Te Ao Mārama, Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum by Jasmax with FJMT and designTRIBE took home the highest honour of the night at the 2021 Interior Awards, the Supreme Award. It was also the winner of the Civic category. 

The project is the result of an eight-year labour of love in restoring the South Atrium of the Auckland Museum to the original intent of Noel Lane Architects with its suspended tanoa bowl. Writing about the project in the May/June 2021 issue of Architecture NZ, Albert Refiti says, “What started out in 2006 as cross-cultural space-making has been transformed into a space for decolonisation to begin.” A sentiment that was echoed by the Interior Awards jury.

Full jury citation:

This significant landmark project is the result of a thoughtful unlayering of past interventions and an addition of interstitial elements, underpinned with a strong bicultural narrative. Following an eight-year-long collaborative and consultative process, the design team has succeeded in balancing the mana of the north and south atriums: bringing back volume to the space, releasing the tanoa, and creating prominent east and west boulevards to bring together a series of complex geometries. The entry waharoa provides a powerful welcome gesture to mark the transformation of this ritualised museum procession. Commissioned artworks activate the practice of tikanga, layered tawa fins define and provide access to spaces, and detailing of the light trench enables instinctive and intuitive wayfinding. This exceptional project brings together the successive eras of the building holistically while providing a place of welcome, gathering and belonging for the wider community.

Watch the design team present live to the jury:

See all the winners from this year’s Interior Awards here.

With thanks to our 2021 sponsors: