Resene NZILA Pride of Place Landscape Architecture

GEORGE MALCOLM SUPREME AWARD

KUMUTOTO
Isthmus in association with Studio Pacific Architecture

Category 2b Urban Design
AWARD: GOLD

Like so many other waterside cities, Wellington’s CBD for decades had its back turned on the waterfront that originally gave it life.  Piece by piece, its identity as a harbour city is being put back together with a comprehensive suite of central city waterfront redevelopment projects that is now almost complete.  Benefiting from the attention of some of New Zealand’s top landscape and urban design talents, the enterprise has been characterised by bold thinking, a focus on key relationships and connections, consistent employment of an energised contemporary aesthetic, and respect for the character of those parts of the jigsaw that have already been put in place. 

Isthmus Group and Studio Pacific Architecture’s Kumutoto Wharf Development maintained unflinching emphasis on reconnecting the CBD with its waterfront by throwing open the old wharf gates on Customhouse Quay and insisting on the installation of new pedestrian crossings to facilitate access to the two new plaza that are the project’s key spaces.  Kumutoto Plaza focuses on the symbolically ‘declaimed’ Kumutoto Stream mouth, while Wharf Plaza literally extends the city to the sea with a new wharf extension at the end of the newly-formed plaza.

Without directly repeating the construction detailing of neighbouring sites whose upgrading preceded it, Kumutoto keeps faith with it with a palette of simple, robust materials and design detail that acknowledges the wharf’s working heritage.  Although unashamedly contemporary in its aesthetic, it thus achieves an almost seamless integration with the historic waterfront.  At the same time, the spaces are a perfect fit with the character of the new Meridian building that forms the critical edge to both plaza, and to the colonnade along its seaward side.

The Kumutoto project does not demand attention.  Rather, it is one of those landscape and urban design developments whose excellence lies precisely in the fact that they are ‘just right’.  After decades of anxiety about the potential adverse effects of inappropriate new buildings constructed on the waterfront, Wellingtonians are likely to be now at least partially reassured.  While the need for vigilance remains, a carefully-considered approach to redevelopment of its waterfront can accommodate the well-designed built form that is in fact critical to the definition of human-scale, usable space on the Windy City waterfront.

 

CHARLIE CHALLENGER SUPREME AWARD

MANUKAU CITY COUNCIL RESTORATION PLANTING GUIDELINES: RESTORING OUR NATIVE PLANTS
Boffa Miskell Ltd 

Landscape Planning - Planning and Environmental Design

This outstanding project encompasses the recovery of indigenous forest remnants, biodiversity and the future management of Manukau City’s native plant resource.

It provides a beautifully resolved restoration and biodiversity practice manual, with excellent guidelines to re-establish native plants throughout Manukau City.

It is an extremely important work in the struggle for sustainability in the ecosystems of  Aotearoa New Zealand.

The guidelines are sensitive to respective natural, cultural and physical contexts. They encourage individuals to identify their eco-address and the types of plants that will grow well in their area. 

The project demonstrates the achievement of a clear-sighted approach. The guidelines are exceedingly well structured and easy to use. 

The report is an educational tool, promoting environmental protection and enhancement. It is a practical and very useful tool for the Manukau community at all levels and the approach is relevant regionally, and even nationally.

Glowing references from the client, Manukau City, the Auckland Regional Council and the South Auckland Branch of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.

 

SUSTAINABILITY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

WAITANGI PARK, WELLINGTON
Wraight Athfield Landscape + Architecture Ltd

Category 2c Rural /Park/Recreational
AWARD: GOLD

The 5.8-hectare Waitangi Park is a multi-layered project that currently has no equivalent elsewhere in the country.  A diverse range of activities – children’s play, skateboarding, petanque, and the plethora of occasional events that require green open space – are accommodated in highly logical relationship to each other within a strong ordering framework of promenades.  Elsewhere, imaginative ideas including a wind garden and a representative series of regional vegetation communities, both of which will change over time to keep the site very much alive, celebrate climatic and ecological aspects of the region.  Sitting beneath this is a set of core sustainability principles one of which - stormwater treatment – is held up in highly visible form as another key driver of the overall design and appearance of the site.  Ongoing analysis of the stormwater treatment systems is another aspect of the dynamic and evolving nature of the project.  The magic that holds all of this together is a sure design hand that is equally comfortable and competent with both hard and soft landscape materials.  A love of plants, which some would still argue are a touchstone of landscape architectural practice, is abundantly in evidence on this site.

This is an ambitious and highly complex project.  By carefully selecting associates competent to advise on best practice across the diversity of activities and functions provided for by the park, every aspect is handled extremely well.  With its many parts integrated within a strongly contemporary aesthetic, Waitangi apparently effortlessly provides for a wide range of activities, functions and interests so as to provide ‘something for everyone’, from the skateboarders who may venture no further into the park than ‘their patch’ that is close to the street life they are such a contemporary expression of, to the highly environmentally and ecologically literate who will be intensely interested in rain gardens, polishing wetlands, and representative coastal vegetation communities.  Waitangi is another wonderful addition to the magnificent revitalisation of the Wellington waterfront.

