Individually and collectively, Hugh Tennent and Ewan Brown have travelled commonly avoided pathways. They’ve extended themselves beyond the perimeters of conventional observation and understanding that typically inform the architectural response. As individuals and collaborators, they understand the interconnected nature of people, place, environment. Their own deep, internal inquiry informs their outward expression.

Leading a practice at the vanguard of radical sustainability, of exploring bicultural collaboration, of incorporating te ao Māori into design, their ground-breaking projects show us how to shape a built environment that benefits us all.

These two searching hearts and minds came together in 2003. Building Tennent Brown Architects on the foundations of equity and social justice, they’ve developed small, highly skilled teams capable of achieving large, complex projects. In 2018, the practice became a founding member of The Diversity Agenda and was the first in Aotearoa to obtain a JUST label for Social Justice. In 2022, their practice became the first in Aotearoa to achieve B-Corp Certification.

Early adopters and risk takers, Hugh and Ewan have sustained a consistent values-based vision that has progressively become more influential. Their work shows us the responsibilities we face as a profession and illuminates pathways for others to follow. They’ve daylighted ideas (and a waterway) that others have barely dared to contemplate. Despite its onerous demands, they’ve embraced the Living Building Challenge (LBC), which pushes architects to address the industry’s significant contribution to the climate crisis.

These two endearingly modest architects (in many instances, an oxymoron) overlap in skills, they challenge and question each other, pushing themselves and their projects further. Interlocking strengths support their ability to coalesce with difference to achieve cogent results. To have clients commit to the carbon-combatting rigours of the LBC is to carry the whole room, not just a corner of it.

Working with tangata whenua, Hugh and Ewan have found educators, collaborators and mutually aligning kaupapa. Their first Māori clients could look to cornerstone projects, such as Bodhinyanarama Monastery, to see support for the spiritual aspects of the human experience. They could see an understanding of the building as an entity that holds wairua. In te ao Māori, Hugh and Ewan could see an emphasis on the collective and the desire for values-led, sustainable design.

The cross section of Tennent Brown’s award-winning projects — 75 from the NZIA alone — show that their design philosophies do not privilege a select few. From the big end of town to projects that reconcile people with the past, from education to commercial, from social housing to private residences, designs that uplift are extended to all clients.

With a highly considered sensitivity to people and place, their architecture evolves what we think to be familiar but is presented in ways that encourage us to witness our own condition. Their work has strength of purpose and clarity of structure, it is materially rich, refined, expressive and elemental. Through LBC projects, they’ve succeeded in bringing together the empirical and artistic, presenting a more genuine portrayal of beauty.

The conferring of this award is a timely reminder of the importance of the Gold Medal. In asserting excellence as essential, it holds us all to account. As we celebrate Hugh, Ewan and Tennent Brown Architects, we shine the spotlight on those striving to achieve the very best for us all.

At a time where people in power seek division, this award acknowledges people in service to the possibility, potential and power of partnership. As a cultural and historical record of this country’s architectural landscape and heritage, this award honours the contribution Hugh and Ewan have made not only to the industry but this country.