This year’s top prize at the Interior Awards, the Supreme Award, along with a $6,000 cash prize and bespoke trophy, went to the He Tohu Document Room – He whakapapa kōrero, he whenua kura by Studio Pacific Architecture. This project also won, unanimously, the highest scores in both the Civic and Craftsmanship categories.

The room sits diagonally inside the foyer of the National Library in Wellington and houses Aotearoa’s constitutional documents.The room exhibits the 1835 He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni – Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, the 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi – Treaty of Waitangi and the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition – Te Petihana Whakamana Pōti Wahine. 

The architects responded to the client’s brief to create a space “where all people can reflect on the narratives and meanings of each taonga”. Additionally, the preservation of these significant and precious documents added technical requirements to the design.

A project like this required innovation and creativity and Studio Pacific Architecture delivered on many levels. The room is built on LVL frames and clad in wind-blown rimu. The use of traditional carving methods was an important part of the design and the architects say, “the curvilinear space is as if the documents themselves have carved it from the timber”.

Full jury citation:

Our Supreme category winner came to the fore in the competition very early on both by receiving individual scores that were higher than those of any other finalist this year and by garnering, unanimously, both the Civic and the Craftsmanship categories. He Tohu is a precious object with layers of detailing and narrative about the founding of a nation, its people and the emotional and historical significance of the documents it houses.

Highlights include the room’s façade onto which ripples have been carved in representation of two waves that encounter one another. The wave interface pattern ripples out as if from two stones dropped into still water: each stone representing the founding people that arrived in New Zealand. A strip of pounamu at the room’s entrance serves as a navigation point but also a symbol of peacefulness and arrival.

On and on, the architectural and spatial gems continue throughout this interior, making He Tohu a very well-considered space that neutrally but emotively overlays two people’s histories as they meet in one place.

• See all the winners of the 2018 Interior Awards here.
• Extended coverage of the Interior Awards will be featured in the June 2018 issue of Interior magazine

With thanks to our 2018 sponors: