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Contents

42

Contents
10 EDITORIAL

15 COLUMNS
15 Pip Cheshire considers the sea of competing imperatives
in which our architectural style appears to be adrift
19 Karamia Müller discusses the ecstasy and the equity
in our appreciation and practice of architecture

23 ACROSS THE BOARD

24 The Court Theatre; Judith Taylor announced as the
president-elect for Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand
Institute of Architects; Cardrona Valley master plan
26 Open Christchurch

30 PRACTICE
30 Six Storey Love Song – Matthew Paetz reviews the
new density controls in the National Policy Statement
on Urban Development 2020

41 WORK
42
52
58
Walking backwards – CUBA PRECINCT REDEVELOPMENT
Free range – FLOUR MILL
A taniwha awakes – TE MATAPIHI BULLS COMMUNITY CENTRE
58
6 Architecture New Zealand
Contents

78
71 INTERIOR AWARDS 2021
A celebration of the very best projects
from across the industry:
78 Supreme and Civic – TE AO MĀRAMA
80 Workplace up to 1000m2 – PWC TOWER SKY LOBBY
82 Workplace over 1000m2
– MINTERELLISONRUDDDWATTS

84 Hospitality – THE HOTEL BRITOMART

86 Retail – COMVITA WELLNESS LAB
88 Residential – TOTO WHARE
90 Residential Kitchen – HONG KONG-INSPIRED KITCHEN
92 Healthcare and Wellness – O-STUDIO
94 Emerging Design Professional – ELISAPETA HETA
97 Finalists

111 CRIT
111 Itinerary: Guide – Queenstown
115 Exhibition: Tai Moana Tai Tangata
119 Exhibition: Pouwātū: Active Presence
121 Book: Making Ways: Alternative
Architectural Practice in Aotearoa

