Design Awards 2013 - the winner!

The results are in! Congratulations to Simon James and Scott Bridgens, whose 'Hex' pendant light takes top honours in our furniture and lighting Design Awards 2013. 

The 'Hex' pendant is a sleek, minimal beauty designed for Resident Studio that combines cutting-edge LED lighting technology with an elegant aluminium frame suspended from three slim wires (two of which, rather miraculously, also supply electricity for the light). It was launched at Milan Design Week in April and is already attracting serious international attention - deservedly so.

See this and our stellar lineup of Design Awards finalists in our new issue, on newsstands from Monday June 3. The photo is by Toaki Okano, and was styled by Sarah Conder and Juliette Wanty. Thanks also to Blum, our Design Awards partner, for their support. 

Our new cover

Here's the cover of our special Design Issue, featuring a group of our stunning furniture and lighting Design Awards finalists. The photo is by Toaki Okano, and the shoot was conceptualised and styled by Sarah Conder and Juliette Wanty. 

We don't like to brag, but we think this issue's an absolute peach. It focuses on the homes of product designers like IMO's Sam Haughton and Hannah Brodie and their enviable inner-city Auckland pad, or industrial designer Ross Stevens, who worked for Philippe Starck in Europe and is building an amazing Wairarapa home out of recycled coolstore panels. 

In this issue, we also travel to Canada's icy Fogo Island to visit artist Kate Newby, who's on a residency in an incredible studio there. And we go to Antarctica to see the restoration job on Robert Falcon Scott's rudimentary huts.

Also! We check out typographer Len Cheesman's lovely Greytown garden, our correspondents report back from Milan Design Week, we inspect a delightful dessert restaurant in Auckland by Cheshire Architects, and much more....

We hope you enjoy it. The issue's on newsstands from Monday June 3.

The winners in the New Zealand Architecture Awards

There's a bunch of terrific buildings in the New Zealand Architecture Awards, bestowed at a function in Auckland last night (May 24) by the NZ Institute of Architects. 

First, congratulations to Fearon Hay Architects: The Imperial Buildings, a refurbishment of an abandoned Auckland theatre complex (featured in our February/March 2012 issue), won the highest honour, the New Zealand Architecture Medal. Well-deserved, we reckon. The photo is by Patrick Reynolds.

The judges' citation said "the conversion of older buildings to new purposes ... signals a greater awareness of the worth of existing buildings, and of the possibilities they offer to imaginative clients and architects." The building also won an award in the Heritage category.

We'll look at the winners of the New Zealand Architecture Awards for housing next. Nice to see the Lake Hawea courtyard house (below) by Glamuzina Paterson Architects, a finalist in our Home of the Year award, getting recognised here, too. The photo is by Patrick Reynolds.

Glamuzina Paterson Architects picked up a second housing gong for the 'S' house (below) in Auckland's Mount Eden, which featured in our August/September 2012 issue.

Stevens Lawson Architects picked up a housing award for this home (below) in Waiake Beach in Auckland. 

And another housing award went to the Regent Park Apartments for City Housing in Wellington (below), designed by Designgroup Stapleton Architects.

The First Light House by First Light Studio (designed while its members were students at Victoria University of Wellington) picked up an award for International Architecture. It appeared at the Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC, and is now located on a site in Hawke's Bay, which we're looking forward to showing you in an upcoming issue. 

This place (below) isn't technically a home - it's 'The Shack' at Cloudy Bay in Marlborough, a place where guests of the vineyard can stay. It was designed by Tim Greer and Paul Rolfe and it won an award for Commercial Architecture. You might remember it from our August/September 2012 issue. 

Patterson Associates picked up a commercial award for the Geyser building in Parnell, Auckland (below), as well as an award for Sustainable Architecture.

  
And the third commercial architecture award went to Architecture + for Telecom Central in Wellington (below). 

In the education category, Architectus won an award for their design of the St Cuthbert's College Performing Arts Centre in Auckland (below). 

We always enjoy the Enduring Architecture category, and this year's winner is a treat: the School of Music at the University of Auckland by Hill Manning Mitchell (below). This shot is of the lovely courtyard behind the lyrical blank facade. Go in for a look if you're passing by - the building's in lower Symonds Street.

In the Planning and Urban Design category, there were two awards. The first went to Architectus for their work on the Karanga Plaza and kiosk at Auckland's North Wharf (below). 

The other Planning and Urban Design award went to the Buchan Group for Re:START, Christchurch's lively container mall (below).

In the Public Architecture category, Tennent + Brown and SKM won an award for the ASB Sports Centre in Kilbirnie, Wellington (below). 

Also winning a Public Architecture award was Athfield Architects' Te Hononga/Christchurch Civic Centre (below). It also won a Sustainable Architecture award.

Still in the Public Architecture category: the third winner of a Public Architecture Award was Pearson & Associates for the Rotoroa Exhibition Centre on Auckland's Rotoroa Island (below). 

The last Public Architecture Award went to Nelson's Irving Smith Jack for their design of the Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre (below). 

Two to go, both in the category of Small Project architecture. The Wellington Zoo Hub by Assembly Architects (below) picked up one of these prizes.

Finally, the last NZ Architecture Award for 2013 went to Ken Crosson of Crosson Clarke Carnachan for the Hut on Sleds at Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula, a finalist in our 2012 Home of the Year award. 

Oh wait - how could we forget? Each year the NZ Institute of Architects also awards a Gold Medal for career achievement, which this year goes to Auckland architect Pip Cheshire (below) of Cheshire Architects (you might remember the Bambury house from our February/March 2009 issue, which he designed, and also the Mountain Landing house which graced the cover of our June/July 2011 issue). We've got an interview with Pip in our June/July issue, on newsstands June 3. Congratulations to him and all the New Zealand Architecture Award winners.