Architectural accolades

3/12/2009

Simon Harrison (1990-94) has gone from playing with Lego to being named the best architecture student in the country, this week winning the New Zealand Institute of Architects 2009 Graphisoft Student Design Award complete with a cash prize of $5000 and a trip to Sydney.

Simon Harrison

The 33-year-old said his design was about providing community spaces for high density apartment buildings.

Children growing up in Dunedin may move from playing in their house to playing in their backyard, street or suburb, but the options for children growing up in apartment blocks were limited, Simon said.

He noted his work, Urban Neighbours, was influenced by a recent internship in Switzerland where he worked on high density housing, where ‘‘public private’’ spaces were designed to create genuine neighbourhoods.

Competition judges said his work was ‘‘a compelling investigation of physical, social and commercial aspects of architecture’’.

Simon’s journey to become the country’s top architecture student began with playing with Lego blocks at his family home, and an interest with many of Dunedin’s historic buildings.

‘‘Dunedin has some of the best old architecture in the country with Otago Boys’ a great mix of old and new buildings.’’

After graduating in draughting from Otago Polytechnic and several years of travelling, Simon decided to become an architect, completing his degree last month. He said he was keen to remain in New Zealand and was likely to work in Auckland before an eventual return to Dunedin.