Irving Smith monograph judged runner-up to I.M. Pei in Architecture Book of the Year
From Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, OffSET Shed House.
From Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, House with a Villa Silhouette.
From Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, Nelson School of Music in collaboration with Ian Bowman Architect and Conservator.
From Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, Te Whare Nui o Tuteata Scion Timber Innovation Hub in collaboration with RTA Studio and Dunning Thornton.
From Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, WallÉ, the interior of Irving Smith Architects’ office in Nelson.
In a coup for Nelson-based practice Irving Smith Architects, the studio’s recently published monograph came in a close second to I.M. Pei’s hefty Life is Architecture at this year’s Architecture Book of the Year Awards. Winners were announced on 10 December at an awards ceremony held in Temple Bar, London. This is the second edition of the annual awards, which are organised by World Architecture Festival, The Worshipful Company of the Chartered Architects and the Temple Bar Trust.
In awarding Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, edited by Aaron Betsky (Altrim Publishers, Barcelona), the judges said the modest publication provided global lessons on how to avoid the “solipsism of the practice monograph”.
“What an engaging monograph. Two Kiwi architects persuaded US academic Aaron Betsky to visit them in their small town, Aotearoa, in New Zealand’s South Island. Jeremy Smith and Andrew Irving, live ‘far, far away’ where an unusual landscape dominates. But they point out, in our collective global warming crisis, all our ‘far, far aways are not so far apart’. And, they ask, ‘Will you continue to mow a lawn around architecture and hope you don’t need to change your buildings or, will you look to participate with the landscapes and environments that we share?’
Ten fantastic projects set in their New Zealand contexts are presented, supplemented with essays on global themes. Editor Aaron Betsky brings an American, even Virginian, angle to his examination of the work and its setting which ensures that it doesn’t feel parochial. He also, delightfully, conveys his pleasure in the company of and characteristics of the partners, ‘having some fun.’ We concur.”
On receiving the award, directors Andrew Irving and Jeremy Smith said, “in collating our work, teaching and research with Aaron, we hoped to demonstrate a growing understanding of the importance of the periphery. In this climate emergency, everyone and everywhere really does count. Huge thanks to a team of friends who have contributed from here and afar, be it Patrick Reynolds’ photography or essays from Shane O’Toole, Neelkanth Chhaya, Marlon Blackwell, Peter Rich, Julie Stout, Chris Barton, Andrew Barrie and Julia Gatley.”
John Walsh’s review of the book in Architecture NZ magazine can be read here.
A complete list of the Book of the Year Awards 2024 winners:
Practice
- Winner: I. M. Pei, Life is Architecture, edited by Shirley Surya and Aric Chen (Thames & Hudson, London and New York, in collaboration with the M+ museum of Hong Kong)
- Runner Up: Unfinished & Far Far Away, The Architecture of Irving Smith Architects, edited by Aaron Betsky (Altrim Publishers, Barcelona)
- Highly commended: Caruso St John, Collected Works, Volume 2, 200-2012 (Mack)
Judges: Gillian Darley, Lee Mallett, Eric Parry
Biography
- Winner: The Ingenious Mr Flitcroft: Palladian Architect 1697-1769, by Gill Hedley (Lund Humphries)
- Highly Commended: First Quarter, by John Tuomey (Lilliput Press)
Judges: Jo Bacon, Chris Foges
Building
- Winner: Upper Lawn, Solar Pavilion, Alison and Peter Smithson, (MACK)
Judges: Catherine Croft, Robert Wilson
Guide
- Winner: Blackheath and Greenwich - Modern Buildings 1950-2000, by Ana Francisco Sutherland (Park Books)
Judges: Samantha Hardingham, Victoria Thornton, Roger Zogolovitch
History
- Winner: Dublin – Creation, Occupation, Destruction, Niall McCullough, (Unthink Press)
Judges: Murray Fraser, Simon Henley, Cindy Walters
Technical
- Winner: The Art of Architectural Grafting, Jeanne Gang (Park Books)
- Commendation: Landscape Architecture for Sea Level Rise, Galen D Newman and Zixu Qiao (Routledge)
Judges: John Lyall, John Robertson, Lynne Sullivan
Typology
- Winner: Housing Atlas: Europe 20th Century, Orsina Simona Pierini, Carmen Espegel, Dick van Gameren, Mark Swenarton (Lund Humphries)
- High commendation: The Japanese House Since 1945, Naomi Pollock, Tadao Ando (Thames & Hudson)
Judges: Paul Finch, Jeremy Melvin
Special Prizes
- Sérgio Ferro, Architecture From Below, edited by Silke Kapp and Mariana Moura, translated by Ellen Heyward and Ana Naomi de Sousa (Mack)
Judges: Gillian Darley, Lee Mallett, Eric Parry
- Humanise: A maker’s guide to building our world, by Thomas Heatherwick (Viking)
Judges: Chris Williamson, Paul Finch