124 CARTOON
84 92
8 Architecture New Zealand
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Editorial inaction of this generation of adults, in what
might fairly be described as the greatest
inter-generational injustice ever inflicted by
Chris Barton one generation of humans upon the next.
To say that the children are vulnerable is
to understate their predicament.”
Like most professional bodies, Te Kāhui
Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of
Architects (NZIA) has, through the New
Zealand Registered Architects Board
(NZRAB), a code of ethics. Distressingly,
despite caring enough about this issue to
make a submission to the government’s He
Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission,
there is no mention of climate change in ON THE COVER
Te Tatau Kaitiaki, by Graham Tipene, forms the
the NZRAB’s code. While it does say a entry waharoa to Te Ao Mārama, the South
registered architect must carry out their Atrium of Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War
Memorial Museum, winner of both the Civic
One night in Jerusalem, 2017, Chris Barton. “professional activities with reasonable award and Supreme award at this yearʼs
Interior Awards. Image: Dennis Radermacher.
Photo Diana Wichtel. skill, care, and diligence”, you won’t find
any mention of the words ‘sustainable’ or PUBLISHER
IF EVER THERE WERE ANY DOUBT THAT ‘sustainability’, let alone ‘carbon’. Nathan Inkpen
EDITOR
climate change is an ethical issue then the Contrast this with Engineering New Chris Barton
landmark judgement by the Australian Zealand’s Code of Ethical Conduct, which ASSISTANT & INTERIOR EDITOR
Amanda Harkness
Federal Court in late May should settle states under “Obligations in the Public
ART & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
the matter. The class action case brought, Interest” that engineers must, in the course André Kini
on behalf of all Australian children and of their engineering activities:
ADVERTISING SALES
teenagers, against Environment Minister “i. have regard to reasonably foreseeable Mark Lipman – [email protected]
Sussan Ley sought to prevent approving the effects on the environment from those
ADMINISTRATION
Whitehaven coalmine extension project in activities; and [email protected]
New South Wales. The court didn’t order the ii. have regard to the need for sustainable CEO
Damian Eastman
project should be stopped. Instead, it put the management of the environment. In this
SUBSCRIPTIONS
onus on the environment minister, finding rule, sustainable management means agm.co.nz/store
she owes a duty of care to Australia’s young management that meets the needs of the ANNUAL RATES
New Zealand $68
people not to cause them physical harm in present without compromising the ability Australia / South Pacific $110
Rest of world $158
the form of personal injury from climate of future generations... to meet their own
DISTRIBUTION
change. Aspects of the profound duty of care reasonably foreseeable needs.” Ovato Retail Distribution
finding, which provides the first step in a Thanks to Massey University
claim of negligence, are worth repeating: mathematician Robert McLachlan, who
PRINTER
“It is difficult to characterise in a single writes on climate change issues in the Ovato
phrase the devastation that the plausible media and at planetaryecology.org, for ISSN 0113-4566
Copyright: 2021 BCI New Zealand Pty Ltd
evidence presented in this proceeding forecasts alerting me to this difference between
for the children. As Australian adults know architects’ and engineers’ ethical standards. The Warren Trust supports
their country, Australia will be lost and the McLachlan notes the careful wording by Architecture NZ by way
of an editorial grant.
world as we know it gone as well. Engineering New Zealand, asking: “What
The physical environment will be harsher, constitutes ‘having regard to’, and what
far more extreme and devastatingly brutal behaviour would be regarded as unethical?
when angry. As for the human experience – What if you are asked to design a motorway
Architecture New Zealand (Architecture NZ),
quality of life, opportunities to partake in or an airport?” Fair point but, unlike incorporating New Zealand Architect, is
owned and published by BCI New Zealand Pty
nature’s treasures, the capacity to grow and the NZRAB, at least the engineers bring Ltd. BCI New Zealand and its parent company
prosper – all will be greatly diminished. climate change into the discussion. BCI Media Pty Ltd also own and publish Archify,
ArchitectureNow and the Interior Awards.
Lives will be cut short. Trauma will be far McLachlan also pointed to a paper
more common and good health harder to showing that British architects provide BCI NEW ZEALAND PTY LTD
Level 2, 409 New North Road
hold and maintain. a good template that New Zealand Kingsland, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone +64 9 846 4068 / Fax +64 9 846 8742
None of this will be the fault of nature architects might emulate. The RIBA:
POSTAL ADDRESS
itself. It will largely be inflicted by the Code of Professional Conduct says: Private Bag 99915, Newmarket, Auckland 1149

10 Architecture New Zealand

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and development principles in their professional
activities”. More specifically, it also says:
“13.4 In performing professional services,
Members shall advocate the design, construction,
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Bravo and dismay. The NZRAB’s tardiness to
make climate change considerations central to the
practice of architecture is difficult to explain. It also
seems at odds with the 126 firms that have signed
up to the aims of Architects Declare New Zealand
(nz.architectsdeclare.com), which include:
“Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity
emergencies and the urgent need for action
DESIGNED FOR amongst our clients and supply chains.
Advocate for faster change in our industry
NEW ZEALAND towards regenerative design practices and a higher
CODE AND Governmental funding priority to support this.
Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as
CONDITIONS a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition
and new build whenever there is a viable choice.”
The self-regulating ideas behind professional
codes of conduct go back to one Lord (Henry)
Benson, a UK accountant who, in 1984, promoted
a set of nine professional principles – one of
which says: “The governing body must set the
ethical rules and professional standards which
are to be observed by the members. These should
be higher than those which can be established by
the general law.” He also said that the rules and
standards enforced by the governing body must be
designed for the benefit of the public and not for
the private advantage of members.
Perhaps the NZRAB, to acknowledge the peril
of “the greatest inter-generational injustice ever
inflicted by one generation of humans upon the
next”, should go back to first principles and strive
to articulate a higher ethical standard – one that
insists we owe a duty of care to our children and
grandchildren.

