Kiwi architects big in China

Architecture Van Brandenburg

The Architecture Van Brandenburg-designed headquarters for Chinese fashion label Marisfrolg is under construction in Shenzhen, China.

Nicola Feeney

Fred Van Brandenburg and his son Damien build models of their designs in their Dunedin studio before a single brick is laid.

Nicola Feeney

Fred Van Brandenburg and his son Damien build models of their designs in their Dunedin studio before a single brick is laid.

Rising from the bare earth of a construction site in Shenzhen, China, is the giant new global headquarters of the international fashion giant Marisfrolg.

On completion in 2017, the 120,000-square metre complex will encompass a catwalk and function area for launching collections, rooftop gardens, design offices, a factory, warehousing and a 50-room boutique hotel - all set in five hectares of garden, with ponds that capture water for re-use.

Extraordinarily, this behemoth was all designed in Queenstown, and refined in Dunedin, making it perhaps New Zealand's largest-ever architectural commission. Since 2007, first in design, then in construction, Architects Van Brandenburg have worked solely on Marisfrolg, until recently turning down all other work.

Incomplete, yet elegant, it resembles the outsize bones of some extinct beast. Certainly, it doesn't look very practical. But, says principal architect Fred Van Brandenburg, "this is a sculpture people can reside in". It's a mark of the impact Van Brandenburg has made since arriving in New Zealand in 1987. He gave up a successful career in apartheid-run South Africa to immigrate, a decision that came at a cost as emigrants were unable to take their assets with them. Penniless, Van Brandenburg and his wife Diane, four children in tow, arrived just in time for the 1987 stockmarket crash. Out of the resultant dearth of architectural commissions he emerged - largely by fluke, as he gleefully admits - the last architect standing from an initial group of three who tendered for the design of the Millbrook resort in Queenstown.

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Kiwi architects big in China