Specialty Award Categories
Category description:
Entry is open to Year 3 and 4 students, as well as students enrolled in a relevant master’s degree, at a New Zealand tertiary education provider.
Judging criteria:
Showcasing innovation in timber through conceptual or proposed projects where timber is featured as a solution to relevant building sector issues across New Zealand.
Category description:
A fit-out of a new or existing building (including renovations).
Judging criteria:
Novel selection, application and aesthetic design in an interior environment.
Category description:
For the use of timber and wood-based products as a signature feature resulting in designs of exterior structures and features such as bridges, pavilions, walkways, landscaping, exterior furniture and exterior art.
Judging criteria:
Appropriate selection of durable timber as expressed in a novel, extreme environment, or aesthetic application.
Category description:
This category focuses on timber structures manufactured based on innovative processes and techniques recognising supplier/manufacturer input and innovation (i.e. double-curved members, large-scale finger jointing etc,.)
Judging criteria:
Showcasing design and manufacturing innovation to use timber in different ways and provide solutions that may not have been possible previously due to advances in technology.
Category description:
Recognising outstanding timber projects completed outside Aotearoa by New Zealand teams, this category highlights innovation, craftsmanship, and the successful adaptation of timber solutions to diverse international contexts. Eligible entries may include new builds, renovations, or fit-outs where timber plays a central role in design and execution.
Judging criteria:
Celebrating New Zealand design firms and New Zealand timber suppliers for their outstanding design and use of New Zealand timber in an international project.
Excellence Award Categories
Category description:
For the use of timber and wood-based products in projects that are achieving low environmental impact and enhancing New Zealand’s unique culture, society and environment. Carbon calculations showing the benefit of using timber as a structural material are encouraged.
Judging criteria:
Demonstrating high environmental sustainability, cultural significance and stewardship towards New Zealand’s unique society and environment, and a cultural shift in design and construction towards achieving a positive integration with the natural environment and showcasing a circular biobased economy approach.
Category description:
For the use of timber and wood-based products as a signature feature resulting in exceptional design of a residential single-family stand-alone dwelling.
Judging criteria:
Showcasing built form and amenity, with innovation in material selection and aesthetics in a residential context.
Category description:
A new multi-unit residential dwelling, (townhouses, terraced houses, walk-up apartments, or any other residential building up to 3 stories). This category focuses on a ‘horizontal’ development in timber.
Judging criteria:
Showcasing built form and amenity, with innovation in material selection and aesthetics in a multi-unit residential dwelling context.
Category description:
This category recognises projects where timber is a defining element in commercial or industrial buildings, such as offices, retail spaces, factories, or warehouses. Entries should demonstrate how timber contributes to functionality, sustainability, and the overall user experience in demanding, high-traffic, or operationally complex settings.
Judging criteria:
Showcasing built form and amenity, with innovation in material selection and aesthetics in a commercial or industrial use building.
Category description:
This award celebrates the use of timber in public buildings—such as schools, libraries, community centres, or government facilities—where design, accessibility, and civic value are paramount. Projects should demonstrate how timber enhances the public realm, supports community engagement, and delivers lasting social and environmental benefits.
Judging criteria:
Showcasing innovation in material selection, built form, and aesthetics, remaining respectful of and enhancing its intended purpose as a building of public or community amenity.
Category description:
A multi-storey building over 3 levels (can be commercial, public, or residential). This category focuses on a ‘vertical’ development in timber.
Judging criteria:
Showcasing the built form and innovation in maximising the valuable characteristics and properties of timber in a multi-storey context.
Category description:
Any building type where timber is used as a structural material, but is not the main structural material (i.e. the use of mass timber flooring panels in a commercial multi-storey steel building, timber extensions on existing steel or concrete buildings).
Judging criteria:
Showcasing the characteristics, built form, innovation, benefits, and properties of using timber in combination with other structural materials.
Category description:
This category focuses on timber structures based on innovative engineering solutions (i.e. the design of a grid-shell or diagrid structure; adoption of damage avoidance design etc).
Judging criteria:
Showcasing engineering and construction innovation in maximising the ability to utilise timber in different ways and push forward with exciting and different solutions.
