Irving Smith Architects Limited (Expired)

About Irving Smith Architects Limited

Irving Smith Architects has been developed as a niche Architecture practice based in Nelson, and working in sensitive environments in New Zealand and abroad. We demonstrate an ongoing commitment to innovative, sustainable and research based design, backed up by national and international award and publication recognition, ongoing research and teaching at the University of Auckland, and regular invitations to lecture on our work, including winning World Timber Building of the Year and World Higher Education and Research Building of the Year at the 2021 World Architecture Festival, 2021 Architizer World Architecture + Wood Award, The Building at the 2021 INDE Indo-Pacific Architecture Awards, Best of the Best Green Building at the 2021 Masterprize Awards, an Award of Distinction at the 2019, UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural heritage Awards, World Villa of the Year at the 2017 World Architecture Festival in Berlin 2017, being Highly Commended in Singapore 2015, and a finalist in Barcelona 2011, Singapore 2013,2014,2015, Berlin 2017 and Amsterdam 2019 and Lisbon 2020-2021, 2022. We have secured in excess of 50 Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Awards for work around NZ, including Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects New Zealand Awards for Public Architecture in 2012 and 2013, 2018, Residential Architecture in 2004,2018 and Commercial Architecture in 2022. We were nominated as a finalist for the 2013 Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects New Zealand Architectural Medal (the highest award in NZ architecture). Our national architecture awards for public work have been praised for their sensitivity and community understanding, and our residential work for their environmental suitability. We represented New Zealand at the 2015,2018 and 2021 Prague International Architecture Festivals, where our Soft Context : Soft Architecture exhibition developed an approach of looking to understand and participate with existing landscapes rather than generating new contexts. Recognition received for Timber Design includes NZ’s highest Residential, Commercial and Engineering awards and ongoing experience with Government agencies and the University of Canterbury developing timber systems, that reduce damage during seismic events and allow immediate reoccupation. Property Council awards for excellence, received in 2011, 2013, 2021 include a Best in Category and nomination as a Supreme Finalist. We have experience in Masterplanning and Tertiary design, garnered from extensive work on the campus at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) and a broad variety of multilevel Commercial Development, and adapting and seismically strengthening existing buildings. Our ongoing work includes Residential, Public and Structural Timber work throughout New Zealand, and overseas.