Crosson Architects

Profile

Crosson Architects is an Auckland based architectural practice with an exceptional portfolio of work. Past projects include residential, commercial, institutional, master planning and urban design developments. Considered and engaging design is a way of life for the team at Crosson. We constantly consider and critique creativity. Realising our clients’ aspirations in compelling ways is what we live to do. Our commitment to providing a superior service to our clients is extended with membership in Designgroup New Zealand, enabling larger scale projects to be undertaken, drawing on a range of resources and expertise from partnering practices. We strive for the highest standards of client service, design and documentation. At the completion of each project the aim is to have achieved a building that is beyond the client’s expectations.

Each project is analysed for its special requirements and opportunities: the end result being not a preconceived idea but a combination of the client’s requirements and desires, a response to the site and the budget. Critical consideration is given to the project’s specific environmental and historical context, and to the appropriate use of materials and construction methods.

Great architecture comes from positive collaboration – drawing together a team of creative thinkers, technicians and fabricators. At the heart of the process is the collaboration between the client and the architect. At Crosson Architects we create – and the process is vigorous and robust, rich and rewarding. Amongst other elements we consider the physical, psychological and spiritual – achieving an outcome that is unique and life enhancing. We believe good design will produce sustainable, functional and dramatic spaces and buildings that have an enduring quality over time.


Biography

Ken Crosson

Described as an ‘architectural humanist’, Ken’s starting point in architecture is an intuitive response to site, informed by cultural and contextual references relevant to client, site and community. This approach generates a rich and diverse palette of texture and materiality, while the clarity of form and structure reveals the strength of the underlying ideas. Ken studied in Auckland, and apart from a period living and working in London as a young graduate has been based in the city, running projects throughout New Zealand. He cites the architecture of Claude Megson – specifically Megson’s complex spaces and ‘spaces for occasions’ – as a pivotal influence. Central to Ken’s design process are the ideas of exploration – allowing the design to evolve through constant re-evaluation; and appropriateness – maintaining the underpinning reference to site and context.

The exceptional design portfolio Ken has developed has granted him recognition within the profession, with awards including NZ Home Magazine Home of the Year in 2003 and Home of the Decade in 2006. In 2012 he was a finalist in the World Architecture Awards for the project ‘Hut on Sleds’. His designs have twice been listed by World Architecture News among the Six Best Houses in the World – with awards in 2006 for the ‘Coromandel Bach’ and in 2013 for the ‘Hut on Sleds’. In 1997 Ken was awarded a Fellowship of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and continues to be actively involved in the development of the profession, in undergraduate education, institute awards and registration assessment. He has a passion for quality urban design and has been an active participant in the NZIA Urban Issues Group.