Additional Comments

Installation of the planned interpretation will be key to maximising educational value of the stormwater treatment systems and ecological plantings.

  

SUSTAINABILITY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

WAITAKERE CITY COUNCIL GREEN ROOF
SPREADING THE WORD ON GREEN ROOF POSSIBILITIES IN AOTEAROA NZ.
Renee Davies Waitakere City Council

Landscape Planning 1b Communication and Promotion
AWARD: GOLD

This entry focuses on a 500 square metre green roof for the new Waitakere civic centre building. 

The project demonstrates a laudable vision supported by strength of purpose that has been exceedingly well communicated to a variety of audiences. It showcases the landscape architecture profession through perception, communication and action. The project, developed in accord with other design professionals, brilliantly articulates a 21st century sustainable landscape solution. Communication and promotion is concise, lucid and coherent.

It provides a robust, well researched and documented process for substrate make-up, and indigenous plant selection and monitoring, to provide extremely useful and innovative input to green roof technology.

It will undoubtedly act as a catalyst for future research and development in this technology both locally and nationally.

 

SUSTAINABILITY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

NORTHERN GATEWAY ALLIANCE (ALPURT B2)
Northern Gateway Alliance

Category: 2d Commercial / Industrial / Institutional
AWARD: SILVER

Accepting the development of the SH1 Northern Motorway Extension through 7.5km of rolling landscape containing a series of significant ecological sites as a given, the Northern Gateway Alliance project breaks new ground in the incorporation of environmental considerations as core to the highway design and construction process.  In particular, fulltime employment on site of a landscape architect for the duration of the project has ensured that such environmental considerations have an advocate at all key management meetings and day-to-day on site.

The manipulation of landform has finely balanced minimising project footprint by maintaining relatively steep batters with landform manipulation to achieve a good fit with the rolling landscape context, largely through the sensitive ‘rolling’ of the shoulders of cut batters.  Revegetation of these and other extensive areas including degraded riparian environments, pastoral grasslands and gorse-dominated slopes with some 750,000 plants will contribute to a ‘no nett loss’ outcome.

Construction of the Otanerua, Nukumea and Waiwera viaducts has been designed to dramatically reduce the amount of forest clearance required and to sustain ecological connectivity in these catchments.  Fish passage considerations have led to innovative new fish baffle design, with post-installation monitoring showing that the culverts not only provide for fish passage, but are serving also as prime habitat.  An alternative ‘cut and cover’ design for the portals of the tunnels through Johnstone’s Hill will preclude the need for stark concrete shear walls above the portals.

These and a range of other landscape measures will ensure that the motorway extension achieves best fit with its landscape and ecological context, and can be expected to contribute to a memorable travel experience on this stretch of highway.  A high level of commitment to quality environmental outcomes is evident among staff and on the ground, and the project landscape architect has been prepared to advocate assertively for landscape outcomes, achieving acceptance and respect in the process. This is a highly commendable project. Although not yet complete, it was instructive to visit it during construction.  It is clearly the worthy recipient of an award, and should be considered again for entry as a completed ‘best landscape and environmental practice ’project.

 

RESENE COLOUR AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

SEART (Sylvia Park)
Isthmus

Category: 2c Rural/Park/Recreational
AWARD:   SILVER

‘SEART Park’ is located within the underside of the South Eastern Arterial Motorway overpass.  Cold, dark and grey – this project has literally added colour to create a vibrant and exciting ‘place’.  Coloured poles which obliquely reference a previous on-site forest lead users from the carpark to the mall.  Graduated colour and clever placement combine to tease users beneath the overpass. The design intention is articulated with clarity and playfulness – an imaginative and effective solution to what was potentially a gloomy constraint.

Additional notes for award applicant

Took a constraint and made it a positive
Imaginative
Excellent detailing
Forest reference very subtle
 

 
TURNER RESIDENCE
Baxter Design Group

Category: 2a Residential
AWARD: SILVER

It’s no surprise that the Turner house on the western flanks of the Remarkables Range has already featured in design and architectural magazines.  The contemporary architectural aesthetic is perfectly matched by landscape treatment that sits the house directly on an analogue for a mountain tarn.  Interior spaces flow seamlessly through to clearly-articulated exterior spaces.  The design works very competently with the wonderful palette of natural materials with which Central Otago is blessed – schist and tussock – and that lends itself so well to integration with introduced materials including heavy rough-sawn timbers and exposed aggregate concrete.

The stunning site and architecture demanded an innovative but appropriate landscape response.  The tarn concept is an inspired driver for the overall design, and excellence in the quality of detail design and its implementation have created a residence that achieves masterful integration both between architecture and landscape architecture, and between the site and its powerful natural context.   

 

KAPITI COAST GARDEN
Wraight + Associates Ltd with Tennent Brown Architects

Category 2a Residential
AWARD: SILVER

This garden located adjacent to dunes on the Kapiti coast features extensive use of recycled timber.  It is used extensively to define the site and also runs into the house providing a nice transition between architecture and garden.  Outdoor shelter is provided while views embrace the ‘borrowed’ landscape.  The overall design is characterised by simplicity and clarity.  Forms and spaces are strong, restrained and clearly defined.  Planting design is also simple and clear in its intention.  Recycled bridge timber is creatively used as fences, screens, walls and steps.  This project is restrained, well thought out and expertly implemented.

