We’re thrilled to share that Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi, the winning design of the 2026 Brick Bay Folly, has been named a finalist in the 2026 Best Design Awards.
Designed and built by emerging architects Jasleen Basra, Sufyaan Chuttur, Naomi Felicia, Nyle Macaranas and Rain Nario, the folly is a finalist in the Spatial: Exhibition & Temporary Structures category.
For a team who began the project with little full-scale construction experience, balancing the immense challenge of the build alongside the final stages of their architectural studies, the recognition is something worth celebrating.
It also continues a remarkable run for the Brick Bay Folly programme.
Celebrating the Best of New Zealand Design
Run by the Designers Institute of New Zealand, the Best Design Awards are an annual showcase of design excellence in Aotearoa, recognising outstanding work across spatial, graphic, digital, film, animation and industrial design, alongside awards for Social Good, Toitanga and the Value of Design.
More than an annual awards programme, the Best Awards form an evolving archive of New Zealand design and the people shaping it.
That makes this recognition particularly meaningful for Brick Bay. At its heart, the Folly programme exists to give emerging architects an opportunity to experiment, take risks and discover what happens when an idea has to leave the drawing board and stand up in the real world.
View the 2026 Best Design Awards finalist entry
Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi
Now open on the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail on the Matakana Coast, Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi began with a quiet observation beneath the trees at Brick Bay.
The team watched a Kāruhiruhi, or pied shag, stretch its wings in the sun to dry. That fleeting moment became the starting point for a structure exploring shelter, stillness, seasonality and the passage of time.
Two sweeping wing-like forms welcome visitors into the landscape, wrapped in a tactile skin made from thousands of individually collected fallen leaves. Each leaf was treated, preserved and hand-stitched into coir netting before being installed on the structure.
Importantly, the leaves are not intended to remain unchanged.
As they dry, curl, weather and eventually fall away, more of the timber structure beneath will be revealed. Light, shadow and texture will shift with them, meaning the folly visitors encounter today will not be quite the same folly they experience in a year’s time.
It is architecture designed with change, rather than against it.
From University Models to Full-Scale Architecture
The finished structure makes the journey look deceptively graceful.
Getting there was anything but simple.
None of the five designers had previously constructed anything beyond university-scale models. Over the course of the project, digital drawings met the tolerances and unpredictability of real timber, structural requirements reshaped elements of the original design, full-scale prototypes were tested and refined, and details were adjusted by millimetres and single degrees.
The team worked alongside experienced mentors and industry supporters to solve each challenge while protecting the architectural intent at the heart of their winning proposal.
The result is more than a beautiful object in the landscape. It represents exactly what the Brick Bay Folly was established to encourage: experimentation, collaboration, resilience and the opportunity for emerging architects to learn by making.
Could It Be a Brick Bay Hat-Trick?
There is another reason we’ll be watching this year’s Best Design Awards particularly closely.
The two previous Brick Bay Follies both went on to win Gold at the Best Design Awards in Spatial: Exhibition & Temporary Structures.
In 2024, Femme-ly Velues, by Elise Cautley, Claire Ford and Jennifer Gao, received Gold for its joyful exploration of femininity, craft, sustainability and architectural ornament.
Then in 2025, Yellow Post, by George Culling, Oliver Prisk, Henry Mabin and Andre Vachias, made it two in a row, receiving Gold for its bold contemporary interpretation of the historic hākari structures of northern Aotearoa.
Now Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi joins them as a 2026 finalist.
Could this be three Golds in three years?
We’ll find out when the 2026 Best Design Awards are presented in October.
View Femme-ly Velues at the Best Design Awards
View Yellow Post at the Best Design Awards
Supporting the Next Generation of New Zealand Architecture
Awards are wonderful recognition, but for us, the bigger story is what happens long before an entry reaches an awards jury.
For more than a decade, the Brick Bay Folly Competition has provided emerging architects with the rare opportunity to design and then physically build an architectural work at full scale.
Winning teams are supported by mentors, engineers, construction professionals, material suppliers and other specialists who bring an extraordinary depth of knowledge to the process. That exchange between emerging talent and established industry is fundamental to the programme.
The resulting follies sit somewhere between architecture and sculpture. They can be playful, challenging, experimental or contemplative, but each asks its designers to take an idea further than a university project or computer model ever could.
To see three successive Brick Bay Folly teams recognised at this level is something we’re immensely proud of. It is also a testament to the generosity of the mentors, sponsors and supporters who give their time, expertise and resources to help these young designers realise ambitious ideas.
Most importantly, the recognition belongs to the teams themselves.
With Thanks to Our Programme Partners and Project Supporters
The Brick Bay Folly would not be possible without the generosity, expertise and practical support of the organisations and individuals who help emerging designers take their ideas from concept to built reality.
Our key programme partners are:
Additional project support for Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi was provided by:
- Plytech
- SPAX Pacific
- Pure Nature
- AG Metalworks
- Alistair Munro
Experience It at Brick Bay
Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi is open now and can be experienced as part of the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, set amongst native bush, vineyards and lakes on the Matakana Coast, north of Auckland.
And there is good reason to visit sooner rather than later.
This is a folly designed to evolve. Its thousands of leaves will continue to weather, its appearance will shift with the seasons, and the architecture beneath will gradually emerge.
Come and see it at this moment in its life.
Discover the 2026 Brick Bay Folly
View the Best Awards Finalist
Plan Your Visit
