A proposed Queenstown hotel and a home in Alexandra are among seven New Zealand projects short-listed in the 2013 World Architecture Festival.
Auckland's RTA Studio and Spi.Rus Architecture's planned 200-room ''Ice Hotel'' in Queenstown has been short-listed in the future projects-leisure-led category, while Nelson-based Irving Smith Jack Architect's Alexandra Tent House has been short-listed in the villa category.
In March, the Otago Daily Times reported Heaven on Earth Corporation Ltd had lodged consent for the ''ice hotel'', a proposed French-inspired village with about 200 residential units, to be named St Paul de Vence Queenstown.
The village was planned for a plot between a reserve and the Rydges Hotel, and construction could begin in 2015.
Key features of the eight-storey development would include ''glacial and snowflake shapes'' and primary aspects of white and glass.
Irving Smith Jack principal and architect Jeremy Smith said yesterday the Alexandra Tent House was completed about a year ago ''on the surrounds of Alexandra''.
The home, likened to a ''big tent'', was ''super insulated'' and, like a tent, contained interior and edge spaces.
''It gives plenty of shade in summer and lets really low level light in.
''This job is different from any other one.''
Mr Smith said the tent design seemed to suit how the owners wanted to live in the environment and provided functionality and complemented the landscape.
The annual festival, dubbed the ''Architectural Oscars'', attracts hundreds of entries from dozens of countries and will be held in Singapore from October 2 to 4.
RTA Studio was also a finalist in the shopping category for its Mackelvie St development, a cluster of retail stores in Ponsonby, while Irving Smith Jack had also been short-listed in the new and old category for the Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre.
Other New Zealand finalists are Auckland Art Gallery, by FJMT +Archimedia in association (culture), Auckland Zoo Giraffe House by Glamuzina Paterson Architects + Hamish Monk Architecture (display) and 387 Tamaki Dr, Auckland, by Ian Moore Architects (housing).