Additional notes for award applicant

Very competently design and build
Simple palette of both hard and soft materials
Durable elements
Restraint a key part of its success.
 

SMALL GARDEN
Moorhead & Newdick landscape architects ltd

Category 2a Residential
AWARD: BRONZE

The brief called for the creation of a garden to be viewed and enjoyed from above.  Located within central Wellington the site has expansive views overlooking Oriental Parade, and the city.  Designed largely as a visual composition the project successfully provides a range of visual interest.  Screening of neighbours cleverly uses different approaches for various neighbours.  The site’s urban context is acknowledged through maximisation of the extensive city views and the use of strong urban form within the design which includes sensitivity to the architecture and the use of a contemporary aesthetic.  The design is controlled and clearly articulated.  Forms maximise the small space.

 

CENTREPORT AREA A
Wraight + Associates Ltd with Studio of Pacific Architects

Category 2b Urban Design
AWARD: GOLD

Located in the heart Wellingtons working Port, CentrePort represents a new urban fringe to Wellingtons waterfront.  Ostensibly to provide amenity for the site’s commercial users, the design is characterised by coherent and appropriate outdoor spaces.  References to the site’s port context are expressed through excellent use of materials and scale.  Spaces are clearly articulated within a legible ordering framework.  The strong planting design contrasts well with the industrial context to provide a place that feels familiar yet original.  Materials and forms are innovative and evocative, all detailed to the highest standard.

Scale and proportion are expertly handled enhanced within a clean and restrained design.

Additional notes for award applicant

Really competent
Transplanted trees gave excellent instant scale
Different plant palette for each striate worked well – similar forms
Nice use of recycled materials.

 

GREERTON, TAURANGA
Isthmus

Category 2b Urban Design
AWARD: SILVER

The quiet success of the Greerton Village project is testimony to the power of strong design to work over time to contribute to the development of community and place.  Working with very little in the way of existing character and cues in what was a fairly nondescript suburban precinct at the southern entrance to Tauranga, the project has worked over the past decade to revitalise Greerton as a functional ‘village’ with a strong sense of place.  Bold moves including purchase of a former service station site in order to establish a town square in a strategic location, and leasing of land from the local primary school opposite to allow for widening of the streetscape have been key to its success.

The community’s preference for an Art Nouveau-inspired aesthetic generated some intricate design detailing in organic paving patterns, the free-flowing low riverstone walls with inlaid mosaic tile artworks that are the project’s most distinguishing design feature, and custom-designed bollards, street lights and fencing.   This aesthetic makes for a nice contrast with the sharper, more minimalist approach that characterises many other urban renewal projects at the moment, and works particularly well with the unapologetically suburban soft landscape palette of liriodendron trees, box hedging, standard ‘Greerton roses’, groups of flowering cherries and climbing ficus. 

The Greerton project is not flashy or edgy, but has worked quietly over time with a small suburban community to grow a place that feels like just the right response to its social and landscape context.

 

QUEEN STREET UPGRADE STAGES 1-3
Architectus

Category 2b Urban Design
AWARD:  SILVER

The upgrade of Queen Street is a flagship project for Auckland City’s CBD.  To this end the project is subject to scrutiny and debate.  Changes to roading geometry and footpath layout were critical to the success of this project.  The resulting spaces and circulation patterns give much of the street back to pedestrians.  The design response is dignified and restrained, providing both a sense of internationalism and a sense of local place.  Mature Nikau palm provide instant indigenous recognition with exotic trees providing practical amenity.  Materials are highly appropriate to use and reflect restrained permanence.  Historical references are beautifully subtle and are complemented by well designed street furniture.  Workmanship is of an excellent standard. 

This project is an excellent example of controlled restrained design – not flashy or obvious but well thought out to provide users with a streetscape which enhances New Zealand’s premier main street.

Additional notes for award applicant

Controlled and restrained
Red pavers a nice historical reference and provides safe haven from rest of footpath.
Levels handled well.
Innovative tree pits.
Good scale
A really appropriate design response.
 

 

PALMERSTON NORTH CITY HEART
CCM Architects, Stoks Limited, consulting landscape architects John Powell and Ralph Johns and the Palmerston North City Council project team

Category 2b Urban Design
AWARD: BRONZE

Redesign of the Palmerston North Square has been a hugely challenging project.  As the heart of the city, the redeveloped square had to accommodate its own history dating back to 1866 when it was first laid out, the aspirations of a wide range of stakeholders with different interests, and in particular the need to address the serious public safety issues that had been developing over a long period of time.  The current project has been in train since 2002 and has been through many iterations.  Located at the intersection of the main avenues that traverse the city centre, there was strong rationale to redevelop the space as four separate quadrants, each with its own historical, spatial and experiential characteristics. 

The project is most notable for the application of the CPTED principles that have underpinned the design at all levels, the success of which in reclaiming the Square as a safe public space has been remarkable.  A great deal of attention has been paid to lighting design in particular, transforming the space from the threatening place it was prior to redevelopment.  With the project now essentially complete, the Square has once again become an asset rather tan a problem for the city, with its renewed heart providing some appropriate and quality spaces for the diverse groups who use and have a stake in it.

