Aigantighe House Gallery Refurbishment

Awards

2026

• Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Canterbury Architecture Award; Heritage 2026

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The paradox of Heritage Refurbishment is that the Architect should be invisible. When we commenced in mid-2020 Timaru’s Aigantighe Art Gallery had been closed by seismic concerns; it was stripped and emptied to the point of desolation. Work was undertaken in two stages, an initial restoration of the House Gallery, and a second stage to install vertical circulation, once a hoped-for replacement contemporary gallery fell away. In the silent strengthening and rebuilding, the house’s circulation is re-established and freed to run in and out of each room, in the manner of a period house; a counter to the one large room of the adjacent 1970’s gallery. This array of rooms suits the scale of provincial collections and allows options to curatorship. Each room can be used independently or in groups, dependent on the scale of collection displayed and is subtly labelled to show original function.