Sir Ian Athfield

'Ath' with Peter Stutchbury, at Awaroa Architecture Master Class, September 2014

Our great friend and outstanding ‘master’, Ian Athfield – more commonly known throughout New Zealand as ‘Ath’, has been knighted in the NZ 2015 New Year Honours List. An amazing tribute to him and Claire, and to New Zealand, that a wild man, eccentric, anarchistic social revolutionary, can be officially recognised.   

“The prominent architect will now be known as Sir Ian after being made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to architecture.

Athfield's mark is all over Wellington, from the Civic Square and the Wellington Library, to the Wellington Overseas Passenger Terminal redevelopment and his fairytale style homes dotted around the capital's suburbs. Even his spaceship-cum-Mediterranean villa home, which clings to the hill overlooking Wellington's Hutt Road motorway, has become something of an icon.

More recently, he was appointed architectural ambassador for the Christchurch City Council, providing design advice and co-ordination for the rebuild following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.”