Tūāhu
TOP 5 FINALIST: BRICK BAY FOLLY 2020
2020
collaborated with Jason Tan, Tyler Harlen and Callum Leslie
Featured on ArchitectureNow and Architecture New Zealand, September 2020 (issue 5)
Jury Comments
Enclosure of a different kind is proposed in Tūāhu; we are invited into a series of blue-painted conic forms composed of plywood skins perforated by repetitive shapes derived from Gordon Walters’ koru-based abstractions. The result is a more-centred interior space enlivened by the light and deconstructed landscape glimpsed through the perforations.
Tūāhu
The tūāhu emerges from the sloping hillside as a collection of interconnected sculptural
vessels. An ambiguous object, and delicately adorned with an ornamental language of
waka hoe (paddles). Deep vivid tones of Pūkeko blue expresses the distinctive silhouette
and moiré of patterns which intersect the empty landscape.
Entering the Shrine
Exploring a tectonic expression of foreground and background - the viewer entering the
sculpture is enclosed within the tūāhu, as the landscape interplay weaves a negative void
and the positive object above forms an immaterial internal space.
The tūāhu looks to anchor the site through the shifting of scales and casting of
fragmented shadows. An other-worldly condition of space, the viewer looks up towards
the oculus and can observe a series of shifting colours and scales; apertures which frame
the sky above and place below.
Derived from the aesthetic qualities of Gordon Walters visual language of abstraction,
abundant articulated repetition through a limited range of geometric forms has inspired
the visual expression of Tūāhu.
JURY CITATION
Enclosure of a different kind is proposed in Tūāhu; we are invited into a series of blue-painted conic forms composed of plywood skins perforated by repetitive shapes derived from Gordon Walters’ koru-based abstractions. The result is a more-centred interior space enlivened by the light and deconstructed landscape glimpsed through the perforations.
