Winners of the 2013 New Zealand Architecture Awards were announced on 24 May at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre. Below is a gallery of the awarded residential projects.

Lake Hawea courtyard house
by Glamuzina Paterson Architects

Citation by NZIA Jury
On an exposed subdivided site in a stunning landscape this house inverts the traditional New Zealand residential model to provide a haven against the elements and the attentions of neighbours. Chiselled in form and grounded in presence the house reads as a contemporary type sufficiently confident to display his less sensitive side. In lieu of a big budget, the architects have extracted a full return from the house’s courtyard organisation and from the sculptural use of seconds-quality bricks, irregularly laid to cast shadows across the exterior walls of the house, its courtyard and an adjacent walled garden.

‘S’ house
by Glamuzina Paterson Architects

Citation by NZIA Jury
Astrong idea and the close collaboration of architect and landscaper have resulted in an adventurous house that takes an innovative approach to the inner-suburban family dwelling. Organised around its front and rear courtyard gardens, the house snakes down its long, narrow site; adjusted to the uneven topography, the house is positioned to connect with its immediate landscape and to be screened from less advantageous views of neighbouring houses. Like all buildings, the house might have its faults; the enthusiastic and admirable embrace of architectural possibilities is not one of them.

Waiake Beach house
by Stevens Lawson Architects

Citation by NZIA Jury
This house is a clean and clear response to its context and a suitably sculptural expression of its brief. On a constricted and highly visible site, and working to a relatively modest budget, the architects have designed a house of dramatic form, staunch to the street, but encouraging of intimate occupation. The bold use of simple materials emphasises the building’s solidity; excellent detailing enhances the effect of the material discipline. The result is a clever cave, right by a suburban bay.

Regent Park Apartments for City Housing
by Designgroup Stapleton Elliot

Citation by NZIA Jury
The architects have worked hard, and successfully, to design a city-funded apartment complex that meets a demanding and tight budget, and that should raise expectations of a sometimes traduced type. Social housing necessarily entails modest amenity, but this project demonstrates it is possible to reconcile economy and generosity. Client and architect have not treated this commission as a social experiment; living areas are spacious, kitchens, especially, testify to a sensitive awareness of residents’ needs; and colour is imaginatively deployed. A central space in which children can play testifies to a commitment to community and safety; well-monitored through-paths offer connections to the wider neighbourhood.

Hut on sleds
by Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects

Citation by NZIA Jury
If brevity is the soul of wit, then this little beach house is bound to put a smile on the stoniest of faces. Putatively sustainable elements such as the ‘sleds’ on which it sits and the wheel that offers a manual option for winching up the shutter on the beachside façade may be more gestural than functional, but in a way the building’s conceits only add to its delights. Whimsical in its verticality and Lilliputian in its spatial allocation, the building is a jeu d’esprit that must immediately relax its occupants into holiday mode.