 

BRECON STREET STEPS
Baxter Design Group

Category: 2b Urban Design
AWARD:  BRONZE

The Brecon street steps create an urban pedestrian linkage at the end of Brecon Street Queenstown.  The design solution represents an excellent response to the site’s context and character providing a high quality pedestrian environment which can link into future developments.  Queenstown’s urban heart is enhanced by this project which was constructed as part of the neighbouring hotel complex.  To this end, the project has clear function with a clear aesthetic consistent with both immediate and greater Queenstown.  The water feature enhances user experience by providing sound and a nice foil to the hard urban edge.

 

ADDISON STAGES 1 & 2, TAKANINI
Isthmus

Category 2b Urban Design
AWARD: BRONZE

This new medium-density residential development in Takanini looks to address concerns to manage urban growth in the Auckland region through a design-lead masterplan approach and the application of CPTED principles.  With recent booms in construction of cheap apartments having already left the city with a legacy of some poor residential environments, Addison is focused on new standards emphasising community, security and connectivity.  As a model demonstrating the potential for alternatives to urban sprawl that do not necessitate a loss of residential environment quality, Addison is likely to be much visited and discussed as pressures for innovation towards more sustainable city lifestyles increase.  High occupancy rates and rapidly increasing real estate values at Addison attest to the popularity of the model to date.

This is not a high-budget project.  Nonetheless, comprehensive and integrated site planning has achieved very good articulation of common spaces and connectivity between them.  Layout, circulation, relationship with wider urban context, treatment of boundaries, and control of architectural detail within a mix of housing typologies have all been carefully thought through.  From a landscape perspective the project is perhaps most notable for its demonstration of a clear role for landscape architectural site planning and design skills in an arena that is going to become increasingly contested between professional disciplines.

  

BARRY CURTIS PARK - NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAYGROUND
Isthmus

Category 2c Rural / Park / Recreational
AWARD: GOLD

With the great bulk of playground equipment most commonly used now comprising proprietary products, creating a neighbourhood playground with a difference presents a real challenge.  Isthmus’ Wetland Neighbourhood Playground in Manukau City’s Barry Curtis Park meets the challenge.  Built on a wetland theme, its educational function is cleverly achieved by developing a mix of out-of-scale wetland elements – giant pukeko and pukeko nests, huge corten steel flax leaves with ‘sound wheels’ and with seed pods that rattle when shaken, and viewing towers.  These elements are set in an intimately-scaled environment featuring real massed wetland vegetation.  The whole is beautifully designed and constructed in the same smart, simple, robust materials and style that characterises Irwin’s work generally.   Masterful articulation of space, relationships and circulation patterns and a smart contemporary aesthetic give even traditional swings, slides and rope climbing frame an energised feel that is lacking in more pedestrian developments.  While carefully and very consciously working to generate the intensity of interest and action that is necessary if a children’s play space is to really work, the project site at the same time ties in seamlessly to the rest of the park through both continuity of design language and the playground wetland theme linking through to other water features in the park.  All of these attributes together lift this project well out of the ordinary.  It is very, very good indeed.

WAITAKERE CITY COUNCIL JAPANESE GARDEN
Bridget Gilbert/Waitakere City Council/Ignite Architects

Category 2c Rural/Park/Recreational
AWARD: SILVER

This Japanese garden represents the reestablishment of a previously gifted garden to the city of Waitakere from Kakogawa, Japan.  The resulting garden successfully integrates into the site which connects to a high quality civic space.  Form and space are used with maximum effect to create a garden with high visual relevance from the civic building adjacent.  This creates a nice juxtaposition between the contemporary and the traditional.  Materials are expressed with sensitively and skill.

 

 
MOUNT VICTORIA REDEVELOPMENT
Boffa Miskell Ltd

Category 2c Rural/Park/Recreational
AWARD: BRONZE

The summit of Mt Victoria ‘Matairangi’ with its breathtaking views over Wellington city is one of the city’s most popular visitor destinations.  The site has been upgraded and visitor experience extended.  The project team successfully extended the brief beyond the immediate site to include the whole ridge and linkages with pedestrian walkways and Wellington’s town belt.

The design response is sensitive to cultural expectations, with a clear design intention which extends on existing use.  Pedestrian spaces have been enhanced providing a legible site with a high degree of amenity.  Seats, interpretation, lighting, site materials, and motifs all combine to provide users with a clear sense of place.

 

SYLVIA PARK
Isthmus

Category: 2d Commercial / Industrial / Institutional
AWARD : GOLD

Kiwi Income Property Trust’s $500m Sylvia Park retail development sets new standards for the landscape treatment of contemporary commercial environments.  An integrated design approach and exceptional quality in the detailing transform what could otherwise have been another shopping mall into a high-quality urban environment in which people can gather, shop, meet, eat, work, play and learn.  Close cooperation with the architects has achieved excellent integration between buildings and landscape.  A consistent palette of high-quality hard and soft landscape materials used throughout the entire 24-hectare site holds the complex together.   Three distinct landscape features are incorporated within the complex.

