car-dominated space and help for extra sustainable city dwelling.

 The Housing class was additionally notably sturdy within the Nelson & Marlborough area this 12 months, with the judges awarding 5 tasks spanning from Waipapa Bay close to Kaikoura to Tata Seashore in Golden Bay.

 “The ability of architects was evident this 12 months in distilling the important thing traits of their challenge websites and wider context, utilizing these to drive designs in a method that was clearly seen and appreciated within the accomplished buildings,” says jury convenor and architect Patrick Avery of Untitled Works. “From a sustainability standpoint, it was additionally encouraging to see the clever use of engineered timber parts and constructing programs in lots of the tasks.”

Avery was joined on the jury by Virginia Fay (Studio Virginia Fay), Kevin Lux (Tennent Brown Architects) and lay juror Josephine Cachemaille.

The winners obtained their awards at an occasion at Suter Artwork Gallery in Nelson on 8 Might. 

Industrial Structure

Tinline Growth by Irving Smith Architects

This constructing offers a helpful instance of how the usage of timber in building may very well be elevated by way of structural timber buildings on smaller central metropolis websites. Seen as an expanded model of the Wall-E constructing typology developed by the architects, the challenge efficiently navigates a variety of metropolis planning and tenancy-related constraints. Key options embody the sense of privateness and engagement created by the perforated folded metal screens cladding the entrance and rear of the constructing, and the distinguished structural programs that stay uncovered and are included into tenant designs all through the interiors.

Wakatu Quay Restaurant by Warren and Mahoney

The Wakatu Quay challenge affords a transparent and thought of architectural response, balancing the positioning’s industrial previous with future group use and the sensitivity of the coastal ecology. The result’s a constructing strongly grounded as a substitute and within the rhythms of the Kaikōura shoreline. It really works as a civic marker and gathering level, drawing individuals into an expertise of Kaikōura’s key parts — sky, mountains, and sea. The shape is formed by the native panorama, referencing the area’s tectonic character and the angular limestone geology of the peninsula.

Training

Tāwhaki Nui-a-Hema / Motueka Excessive Faculty Maths and Horticulture Block by Arthouse Architects and Sheppard & Rout Architects

This secondary college classroom constructing demonstrates progress in mass timber building for the Ministry of Training. The constructing mannequin permits customary and specialist instructing areas to be organized in a linear structure, whereas offering flexibility to be used throughout many college campuses in Aotearoa. On this case, it helps a horticulture programme, with sensible inside areas that join on to greenhouses and gardens. Upstairs, heat, light-filled lecture rooms help whole-class studying alongside smaller centered areas beneath a beneficiant gentle shelf. Rigorously chosen supplies rejoice the uncovered construction, encouraging curiosity about how the constructing is made and the way it capabilities.

Housing – Alterations and additions

Black Millar Home by Three Sixty Structure

This challenge provides new life to an iconic coastal Kaikōura property. New areas are rigorously stitched into the unique dwelling, comprising a linear bed room wing, a reconfigured central zone, and a dwelling pavilion opening to a fantastically established backyard panorama. This surgical method has minimised waste, preserving the constructing’s embedded relationship with the land whereas enabling a whole reorganisation of plan and performance. The challenge strikes a stupendous stability between new and outdated, the place each are expressed with uncooked honesty.

RESENE COLOUR AWARD CITATION

Barn crimson is the unifying component on this challenge. With sturdy ties to rural buildings, the scoria tone highlights the encompassing coastal bush and timber cladding from completely different eras. The architect’s constant use of this color helps convey the constructing’s numerous components collectively right into a cohesive entire.

Sharlands Home by Fineline Structure

A fantastically detailed and thought of alteration, formed by the rhythms of the homeowners’ dwelling life, pure supplies, and lightweight. The brand new kitchen is each a extremely purposeful workspace and a refined component, anchored by a powerful central island that helps on a regular basis use and casual gatherings. The reconfigured rest room meets modern wants, with high quality supplies, ease of use, and pure gentle, creating a peaceful, quiet retreat. All the pieces feels pure and acquainted whereas being modernised. The challenge displays sustainability by way of the cautious reuse and transforming of current areas, with considerate detailing and no want for extension.

Housing

Move Home by JTB Architects

Reworked from an ignored web site right into a richly layered dwelling, this challenge demonstrates the potential of infill housing to utilize current suburban infrastructure. Designed with retirement in thoughts, the homeowners can age in place whereas staying related to their group. The courtyard home typology displays the homeowners’ life-style whereas responding to difficult web site constraints. Environmental efficiency is supported by passive air flow and excessive ranges of pure gentle. A north-facing winter backyard helps handle seasonal change, whereas the courtyard structure improves airflow, consolation, and privateness.

RESENE COLOUR AWARD CITATION 

Color is used confidently all through, giving every house its personal character. Daring tones complement the in depth timber finishes, culminating within the kitchen. Exterior, a easy palette of inexperienced zinc and uncooked in-situ concrete creates a powerful, cohesive backdrop to the road.

