Professor wins top architecture award

Described by the judges as a ‘standout project,’ the Cathedral Grammar Junior School in Christchurch (finished in 2015) has now received the staggering total of 17 honours, including awards for architectural design, timber design, educational design, interior design, structural engineering, craftsmanship, and construction.

In announcing the building as the winner, the convenor of the awards jury, Auckland architect Richard Goldie said “that the new classroom block housing Cathedral Grammar Junior School, previously accommodated in a building that was destroyed in the Christchurch earthquake, was the charming outcome of a child-centric design focus.”

“Eschewing the vogue for corporate-inflected school architecture, Andrew Barrie Lab and Tezuka Architects opted to support their ‘garden school’ with natural materials – a thicket of timber columns and beams. The detailing is impressive, the courtyard organisation is sympathetic, the roof slides are fun. The design is both rigorous and playful; it must be a pleasure to learn in this environment,” he said.

Andrew Barrie, a Professor of Design in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, completed doctoral studies in Japan, going on to take up the role of project architect in the office of Toyo Ito, one of Japan’s most innovative and influential firms.
 

"This year’s awards recognised the work of a number of the great talents in New Zealand architecture, including several of my personal heroes. It's a great honour to have my project placed in such company," said Professor Barrie.

Others at the School of Architecture and Planning also took honors at the NZIA awards. Julie Stout, a Professional Teaching Fellow, won a national award in the Enduring Architecture category, recognizing the lasting merit of a house she designed in the 1980s with David Mitchell, a former University of Auckland staff member and Distinguished Alumni. Jeremy Smith, a PhD-with-Creative-Practice candidate at the School of Architecture and Planning won two national awards through his Nelson-based architecture firm Irving Smith Architects. One of the awarded projects, a house in Golden Bay, was the centerpiece of his PhD thesis.