Bisection of the site by a motorway, the South Eastern Arterial Road (SEART), presented a particular challenge, with the cold, grey, gloomy space beneath it potentially precluding any prospect for an integrated development.  The ‘SEART Park’ developed through the space using the deceptively simple device of brightly-coloured poles has transformed it. 

The South Facade Water Feature that extends across the building frontage, forming the entry to the retail complex, is superbly detailed and makes for a memorable sense of arrival.  

‘The Green’ is the key outdoor space on the site, centrally located and linking seamlessly through to ‘The Cone’, a semi-enclosed retail area designed to reflect Auckland’s volcanic history.  ‘The Green’ is a delightfully playful urban open space also cleverly designed on a volcanic theme. 

Even visitors who are not usually enamoured of shopping malls will be pleasantly surprised by Sylvia Park.  A concern for comprehensive landscape treatment of the entire site, highly imaginative design, and rigorous attention to excellence in the construction has created a remarkably stylish retail and commercial complex.

 

DYSLEXIA DISCOVERY CENTRE
Morgan  Pollard Associates

Category 2d Commercial / Industrial / Institutional
AWARD:    SILVER

This project transforms the front carpark of a notable Worcester Street (Christchurch) villa into a place of expression for the Dyslexic mind.

The landscape provides a ‘canvas’ for four major pieces of artworks to provide an exhibit which gives insight into how the dyslexic mind relates to the world.

A formal geometric layout provides a strong context for the dyslexic interpretation.  The design is sensitive to the historic villa and acknowledges the use and style Worcester Street. 

The site is an excellent transitional space between the building and the street.

The concept of a dyslexic garden is highly original and throughout the site are innovative design elements to enhance user understanding of the dyslexic mind.

Additional notes for award applicant

Extremely high standard of materials and workmanship
Excellent detailing
Good response to location
Planting complemented the hard landscape
A low key plant palette – used restrained colour
 

 
MATAKANA STAGE 02
Isthmus

Category 2d Commercial/Industrial/Institutional
AWARD:  SILVER

Located in a small rural town north of Auckland this project has transformed a former timber yard into a village centre for Matakana.  Excellent master planning has created a high quality village atmosphere.  Architecture and landscape are seamlessly integrated through the clever articulation of space and form.  References to the site’s industrial settlement are many and varied as is the acknowledgment of the river in its natural and historical setting.

Design intention is clear and creative.  Materials are expressed with panache.

This project is clearly successful in its transformation from timber yard to a high quality market village environment.

Additional notes for award applicant

High standard of implementation
Good planting design - lovely palette of plants
Many constraints but handled well.

 

HENDERSON LIBRARY
Wraight + Associates Ltd with Architectus and Athfield Architects Ltd

Category 2d Commercial/Industrial/Institutional
AWARD: SILVER

As part of the new Henderson library project three public plazas have been developed.  Sited within a changing intensive urban heart, this project anticipates future contextual changes.  The plazas all integrate well with building architecture and provide high quality public outdoor space.  Historical and cultural references are expressed through high quality artworks.  Spaces are coherent and legible and form an urban space appropriate to its purpose.  This project clearly meets expectations of an institutional space.

Additional notes for award applicant

Reasonably clear design – some nice design elements.
Rocks worked well as an art object rather than a landscape reference.
A tricky site.
A design which provides solutions.
Some really nice areas and ideas.
 

 

ALBANY & CONSTELLATION BUS STATIONS
Opus International Consultants

Category 2d Commercial / Industrial / Institutional
AWARD:  SILVER

As part of the new North Shore Busway, this project undertakes the integration of two of the Busway stations into the urban fabric.  Extensive planting has been used to create a soft context to an otherwise hard surfaced environment.  The planting boldly creates a sense of specific location.  Low planting ensures visibility with trees used for character, scale and local reference.  The planting design reads clearly and has strong visual interest.  Scale is commensurate with the site and complements the transparent nature of the building architecture.  The planting palette is clear, strong and controlled – simple and highly effective.

Additional notes for award applicant

Visually strong – excellent big bold scape
Fit for purpose.
 

MT EDEN KINDERGARTEN PLAYGROUND DEVELOPMENT
Jill Rice, Get Outside Ltd

Category 2d Commercial / Industrial / Institutional
AWARD: BRONZE

Jill Rice’s extensive experience in kindergarten and pre-school play area design is very evident in the quality and the success of this project.  Revelations part way through the project that the site was contaminated were both a constraint and an opportunity, the latter arising from the resources that then became available for redevelopment.  The work shows a good understanding of the need to design for young children at the scale of the world they inhabit, to offer an intensity of activities and experiences within that, and for the play environment to be.....playful.  Levels are competently manipulated, circulation patterns work well, and a range of forms, materials and textures contribute to interest and playfulness in the spaces while being held together by a robust overall design structure.

Developing experientially intense places for young children that also stand up to design scrutiny in a minimalist age is a challenge.  Get Outside Ltd’s considerable experience in this specialist field has created a place that shows that it is indeed possible to meet the challenge.

