St Hilda’s: A Small Project Making a Big Impact

Winner of the 2024 NZIA Small Project Architecture Award

From vision to victory, St Hilda’s has been honoured at the 2024 Architecture Awards, taking home the NZIA Small Project Architecture Award. This accolade celebrates not only the architectural achievement but also the collaborative spirit shared with the St Hilda’s community.

Described by the judges as a project with "big imagination and a collaborative spirit," St Hilda’s showcases how small-scale architecture can achieve remarkable outcomes.

Faced with the challenge of an earthquake-prone facade, our team turned constraints into an opportunity to blend heritage restoration with thoughtfully crafted, functional spaces. This project reaffirmed our belief that even the smallest architectural interventions can have a huge impact.

Jury Comments:

This delightful transformation of a small community church shows what can be done with a big imagination and a collaborative spirit. St Hilda’s was built in 1910 as a timber structure with an aspirational brick front to the street. When faced with earthquake-strengthening the brick façade, the congregation and First Light Studio undertook the brave move to demolish it and extend and open the church to the street with a glazed, laminated-timber arched bay window. St Hilda’s feels utterly contemporary and welcoming by day and night, thanks to a beautifully designed, folded patterned metal screen that modulates privacy and light with a magical effect inside and out.

Rev. Mark Henderwood speaking on behalf of the rōpū