The Local Award events of Te Kāhui Whaihanga Zealand Institute of Architects will begin on 28 April when the Waikato Bay of Plenty event starts the month-long regional rollout of the country’s premier design awards.

APL, proprietor of the Altherm, First and Vantage window brands, concluded a major sponsorship agreement with the NZIA last December. The awards sponsorship is a multi-year arrangement and is in addition to APL’s current support for the institute’s Registration Programme for new architectural graduates and the EMERGE Programme which is focused on professional development.

Dave Downey, CEO of APL Window Solutions, said that the company was looking forward to its inaugural year involvement with the awards. It was the latest step in a long association with Te Kahui Whaihanga NZIA. “Our involvement goes back nearly 20 years, so has a strong foundation in the company’s thinking and respect for a key partner in the building industry. Our previous support has centred around education and early career development for architects so we were happy to move this support up a notch and stand beside Resene to ensure the continuation of a much-admired awards programme that has been in existence for 93 years.”

After Local Award events conclude at the end of May, projects are shortlisted and then jury-visited and judged for the New Zealand Architecture Awards to be announced on 4 November.