Eighty architecture students from around the country gathered in Wellington to compete in the annual SANNZ (Student Architecture Network of New Zealand) 24 Hour Design Competition at the end of July. The 12 teams were given a brief on Friday 23 July and worked through the night and the following day, presenting to a panel of three judges on the Saturday evening.

The event began at local Wellington brew bar Whistling Sisters, where the teams were given some inventive challenges to get the creative juices flowing, including designing a cantilevered structure with popsicle sticks and creating a COVID-19 government bunker.

Following this, back at the design studio, the design brief was revealed. The teams were asked to imagine that Wellington’s iconic Cuba Street had lost all its colour and had collapsed through a portal to an alternate reality. They were to create a vision for this new reality, considering how a day looks, how people get around, how the political systems work and what the buildings look like. Each team was assigned a different limitation when imagining its new reality, ranging from edible structures to being able to turn left only.

Students were given Resene paints, Gordon Harris notebooks, GIB craft knives, a pile of scrap material, a studio space and, by this point, 19 hours to come up with their best alternate realities. Contestants worked hard, many not sleeping, to produce some fantastic outcomes in the form of physical models and games through to videos and paintings.

On Saturday afternoon at 4pm, the competition came to a close. Everyone made their way to the final venue, Bedlam & Squalor, above the iconic Rogue & Vagabond in Te Aro. Each team was given five minutes to woo the judges – senior lecturer at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Architecture Guy Marriage, Tennent Brown practice director Ewan Brown and president of Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Judi Keith-Brown – and prove that its reality was the best.

After last year’s COVID-19-induced hiatus, it was great to see the design competition back and proving to be as successful as ever. It was incredibly rewarding to observe students from across the country building connections and enjoying some well-earned fun again. A huge thanks goes to our generous sponsors, without whom we could not have run the competition: Thermosash, Red Bull, Gordon Harris, GIB, Resene, Original Foods, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, L’affare and Vic Books. For more information about SANNZ and the organisation’s upcoming events, visit sannz.org.

Congratulations to the winning teams:

1st place – The Stevie ONEderful People: Eva Albiston, VUW; Elise Alexander, Unitec; Henry Craw, VUW; Jennifer Dubowitz, VUW; Isaac Rakich, Unitec

2nd place – Abercrombie: Tessa Barry, VUW; Ricky Frost, VUW; Lily Huang, UoA; Angela Wong, UoA; Max Young, VUW

3rd place – The Holy Trinity: Augustus Galbraith, VUW; Darby Georgeson, VUW; Fin Georgeson, Massey; Arabella Marshall, VUW; Sahil Tiku, UoA; Anthony Washer, VUW