Announcing the 2023 F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship winner
Mitra Homolja and Ellie Tuckey, founders of Third Studio.
How we build our public housing to be more adaptable in the face of climate change is a subject that the extreme weather events of 2023 are urging us to address. So, it’s fitting that making housing for our most vulnerable more resilient is the focus of the very first F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship for Public Housing.
Mitra Homolja and Ellie Tuckey, architectural graduates who live in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, have been awarded the inaugural fellowship. The pair, founders of Third Studio and urban design consultants for Hutt City Council, will use the $20,000 grant to investigate circular economy construction technology in the context of making existing public housing more resilient, to complete a survey of mātauranga Māori perspectives on resilience to climate change and to research proactive architectural responses in other places in the world. Homolja and Tuckey will then develop a case study based on their findings to apply to public housing in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt, the most densely populated flood plain in Aotearoa.
“Whilst central and local governments and communities undertake rigorous discussion about climate adaptation and methods, public housing demand continues to outweigh supply, and public housing continues to be renovated and newly built in areas at risk of severe climate events,” wrote Homolja and Tuckey in their proposal for the fellowship. “Currently, typical construction methods aim to provide solid structures with a long lifespan and do not consider how housing can be altered or moved as the needs of tenants change.”
The dual focus of their project will result not only in an impactful design case study but potentially profound advancements in the feasibility and implementation of new construction solutions for climate change mitigation in our public housing around the country. It’s that impact and the commitment to addressing an under-explored issue that struck the fellowship jury, who described the proposal as “impressive, brave and focused”.
“This project combines a sensitive engagement with the local community in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt with a forward-thinking focus on cross-purposing new technology to design for the impacts of climate change,” added the jury in its citation.
Created by the Institute and family members of former government architect F. Gordon Wilson, the F. Gordon Wilson Fellowship has been established to generate architectural research into Aotearoa’s unmet housing needs. It will be awarded annually to promote creative design thinking and new ideas and approaches to public housing and is inspired by Wilson’s historic career and impact on Aotearoa New Zealand’s built environment.
Learn more at www.nzia.co.nz
