Source: Department of Conservation
To celebrate Wellington Heritage Week (25 – 31 October), we launched a competition in August to encourage the public to build Wellington’s heritage … in Lego (or similar toy blocks)! Today we announce the winners.
Wellington Heritage Week is an annual celebration that acknowledges all things heritage in the Wellington region.
This year, we decided to do things a little bit differently to celebrate. We challenged kids, teens and adults from around the country to build their favourite heritage place in Wellington out of Lego (or other building blocks).
The Wellington/Kāpiti region is home to tonnes of fantastic heritage sites – Matiu/Somes Island, The Beehive, and the Mākara gun emplacements – just to name a few.
Entrants had to think deeply about their chosen heritage site. They had to think about the history of the Wellington region and what place resonates most strongly with them. They needed to consider the story of that place and how to recreate it memorably.
We were blown away with the entries that we received. We had 44 entries in total, which is a fantastic result.
There were so many good entries that judging was tough! Picking just two per category was too difficult, so the judges decided to recognise some builds as with special mentions as well.
Here are our winners…
Category one: kids (12 years and under)
Winner: Hollie Lawrence – Katherine Mansfield House and Garden
Hollie wrote:
“I have made Kathrine Mansfield’s birthplace because I have been there a lot and it is one of my favourite heritage places.
This house that I made has special things like three books in their own places, one is in the doorway, one is on the desk and the other one is being written upstairs. There is also a little fireplace upstairs and some stairs downstairs. My favourite bits are how I made Katherine as a mini figure and my other favourite bit is the garden and how it has a lot of colour and how some of Katherine’s sisters are playing in the garden.”
Runner up: Isla Dapas – The Bucket Fountain
Special mentions:
Oliver Ensor – Wellington Cable Car
Hazel Argent – Te Whanganui a Tara
Bree Finau – Wellington Museum
Adrian Gray – Wellington Botanic Garden
Lily Dinnan – Pukeahu National War Memorial
Ellie Fu – Old St Paul’s Church
Category two: teens (13-17 years inclusive)
Winner: Diyar Faraj – Pencarrow Lighthouse
Runner up: Oliver Hays – Zealandia
Category three: adults (ages 18 and up)
Winner: Peter Friend – Bats Theatre
Peter wrote:
“I’m always on the lookout for real-life buildings suitable to recreate in LEGO. I noticed that Bats Theatre was about the right width to fit a standard 32-stud-wide LEGO baseplate, so I grabbed some photos and graph paper and started designing. Some architectural details were difficult to recreate and aren’t a perfect match, but overall, I’m pretty happy with how recognisable the final LEGO version is.”
Runner up: Shona and Willow Cooling – Plimmerton Fire Station
Shona wrote:
“Lots of fun and thank you for the opportunity. We may enter more as the lockdown carries on.”
Special mention: Caleb Tien – Wellington City skyline
Thanks to everyone who took part in the competition. It was particularly pleasing to see so many young people engaging with out heritage.
Visit the Wellington Heritage Week website for more information about the festival.
