A panel of leading names from New Zealand and Australia’s design and creative industries selected the winners across six award categories. They made special mention of a particularly strong suite of small-scale NZ projects in the Residential Interior Category. “Eden View, Heron House, Casper’s House and Kimiora Apartment all demonstrating colour use, with unexpected and successful combinations that surprised and impressed.”

NZ Grand Prix Winner: Eden View by Pac Studio

Also receiving a commendation in the Residential Interior category

Eden View House celebrates the richness of everyday life, sensitively responding to how spaces take on different moods depending on the time of day. Through the playful use of colour and texture, Pac Studio achieved a series of distinct spaces within a small floor area — a space that encapsulates you.

For Pac Studio, this reworking of a dated townhouse kitchen and bathroom was an opportunity to continue their exploration into colour: How it defines space and affects mood and atmosphere. Also, how in compact spaces colour and texture take on an even greater significance.

The overarching aim was to create two distinct spatial experiences — using colour and texture as a counterpoint to the home’s more neutral rooms. The restrained warmth of rich tan Dulux Coyote, juxtaposed with the fresh yellow of Dulux Cape Kidnappers, were used to create a feeling of lightness, even on the cloudiest of days.

The judges commented that “Its unwavering commitment to colour sets this practice’s strategy apart. Redefining the potential of a small-scale renovation, Pac Studio has ambitiously designed a scheme to do much more than unite or revitalise an existing home; it has investigated the potential for colour to delineate space, affect mood and define identity. Despite the project’s modest scope, the result is transformative and highly effective — a credit to the architects’ vision and resolve."

Click here to see this year’s winning projects including the winner of the Australian Grand Prix Award.