Awards for builders at the top of their game

NEIGHBOUR-FRIENDLY: Norda Pacific won the gold award in the new homes over $1 million category with this three-bedroom home in Seatoun designed "so it was not a monolith blocking out neighbours''. Small windows were placed seemingly at random on the road side of the house, and the central area has two double-storey view shafts, allowing neighbours to look "through'' the home without affecting the owners' privacy. The home was built using ambionse block, made from polystyrene filled with concrete.

A renovated 1920s Kelburn townhouse and a new office building in central Wellington have claimed the top awards in this year's Wellington Registered Master Builders House of the Year and RMB Commercial Project Awards.

Pearson Group's Kelburn townhouse scooped the Placemakers Renovations in the over $500,000 category and Mainzeal Property & Construction was awarded the RMB Commercial Project of the Year for the Vogel Centre Stage 1A, next to the existing Vogel building in Aitken St. This project also won the Retail and Business Project Award.

Vogel Centre Stage 1A was a $60 million project involving the construction of an expansive new seven-level podium building which is joined to the existing Vogel building by an atrium. "This is an exceptional, high-class building characterised by great attention to detail from the exterior to the interior, creating a very positive working space," the judges said.

Kapiti Coast building company David Reid Homes scooped the most awards in the region for the second year in a row, with a haul of eight three category wins, four silvers and a bronze.

The 16 gold award winners were announced at a gala dinner in Wellington at the weekend. They will now be judged alongside gold award winners from 20 other regions to find 100 National Gold Reserve finalists, which will be named later this month.

The national winners will be announced in Auckland in November.

- © Fairfax NZ News