The Marisfrolg Campus project in Shenzhen, China, designed by Otago-based Architecture Van Brandenburg, has taken the supreme award at the Architecture New Zealand 2024 Interior Awards. PHOTOS: AVB
An Otago architecture firm has won a top national award for a project that caused judges to "question the very fundamentals of what is good design".
Architecture Van Brandenburg, a South Island-based firm with studios in Dunedin and Queenstown, has been named the winner of the supreme and retail awards as part of the Architecture New Zealand 2024 Interior Awards.
The 13th annual awards were held in Auckland this month, with the winners from each of the nine award categories in contention for the supreme award and its $6000 cash prize.
The firm received the awards for their work on the Marisfrolg Fashion Campus project in Shenzhen, China — the headquarters for one of the country’s leading fashion apparel brands.
The 190,400sqm campus was designed and built over the past 14 years and resembles a bird in flight.
Architecture New Zealand deputy editor and awards convener Amanda Harkness said they received about 130 entries for the awards each year and believed the supreme award was "the top award within the industry".
The supreme award was "always pretty tough", she said.
The five-person jury said the Marisfrolg project had thrown out the rule book.
Its intriguing and "somewhat unprecedented" interior had challenged the judges to confront their own values as designers in the current global climate, "and to question the very fundamentals of what is good design", they said.
Architecture Van Brandenburg was also the recipient of a people’s choice award at the 12th annual Architizer A+ Awards in New York, also for their work on the Marisfrolg project.
Architecture Van Brandenburg designer Damien van Brandenburg said it was an honour to receive recognition, both nationally and internationally.
"Being Otago-based, the whole team gets to celebrate their efforts over the years, while being recognised by their peers in receiving a national award."
The Marisfrolg campus had garnered "significant" public interest and attention in China and New Zealand, he said.
