Tūranga wins Canterbury Heritage Award
The 2021 Canterbury Heritage Awards Ceremony was held on Friday at the Christ’s College Dining Hall. The biennial awards programme recognises excellence in heritage retention, conservation, heritage tourism and heritage education with this year seeing over 60 entries and 30 finalists selected to progress to the awards ceremony.
Tūranga, one of nine overall winners, won the Future Heritage Award category. The Future Heritage category recognises a new building showing sensitivity to the streetscape and landscape and one which will secure a cultural legacy for the future. Tūranga, designed by Architectus in association with Danish architectural practice, Schmidt Hammer Lassen and in partnership with Matapopore Trust, impressed the judges through the “culturally responsive design and implementation with knowledge, ancestry, whakapapa and cultural relevance at the forefront. There are exterior and interior elements that collectively achieve the desired spirit of whakamanuhiri, welcoming guests hospitably from the outside to the inside. Tūranga connects well with the unique cultural identity and heritage of Christchurch City”.
The supreme award went to The Kate Sheppard House, a Christchurch villa used as the headquarters for Sheppard’s suffragist campaign which won women the right to vote in 1893.
Principal, Patrick Clifford was also a keynote speaker at the Canterbury Heritage Awards’ 2021 Heritage Lecture sponsored by Warren Trust and held the night before at the Isaac Theatre Royal.
We extend our congratulations to all winners and to the clients who invest in our built heritage, both current and future.