Winner of New Zealand Supreme Award

Dave Launder's House at Kaitawa

Dave Launder did the very first Glenn Murcutt Master Class in 2001. He was at that time a 'mature' architect. Dave has just collected a New Zealand Institute of Architects 'Supreme Award' for his house at Kaitawa Road near Wellington. Here is what Dave has to say about the Master Class experience - "The GMMC of 2001 was a (rather belated) turning point in my career as an architect, to meet and learn from the four 'masters' was something that I should have done in my forties when I was building structures as sculptures, interesting shapes perhaps but with no cognisance of their deeper needs or the total environment. To hear, in particular, Richard's approach to simplicity and to work through how simplicity could hold poetry and romance, to look at how Glenn met primary needs and made beauty and to learn how to tie all these approaches to the specific environment can be so obvious – it should be essential for every mature architect."