Ngaio Bay Home by Monk Mackenzie

Positioned on the southern finish of the Abel Tasman Nationwide Park, Ngaio Bay Home consists as a gaggle of buildings formed by the positioning’s contours and local weather. Sandstone partitions prolong from the headland’s geology, enclosing a courtyard and supporting a curved roof that connects inside and panorama. The roof follows the pure contours, rising above the central quantity towards the Nationwide Park. The challenge reveals cautious consideration to materials alternative and detailing, with a plan that frames chosen views to the ocean and panorama whereas creating sheltered outside areas to expertise them.

Oak and Stone by Redbox Architects and Lume Design in affiliation

Tucked into a stupendous bay surrounded by native bush, this vacation dwelling blends luxurious with a powerful connection to nature. Pure stone and mushy timber finishes floor the constructing and add heat, whereas the encompassing whenua and moana create a way of calm. Cautious web site planning orients dwelling areas and bedrooms towards the ocean view. Designed for household summers, the shared areas really feel elegant, sensible, and beneficiant, making good use of solar and shade all through the day. Detailed craftsmanship is clear all through, ending in a timber and metal stair to the higher bedrooms, together with a playful bunkroom tucked beneath a gable.

Tasman Gables by Stufkens + Chambers Architects

Designed for a younger household, this coastal dwelling in a rising subdivision captures panoramic views of Tasman Bay whereas sustaining privateness. Staggered gable types are organized to create sheltered courtyards and sun-filled dwelling areas. Sturdy supplies and passive photo voltaic design mix to type a sustainable setting for household life. The interiors are nicely proportioned, with a restrained however rigorously detailed materials palette. Practical areas are neatly built-in into joinery parts, contributing to a peaceful and composed inside.

Tata Seashore Home by Chaplin Crooks Architects

This merely composed, dark-clad quantity sits comfortably on a steep, bush-clad web site overlooking Tata Seashore. By way of a thought-about spatial sequence, the house connects two scales of panorama — the close by bush and the distant shoreline. Designed for retirement dwelling with house for household and associates, it affords well-proportioned rooms that open onto a collection of sheltered decks with solar, shade, and views throughout Golden Bay. The CLT timber building is clearly expressed all through, including craft and a peaceful rhythm to the inside areas.

Public Structure

Port Tarakohe Administration and Facilities Constructing by JTB Architects

The Port Tarakohe Administration and Facilities Constructing emerges from beneath Golden Bay’s limestone cliffs. Detailing developed with Manawhenua ki Mohua and artist Robin Gradual references Māori navigation and the 700-year-old Anaweka waka, grounding the design in native historical past. Curved façade screens reference pā palisades whereas additionally enhancing passive photo voltaic efficiency. The constructing’s supplies and textures assist it sit naturally in its setting. The plastered façade types a textured, light-responsive floor that displays the limestone bluffs and anchors the constructing inside the coastal panorama.

Queen Road Parklet by William Samuels

A part of the Streets for Individuals programme, the Queen Road Parklet transforms former automotive parks into vibrant public house. It creates a versatile, human-scaled place that enhances road life and encourages individuals to pause, join, and benefit from the environment. The design has two components: a small seating space exterior a dairy and a bigger lined house exterior a pub and fish and chip store, with bike parking and house for a espresso cart between them. Constructed from sturdy elements, it may be dismantled and reused. The challenge responds creatively to a car-dominated space and helps extra sustainable city dwelling.

Small Venture Structure

Brass Monkey Hut by Jacobs Architects

Redefining the easy gable hut, Brass Monkey’s sculptural type seems formed by the prevailing wind, just like the alpine vegetation round it. A sturdy barn-red corrugated metal exterior withstands the acute setting, whereas the ply-lined interiors create heat and body views by way of rigorously positioned home windows. Initially gifted by a benefactor, the challenge attracts on analysis and lengthy expertise in New Zealand’s mountain environments. Robust dedication and generosity from volunteers, suppliers, and the architect have helped ship a constructing designed to endure for a few years to come.

Bunk, Tub & Past by Shaw & Shaw Architects

This modest alteration transforms a storage space right into a playful bunkroom and ensuite for visiting household. An adjoining courtyard is enriched with objects of private that means, together with textured glass panels salvaged from the previous Christchurch Crowne Plaza Lodge and a bath retrieved from an Akaroa financial institution. The brand new house helps the power of household visits whereas sustaining the calm character of the broader home. The challenge displays cautious useful resource use by way of the considerate reuse of current, unused house.

RESENE COLOUR AWARD CITATION

Color is dealt with with a lightweight and thought of method. Working inside the palette of the unique home, the alteration introduces new inside colors that really feel complementary but quietly sudden. Mixed with the crafted timber bunks and ceiling, the nice and cozy tones create a peaceful and restful ambiance.