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 Opinion

On confusion
Pip Cheshire
and, a few years later, working of a previously picturesque vista.
with a Singaporean practice, they As the commentary becomes more
revealed their way of preparing for barbed so I become more ambivalent,
a stoush over the final fees. They caught tongue-tied between a
would complete the documentation, liberal’s forbearance of the owner/
print a full and complete set, then builder’s right to self-actualisation
guillotine it diagonally in half. and a growing sense of outrage at
One half would be presented to the despoliation of a once-beautiful
the client and the other would be hillock.
delivered upon settlement of the While my fellow critic is happy
fees. I loved the efficacy of the to allude to the house’s apparently
strategy and, though I have never self-evident awfulness, I feel obliged
had to use it, I still wonder how we to offer some more articulate
might bifurcate a PDF. commentary, if for no other reason
This is a fairly long-winded than to forestall that fake truth that
LONG AGO, WHEN WE WERE introduction to the critical place lurks close to any discussion of
still allowed to have open fires in anticipation and agency have in our architecture, that ‘beauty is in the
the city, I decided I would work trade. We spend most of our time eye of the beholder’.
only with a bricky with a good track making marks and orchestrating I have always countered this with
record in fireplaces: structures that events with long gestations and a robust description of architecture
drew well, gave out good heat and repercussions well beyond our award judging, arguing that a group
didn’t smoke. I lucked upon Willie formal engagement. I think, as a of learned souls will eventually
Colvin who, as a child, had worked consequence, we become somewhat come to a common understanding
with his father on the fireplaces in measured in our responses to over what gets a gong and what
Mackintosh’s Windy Ridge house. projects. It is reaction exacerbated doesn’t, especially if gingered up by
I was a bit too dim to understand by a shared common experience: an impending press deadline.
the implication of the house’s name, that of nursing our hopes I have recently lost a project
that a windy ridge was likely to through the gauntlet of trials and to a London architect, thanks to
damn-near guarantee a successful tribulations arising from the massed having shown no enthusiasm for,
draught up the chimney and a phalanx of rogue clients, intrusive and certainly no track record in,
smoke-free fire, but I soaked up bankers, misguided project the production of houses in the
Willie’s advice, particularly his tip managers and enthusiastically Georgian style. The matter of
for dealing with dodgy customers. creative contractors. Having who might win the commission
He would lay a sheet of glass halfway survived this a few times, battered was apparently the subject of
up the flue and, if a recalcitrant but endlessly optimistic about the matrimonial debate within the
customer was tardy in paying and undoubted success of the next client household in which the
supported their reluctance to settle project, most of us are prepared to likelihood of a beautiful outcome
the account by pointing to the cut our mates a bit of slack when was put on the scales: the certainty
fireplace’s smoking, a deal would something looks a bit iffy. of the familiar historic assemblage
be struck in which payment would Patience and understanding are set against an uncertain outcome
be received if the smoking problem not necessarily attributes of laypeople I might deliver. The decision was
could be solved. Willie would and a friend who has vicariously made before I hit my southern
then climb onto the roof, drop a experienced the highs and lows of birthplace city, where the site
brick down the chimney breaking architecture exhibits breathtaking was located, and precipitated a
the glass, resolving both fireplace acuity in architectural judgement discussion in which I found myself
Late night at
operation and payment. Cape Evans, when little more than the builder’s grasping for good reasons why one
I often wondered how those of Ross Island. hut is visible. Of late, my friend has should not build a Georgian house
Pip Cheshire,
us a bit removed from bricklaying photo
had open season on a house rising in the 21st century. I am afraid I
might develop a similar strategy Lizzie Meek. on a site pretty well in the middle failed badly, finding it difficult to

