Dream team of judges for Design Awards

Craig Craig Moller, RTA Studio and Neeson Murcutt.  They don't come more stellar than that and we are fortunate that judges for this year's AAA Cavalier Bremworth Design awards have been drawn from these practices. 

Jon Craig is one of the co-founders of Wellington based Craig Craig Moller and a much respected industry figure.  Jon retired only last year after a distinguished career and now lends his considerable experience and skill to the judging panel.

Richard Naish is a founding director of RTA Studio, and behind the much lauded and awarded Ironbank building.  Under his design leadership the practice has won more than 20 NZ and international architectural awards.

Rachel Neeson and Nick Murcutt from Neeson Murcutt in Sydney are internationally recognised for design excellence through their awards, publications, lectures and exhibitions.  Neeson Murcutt were represented at both the 2006 and 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale and have won a Wilkinson Award in 2008 and 2009 for residential architecture projects. 

Detailed information on how to enter the awards along with registrations of interest are online at the Auckland Architecture Association website at http://www.aaa.org.nz.  The awards night is on Thursday 18 November with entries due in the morning before for judging.

Recognising the best in unbuilt design, the competition has been a magnet in previous years for avant garde student work and some fabulous commercial work.  However, as Architecture magazine editor John Walsh noted, the awards deserve more support and entries were disappointing last year, especially given the amount of entries submitted for the Auckland waterfront competition which never made it to the AAA CavBrems..

 PRIZE MONEY INCREASED TOO...

Prize money has been increased to $5000 for the winner of the Open section and $3000 for the student awards.  $1000 prizes for the two runner-ups is also being offered.  No excuses folks.

 Plus the winners and the runner-ups also get their hands on their own wonderful trophy from designer Christopher Metcalfe and are profiled in the February issue of Architecture NZ magazine.