 

HUAKAIWAKA – VISITOR CENTRE AUCKLAND BOTANIC GARDENS
Soul Environments

Category  2d Commercial / Industrial / Institutional
AWARD:  BRONZE

Developed as part of a new visitor centre this project provides a gateway to the Auckland Botanic gardens.  The project demonstrates good integration between landscape architect, artist, and architect.  Site forms make specific reference to cultural and historical context and are seamlessly integrated with the building architecture.  Spaces and imagery are coherent and reinforce the garden’s entranceway.  The mix of artworks, water feature, planting, and clearly articulated open space combine to create landscape architecture which befits the site’s high public profile.

Additional notes for award applicant

Very competent design work
Nice spatial proportions.
 

FRANK KITTS PARK, WELLINGTON WATERFRONT DESIGN COMPETITION
Isthmus

Category: 2e Visionary
AWARD: GOLD

Development of Frank Kitts Park in the 1980s was effectively the beginning of a reconnection of Wellington’s CBD with its waterfront.  The waterfront redevelopment programme that has gathered momentum over recent years has come full circle with Frank Kitts, central to the sequence of spaces structured around the harbour-edge promenade, now the last piece in the sequence to complete the current programme.

Isthmus Group’s design integrates several strong design drivers to arrive at a proposal that meets all functional requirements for the site within a reinterpretation of its wider Wellington landscape context and historical associations.  The aesthetic employed is distinctly contemporary in its expression, and could be expected to fit the redeveloped park seamlessly into the series of designed spaces east and west, while unapologetically asserting it as its own space and place.  Primarily a large green open space at a ‘thickening’ in the city edge, the proposal would serve as a nice counterpoint to the harder landscape spaces of Taranaki Wharf and Kumutoto on either side.  The judges consider that the integration of the Chinese garden into the overall concept, the kind of requirement of a brief that can so easily compromise design integrity, has been superbly handled, and that the application of traditional design principles and materials for such a garden with reference to local landform, vegetation and urban contextual considerations would create a unique and powerful expression of the Chinese in New Zealand. 

This is a highly imaginative, responsive, appropriate and contemporary piece of work that is a perfect fit with its modern waterfront setting. 

 

SIGNATURE AREAS, BARRY CURTIS PARK, MANUKAU
Isthmus

Category: 2e Visionary
AWARD: SILVER

A series of ‘signature areas’ is designed on the walkway system that weaves through the park.  Each area has its own recognisable character, and sits somewhere between the traditional ‘folly’ and contemporary ‘land art’.  The signature areas are at once playful, sculptural, ecological, and educational.   A great deal of thought, and a deal more imagination, has gone into the development of design ideas for each of the areas that will create something entirely new and that can be expected, given the standards already being established in Barry Curtis, to be implemented to a very high standard.

The project works with an almost random mix of traditional and contemporary cultural elements and enterprises – stone walls, farm tracks and shelterbelts, stone-filled gabion baskets, beekeeping, selection and use of native plants for ornamental and aesthetic purposes – and natural phenomena including tree groves, forest glades and clearings, stone riverbeds and logjams.  These ideas and elements and phenomena are designed into forms that will create a series of distinctive places or destinations on the path through the park.

The potentials inherent in these signature areas are made real and entirely comprehensible through the superb quality of their graphic presentation.

 

WYNYARD QUARTER – URBAN DESIGN FRAMEWORK
Architectus

Category: 2e Visionary
AWARD: BRONZE

The Wynyard Quarter (also known as the Tank Farm or the Western Reclamation) represents one of the largest undeveloped areas of waterfront land on Auckland.  Architectus have developed a strong and coherent vision for this area using a design led process.  Using four Key Concepts and seven Design Principles, the project emphasises the importance of robust urban design using axes and precincts to create an integrated open space framework.  This is vision is clearly articulated with high quality graphic including detailed perspectives.

Additional notes for award applicant

A robust design process evident.
Clear and easy to read graphics and perspectives
A ‘sunny still day’ design
 

 

SIGNS OF NEGLECT – PLAY IN A RELICT LANDSCAPE
John Clemens

Landscape Planning 1a Research
AWARD: SILVER

The purpose of this study is to trace the development of design ideas and environments for children at play. It proposes ways we can design our living environments to permit playful exploration. And attempts a first mapping of these environments within the Cartesian framework of urban living.

This is a research project for an MLA dissertation.

Children love playing in neglected spaces – tall grass, with a sense of former occupation.  They develop their own path networks, which are different from adults, and this doesn't necessarily sit well with the neatness and order in parks. 

The paper was an engaging and insightful piece of research and writing that questioned how landscape architects evaluate environments – in this case for children's play. It also demonstrated that the quality of a submission is not based on size or cost of production. In comparison with other projects this was a low cost presentation.  It contained many new ideas, with graphics that inspire. 

 

URBAN FORM FACTORS INFLUENCING STREET-LIFE IN SYDNEY
Gavin Lister Isthmus 

Landscape Planning 1a Research
AWARD: BRONZE

A Masters in Urban Design research report that examines the urban morphology factors contributing to the difference between two adjacent inner-city suburbs, Balmain and Pyrmont-Ultimo, Sydney.

A legible and coherent study, well illustrated and thoroughly researched. A good summary of the factors contributing to positive street-life.  

