At the end of 2015 Coleraine house, the Buck family home, was awarded the ‘Enduring Architecture Award’ by the New Zealand Institute of Architects. John and Tobias Buck attended the event with Claire and Zac Athfield. John’s speech acknowledged Wendy Buck and Claire Athfield – the two women who inspired himself and Ath, and who contrubuted so greatly to the their lives and family homes. The full NZIA award citation appears below:
‘Icon is an overused design word, but there really are few more iconic sights in New Zealand architecture than Coleraine (formerly Buck) House sitting bright white among rows of vines on the slopes of Te Mata Peak. The building is one of the best works of the late Sir Ian Athfield, and thirty-five years after its construction it retains all of its charms. It’s such a famous form that one tends to forget that it has an interior life; for two generations the house has served its owners as a much-loved family home. What does it reference? Colonial farm cottages, the plaster houses of the Mediterranean, its own Athfield antecedents. But whatever it suggests, the house declares its absolute comfort with its situation. Valued and cared for, it stands as a testament to a great architectural talent.’