Dulux Colour Awards 2025

What the judges said...

"This year’s NZ Grand Prix winner, Lava Flow by Pac Studio, displays remarkable chromatic restraint, spatial understanding and precise execution, and the judges applaud the courage and intelligence of the architects. Their commitment to the strategy exemplifies the power of a single colour to determine and define a built work. The hero of the story is Dulux Silo Park, a deep, earthy crimson that reflects the home’s unique geographical context within Auckland’s volcanic landscape.

"Great swathes of this dense colour adorn a sweeping, angular skylight, which defines the interior through its application to an upper surface, thereby inverting expectations and accepted norms of colour placement. An adjacent wall and various architectural elements also bear this deep hue. To intensify the impact, they are contrasted with a soft white and the result is remarkable in its simplicity and dramatic impact.

"The intensity isn’t lost in the private zones of the project, where equally strong but muted shades are adopted and offset by exotically patterned wallpaper. The judges applaud the purity of vision and execution of such a daring scheme and the architect’s understanding of colour as an essential determinant of mood, atmosphere and identity."