Amesbury School Wins Three Awards

A big congratulations to McKenzie-Higham, the architects who designed Amesbury School, for winning three awards at the New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington award ceremony. Amesbury School won awards for  for sustainable architecture and education architecture. It also won a Resene Colour Award.

Callum McKenzie and Jeff Brickell

The awards jury convener, architect Paki Maaka, said the designers, McKenzie Higham Architecture, came up with a successful design on a challenging site. "It's a great use of a bad site and limited resources," he said.

"It's not just a group of great, well-lit buildings, the school is also an integral part of building a community in the area. People take ownership of the space and buildings and get to know their neighbours more. It's a great model that points a way forward for other schools in the area."

The Wellington Architecture Awards are an official, peer-reviewed programme of the New Zealand Institute of Architects.

Architect Callum McKenzie said the McKenzie Higham team were thrilled with the two awards.

"We were delighted that it received the awards for all of our team who had put in a big effort and dedicated a lot of careful thought and creativity to the project. To have your peers recognise that effort and the results of it was extremely rewarding."

Principal Lesley Murrihy spoke at the award ceremony on behalf of the Board, staff, students, parents and wider community saying, "We love our school."  She congratulated Mc Kenzie-Higham for going above and beyond to design a school that made all its inhabitants feel deeply valued. She quoted a visitor to the school who said, "Amesbury School is truly humanising."

Check out Amesbury School's Resene Colour Award: http://www.resene.co.nz/awardwinners.htm

"Immersed in colour, Amesbury School features colour in everything. Fun and engaging, the colour palette is lively and uplifting and so appropriate given its use.

The colours are linked to a central project story, different languages and cultures reflecting the internal school story and the objectives of the project so powerfully. Colours are used to designate areas, coming together as a powerful play of colour. The colours slide with ease into each other with a related palette that takes you from orange to pink to burgundy in such a delightful way."