From residential dwellings to commercial builds, COLORSTEEL has been used extensively across New Zealand for more than 40 years, protecting the places we live, work and play. To celebrate the professionals across Aotearoa, who showcase exceptional use of COLORSTEEL products, the COLORSTEEL Awards were launched in 2019.

After an enforced hiatus due to COVID, the awards returned this year — bigger and better, with the same focus of celebrating the incredible workmanship, meticulousness, passion and collaboration of roofers, designers, architects, builders and COLORSTEEL’s roll-forming partners.

With entries from the top of the North Island down to the bottom of the South Island, the judges used their strong experience in technical roofing know-how and leading architectural design to assess over 150 entries across six categories, travelling across NZ to visit finalists in person.

The expert judging panel consisted of:

• Ken Crosson - Director, Crosson Architects
• Lindley Naismith - Co-Founder Scarlet Architects
• Graham Moor - CEO Roofing Association of NZ (RANZ),
• Mark Bishop - Managing Director, Roof Safe NZ,
• Rod Newbold - Customer & Market Applications Specialist, New Zealand Steel.

Of judging the Design categories, Residential Building of the Year and Commercial Building of the Year, judge Lindley Naismith says “Mostly, we were looking for overall design excellence and the contribution of the COLORSTEEL products used in terms of that. We assessed the entries against a range of fundamental architectural design criteria such as the response to the context, evidence of a strong underlying idea, an imaginative use of materials, texture and colour, intelligent construction detailing and the calibre of the workmanship.”

While for the Roofing categories, Graham Moor explains what they judges were looking for when they visited the projects: “We’re really trying to see how much craft the roofers put into their work. It’s accepted these are the best of the best of the roofers, but it’s how well they’ve executed what’s put in front of them, and the accuracy that goes with it. Something that really stands out is when they’ve improvised with the product, where they’ve had to adapt, when there has been a circumstance or something that really challenged them.”

The winners in each category were announced at the COLORSTEEL Awards on 7th October at the Auckland Town Hall, to much enthusiasm and applause.

The winners were as follows:

• COLORSTEEL Supreme Roofer of the Year: Hartmut Reichelt, Construction Connection and Consultancy Ltd
• COLORSTEEL Residential Building of the Year: Hyndman Taylor Architects with Kanuka Residence
• COLORSTEEL Commercial Building of the Year: JTB Architects with Te Noninga Kumu – Motueka Public Library
• COLORSTEEL Roofer of the Year Trapezoidal Profile: Tony Adams & Jordan Gill, Peak Roofing Otago Ltd
• COLORSTEEL Roofer of the Year Corrugate Profile: Courtney McDowell, Attention to Detail Roofing Ltd
• COLORSTEEL Roofer of the Year Tray Profile: Hartmut Reichelt, Construction Connection and Consultancy Ltd
• COLORSTEEL New Roofer of the Year: Liam Williams, Prestige Roofing & Plumbing Ltd
• COLORSTEEL Service to Roofing: Frank Thomas, The Roofing Specialist Ltd

New Zealand Steel Head of Marketing, Suzanne McKandry, is thrilled to have gathered industry experts and professionals to celebrate these successes together. “The awards are designed to elevate pride and professionalism in the roofing and construction industry while highlighting all the amazing work happening across the country — they are a way for us to celebrate the innovative design, problem solving, collaboration and attention to detail, that happens every day. Congratulations to all our winners, finalists and highly commended recipients, we look forward to seeing what you do next.”