Fourteen years of hard work has paid off for Kiwi architects Fred and Damien van Brandenburg, who are making waves overseas with a project six times the size of Te Papa.
Architecture van Brandenburg's project, the Marisfrolg Campus in Shenzhen, China, has earnt the duo a special category excellence award at the New Zealand Chinese Building Association gala night.
Damien told Newshub "it's an honour to be recognised for this award" after working tirelessly for over a decade.
"It's nice to be at the point where we've been able to reveal it and share it."
Marisfrolg - which was commissioned and designed in Dunedin and Queenstown - will officially open and host China Fashion Week in September.
Damien said one of the briefing elements from the client was a building that would inspire the staff who worked there.
"It seems to be that we're getting that response back from them, that they are."
It's taken "a lot of hard work" and "dedication" to get the job done.
"We've really enjoyed it and it's really, really nice for our whole team to work on this and for us to work not only from a master-planned, large-scale project component of it, but also right down to the details."
Damien said his product design team have been involved in designing the door handles right down to the light fittings.
While the experience has been "really great", Damien noted that the project has still been a big commitment - and he's often found himself spending more time in China than he does in New Zealand.
"It's been a fantastic journey and experiencing things and being involved in parts of this project that I didn't think I would ever be involved in the project. And it's been wonderful."