This research provides a valuable tool for landscape architects working in urban areas. Although based on Australian suburbs and having an urban design focus, the author offers well researched guidance for planning and design of town centres, and such research is invaluable.

A more overt landscape content and local application could have achieved a higher award.

  

CITY MALL, CHRISTCHURCH
Isthmus

Landscape Planning 1b Communication and Promotion
AWARD: SILVER

A project promoted as the flagship element for Christchurch City revitalisation. A series of pedestrian-oriented streets and spaces that reflect the "garden city spirit of Christchurch."

The design is the result of a special public consultation process, including the use of communication specialists.

The project shows how high quality communication can engage public interest and obtain support for landscape design. It included an innovative consultation approach, regular communication and information updates, and superior graphics technology.

A sense of place approach informed design.

Discussion of sustainability and more evidence of feedback from community stakeholders could have led to a higher award.

 

TE WAKA WIND FARM EVIDENCE
Lucas Associates

Landscape Planning 1c Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: GOLD

This entry is in the form of evidence that describes the effects of a proposed wind farm on landscape and visual amenity. The site is the Te Waka Range, Hawkes Bay.

The entry includes Di Lucas's evidence with graphic visual analysis, and Environment Court Judge Thompson's decision. 

An outstanding assessment. Thoroughly researched and analysed encompassing the culture, history, archaeology, and natural character of the Te Waka Range. 

Highly effective communication through text and discerning graphics. With high sensitivity to cultural, historical, physical and natural context.

The rigorous and compelling arguments led the judge to be convinced that, in this landscape, the context is more important than the perceived need for the activity.

The work incorporates excellence in furthering the understanding and interpretation of landscape, through thorough and perceptive description and judgment.

  

MONTE CECILIA PARK MASTERPLAN
Helen Kerr, Auckland City Council

Landscape Planning 1c Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: GOLD

This project is a long term strategy, purpose and identity for a newly acquired premier park.

The park has a strong cultural heritage context.

The planning and communication involved in the development of the masterplan represents best practice for local authorities and excellence in landscape planning. The way that the historical and current values of the landscape were interpreted, and the quality of the presentation material is particularly commended. Beautifully produced A3 and A4 documents. DVD of open days and workshops in the park underscored the commitment of the landscape architect to serious public consultation.

The park proposal follows from a lucid design process and high quality developed design, highly sensitive to cultural, physical, heritage and natural patterns and elements.  

  

WAINUI – OKITU LANDSCAPE AND PLANNING ASSESSMENT
Sue Dick – Eastern Earth Landscape Architects

Landscape Planning 1c Landscape Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: SILVER

This is a broad landscape assessment for Gisborne District Council. It promotes better management of the land resource and informs decisions about zone management and plan changes in light of growth pressure and new infrastructure.

This project achieves merit for its understanding of the critical relationship between landscape assessment and district plan policy development. Sue Dick recognised that the existing zone boundaries conveyed no particular relationship to topographical features or transitions between these.  She carried out a landscape assessment verifying landscape identity areas. She included detailed management tools. From this she developed zoning recommendations.

This is a thorough and well structured report. It is a highly proficient and professional example of landscape assessment. The assessment process is clearly stated, community values are incorporated and the presentation is excellent.

 

ARROWTOWN DESIGN GUIDELINES
Blakely Wallace Associates, with Morgan & Pollard

Landscape Planning 1c Landscape Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: SILVER

This project provides assistance to the community, landowners, developers, designers and planners in the development of Arrowtown. It is a work that provides a framework for the sustainable management of a cultural heritage landscapes generally. A set of design guidelines identifies the character of the existing town and its buildings.

It is well researched and beautifully presented, with precinct-based guidelines of explicit detail. The project showcases the importance of spatial organisation and planning alongside building design.

It is a very good guide for anyone working in the heritage area, particularly in relation to buildings.  In its presentation it usefully identifies what not to do.

The pivotal role of the landscape architects merits recognition.

 

KAIPARA DISTRICT: LANDSCAPE PLANNING PROCESS
D J Scott Associates

Landscape Planning 1c Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: SILVER

A comprehensive and rigorous study, highly relevant to planning for the district and region. Beautifully presented and with strong community involvement, the project is a sophisticated promotion of landscape values and the profession. It responds to the cultural, historical, physical and natural context of the Kaipara District.

Following on from the award for the Mangawhai Structure Plan in 2006, the overall landscape planning process showcases the integrated catchment management approach, with consistency of process at a range of scales.

Clear presentation is provided, relative to the respective target audience.

When adopted, and appropriately implemented, the study should facilitate high quality outcomes for the environment, community, culture and the economy.

 

 
BARRY CURTIS PARK DESIGN LEAD PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Isthmus

Landscape Planning 1c Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: SILVER

This entry is a premier park development in Manukau City.

It champions the design led management project: capturing design potential and coordinating creative solutions. 

It argues for design as the key to achieving quality.

The project represents innovation in an area traditionally outside the profession. Landscape architects are promoted through their lead role in the construction management process with resultant protection of landscape design values and objectives.

A creative design approach, clearly and attractively presented.

