108 | Award winner honours its environment Harmonising beautifully with its surroundings, the Nikau Pavilion at Tui Hills provides a versatile venue for weddings and other celebratory events. Strata Architects T T Bernadette Cooney “We aimed to create a structure that lightly touches the ground, blends with the environment, and feels more like a shelter than a hermetically sealed room. It feels protected and sheltered, but still very much part of the natural landscape.” ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN Strata Architects, a renowned design-led solutions studio based in Auckland, clinched its first-ever design award in the 2024 Best Design Awards from the Designers Institute of New Zealand. This significant milestone underscores Strata’s expertise in crafting thoughtful and context-sensitive architecture over the 20 years the company has been operating. “We’ve never entered any awards before,” says Strata Architects co-director Jack O’Neil, “so to win on our first attempt is incredibly rewarding. It’s nice to have our work recognised.” Strata Architects won the award in the Public and Institutional Spaces category for the Nikau Pavilion at Tui Hills, an innovative event space nestled in the Waitakere Ranges. Harmonising beautifully with its surroundings, the Nikau Pavilion at Tui Hills provides a versatile venue for weddings and other celebratory events. Designed for client, Simply Events, to replace an ageing canvas marquee on the site, the Nikau Pavilion’s design features include a translucent roof, and a draped fabric ceiling suspended over mass timber portal frames, creating a play of light that mirrors the shifting trees and clouds above. Retractable glazed walls connect the interior to the established gardens and native bush, while deep roof overhangs provide year-round weather protection. “The design had to honour the ecological sensitivity of the Waitakere Ranges,” says Jack. “We aimed to create a structure that lightly touches the ground, blends with the environment, and feels more like a shelter than a hermetically sealed room. It feels protected and sheltered, but still very much part of the natural landscape.” Designer Institute of NZ judges praised the pavilion for its ability to balance structural presence with a sense of lightness. They described it as a “well-considered intervention”, with a roof that appears to float amongst the canopy layers of native bush. Judges noted its capacity to support a variety of event functions with remarkable operability. This design-and-build feat was achieved through collaboration between Strata Architects and Fever Pitch Building Services, and other project contributors, including Richards Consulting Engineers, Feature Landscapes and Alex Luiten from landscape architects, Landscape and Ecology. Assisting Jack with creative direction were Strata team members Peter Kim and Josh Overend-Clarke. One of the most notable challenges of the project was the tight, three-month construction time frame, which required the demolition of the old canopy structure and the completion of the project just in time for its first scheduled wedding. “The time constraints were intense,” says Jack, “Tearing down the old structure and completing the new one in three months, while preserving key elements like pohutukawa trees and established plantings. It was a huge team effort, and I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved.” Founded by Jack’s father, Glenn Bodger, Strata Architects has grown into a family-led studio with Jack and Glenn as current co-directors. With its team of eight, Strata is an architecture practice that prides itself on solving complex design challenges with pragmatic and creative solutions across the private, public and commercial building sectors throughout Auckland and beyond. Structural | Civil | Geotechnical Design Landscapes Pools Gardens Specialising in high end residential homes and public spaces, we collaborate, conceive, construct and care for outdoor spaces that cultivate human connection with nature. feature.nz 0800FEATURE Turning backyards into square metres of zen Forming outdoor connection
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