Gary Todd: Designing So It Belongs

EBB Dunedin began as a client’s proposed apartment project. Gary Todd reasoned for a hotel instead, on the grounds it would respect and give more back to Ōtepoti Dunedin than apartments could, and it went on to win the NZIA Sir Miles Warren Award. At Orokonui House, he reasoned for a smaller footprint: a contextual house more open and connected with its eco-sanctuary surroundings rather than a larger one that ignores them. Both come back to manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga, and to the test he applies before anything else. Does this building belong to its place, its people, and its culture?