 

STREAM DAYLIGHTING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CENTRAL AUCKLAND
Boffa Miskell Ltd

Landscape Planning 1c Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: SILVER

This daylighting project convincingly advocates the recovery of open streams to sustainably restore ecological systems.

The project, to open up stream links and remove waterways from buried pipes, shows how an innovative approach can be used to influence change. The judges were impressed both by the way that the landscape was used as a driver for this change and how the project showcased the lead role of landscape architects.  It effectively drew on relevant disciplines to tackle a long standing problem.

This is a highly relevant research and feasibility study that has innovative and practical ideas with great potential for sustainable catchment outcomes for central Auckland. 

The target audience is immersed in key research issues and also the potential for innovative design and implementation.

The idea and its research and development are integral to the ecologically sustainable retrofitting of our settlements.

Further resolution of the submission would have led to an additional sustainability award.

  

WHANGAREI: 20/20+ CBD GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Isthmus, Littoralis and Traffic Design Group

Landscape Planning 1c Planning and Environmental Design
AWARD: BRONZE

This project used a design rationale to connect strong natural character with cultural and development goals creating a vibrant, pedestrian orientated city. A design led approach was employed to redevelop the CBD of Whangarei. 

It began by studying the broad central area and making an analysis of the structural elements of the city's urban form. A ten year development programme is established. 

The report had a clear and concise structure, and is well illustrated.

The project demonstrated the value of a landscape approach to town centre development and used research of international examples to guide a design led plan. It showcased landscape architecture at the highest level, and provided a model to use in other urban areas, nationally.

Focussed discussion of critical sustainability issues would have further enhanced the approach.

  

STUDENT DIVISION WINNERS

SUSTAINABILITY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

RECLAIM: REVEAL RECORD - Glenbrook Steel Mill
Frazer Baggaley

STUDENT AWARDS - SILVER

A well thought through plausible project responding to a clear brief which will reinvent an industrial landscape.

The submission has a strong conceptual framework which achieves sustainability in its landscape and urban design outcomes. The opportunities and constraints of the site are well understood and articulated through an excellently presented document.

  

Adaptivity at the Tank Farm
Jonathan Wong 

STUDENT AWARDS - BRONZE

A comprehensive analysis of a topical landscape providing a good alternative that deals with place, space and programmes datascape qualities over time.

Overall the presentation for the awards is crisp and clear. The detailed case studies provide well considered alternative design responses.

Further feedback

The proposal is well articulated, apart from the main plan which has become very complex and is therefore difficult to read and understand as a stand alone graphic. Congratulations on pushing the boundaries with a challenging hypothesis

 

Otakaro Square
Remi Bint

STUDENT AWARDS - BRONZE

An elegant and seductive scheme based on a contemporary aesthetic. The project displays design flair and understanding of the space.

The 3D images illustrate the designer’s intent clearly and they display a robust yet sensitive urban design response.

Further feedback

We applaud your creative presentation style which is very clean; however it would have been of benefit to see how the scheme related to the wider Christchurch open space context. Some sections through the terracing would also have assisted in interpreting your design.

 

Johns Road Industrial Park
Qiang Song

STUDENT AWARDS - BRONZE

A well handled presentation of a project which responds to industrial growth balancing this with recreation, open space and storm water management.

A landscape inspired project which handles the scale of the design, including the proposed materials and structures, in an appropriate manner for the industrial and large open scale of the site.

Further feedback

The project presentation using the axonometric views and cross sections develops a story which is readily understandable. We like your ideas and grasp of the scale of the project at each level of the design progression.

 

Sound Isolation - Savill Bay Studios
Jeremy London

STUDENT AWARDS - MERIT

A well presented submission which clearly establishes site context.

The presentation uses excellent computer generated combined with hand sketched graphics to portray the design concept.

Further feedback

The proposed studios are a great idea, however the developed design response creates an environment in its own right. The solution could, with further careful response to the unique site, have enhanced the feel of isolation in its detailed design development.

 

Growing Whitford: An Ecological Landscape Approach
Sandy Ling

STUDENT AWARDS - MERIT

A professional presentation which develops a logical rationale for the development and presents it well. The issue is topical balancing urban growth and landscape ecology. There is a comprehensive analysis of the underlying landscape resource, which is based on best practice catchment framework.

Further feedback

The urban design rationale is not backed up in the presentation. Overall a promising scheme is developed through your analysis, but one which could be further refined through design.

 

Waiheke Island – A Day of Escape
Danbi Park 

STUDENT AWARDS - MERIT 

A good strong design idea which follows through with a feasible endeavour. The idea of a sculpture park and walkway with visibility is successful at a landscape scale. The scheme, which is simply presented, could enhance visitor experience of the Waiheke landscape.

Further feedback

With stronger graphics and another layer of design detail this exciting design idea could have achieved more highly.

 

Integrated Pedestrian and Transport Systems: An engagement with hydrology and infrastructure
James Paxton

STUDENT AWARDS - MERIT

A well developed scheme in response to a topical issue. The attempt to bring stormwater management visibly into the streetscape design is commendable. In this important urban space the presentation graphics are effective and describe the proposal clearly.

Further feedback

Great ideas, well developed innovative consideration of alternative stormwater management, however it would have been good to see the further development of other urban elements as well as the stormwater solution.