Architecture New Zealand 15

Opinion

the structure sprawling across

… we are the street references the city’s
today adrift underlying marshy archipelago,
in a sea of or some former inhabitant of it,
rising up to devour the colonists’
competing urban grid but, either way, it shut
imperatives, the door on my argument for
where even contemporary beauty.
Frankly, another faux-Georgian
the idea of pile in that town is neither here
a dominant nor there; its allusion to half of
the city’s history is as good a
discourse fit as referencing mid-century
is beyond California that too often seems
imagining. the new default. I recalled a
former partner lamenting the
absence of commentator Charles
Jencks’ navigation through
the shoals of architectural
styles influenced by the French
philosophers dominating the
discourse of the day. While those
days of post-structuralism et
al. were confusing and without
direction, we are today adrift in
a sea of competing imperatives,
where even the idea of a
dominant discourse is beyond
imagining.
If ever proof were needed of the
multiplicity of influences in play,
gain traction arguing for beauty It was all grist to my erstwhile the excellent Futuna Chapel talk by
arising from anything other than client’s mill and, in a fit of wild Hugh Tennent was a slam dunk.
the symmetrical arrangement of a hyperbole, I tried to argue the Showing only that part of his
façade based on the composition of city’s post-earthquake buildings studio’s oeuvre involving tangata
elements proportioned according to aspired to being a ‘masterly, whenua projects, we saw work
the golden mean and having vaguely correct and magnificent play profoundly influenced by kaupapa
anthropomorphic qualities. of volumes brought together in Māori infused with a major
My arguments were hampered by light’ and hence a riposte to the engagement with the health of the
the two days I had spent expounding irresistible ‘correctness’ of the planet and carried out with grace,
to camera on some of that city’s Georgian ancients. Alas, this commitment and professionalism.
finest: the work of Mountfort, Seager line of reasoning was severely Here is an architecture born of
et al., in that wonderful collection compromised as I turned into the contemporary zeitgeist that I
known as The Arts Centre but which Gloucester Street and found the am sure would seem a hopeless
I still stubbornly refer to as ‘townsite’, street blocked by a very wide mélange to my southern client’s
in deference to my time spent within building nearing completion. thinking, yet, as we contemplate
its cloisters and quadrangles. The Remembering my advice to Aotearoa in the second quarter of
ABOVE
sublime manipulations of form, scale my northern mate to withhold the century, it may be a glimpse of
“We should be
and detail made the spirit soar in comment until the code standing on a way of building more interesting
the cool, clear southern light, the compliance certificate is received, the shoulders and perhaps even more beautiful
of the ancients
background clatter of rebuilding the I bit my tongue as I searched in but sometimes than the faux historicism in
old faculty buildings reinforcing the vain for evidence of the architects’ I wonder if we the south and, certainly, the
even see them.”
regard with which those buildings familiarity with the city’s august Pip Cheshire,
despoliation of my mate’s view in
are held. architectural heritage. Perhaps 2020. the north.

16 Architecture New Zealand

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 Opinion

Ecstasy and equity

Karamia Müller
apartments and then, later, sitting
snug in the cosy corners of a small
My students
house designed for youth facing often show me
homelessness. This is an issue that that the work
disproportionately faces Māori and
Pacific young people. of making
Architecture does touch architecture
everybody. This is its ecstasy.
And it is this quality that makes
more inclusive
the debates underpinning the is as much
profession, the practices and the a collective
community of practitioners so
compelling and critical. As a jury
effort as it is an
panel, we debated everything from individual one…
a façade to a garage floor. Is the
façade a familiar typology made
new or is it a troubling lack of representation of women in the
commitment to the city’s urban industry’s awards. Interestingly, it
fabric? Are we in favour of, or was a turn of phrase also voiced in
opposed to, carpeting for cars in an academic setting of which I was
garages? What appeared to me a part only a week later: “I wouldn’t
in these discussions was they want to get an award for being a
were more fully enriched when woman”.
assumptions were tested, stretched We are living in a time of #metoo;
and considered, across experiences we are also living through a longer
and world views. moment of under-representation
While we made our votes known of women in senior leadership
to each other in the jury panel, the across academia.1 In the US, a study
cultural, social and political came showed that Covid-19 produced
RECENTLY, I ACTED AS A into focus, revealing values systems a childcare crisis that meant that
member on a Te Kāhui Whaihanga and lived experiences coalescing women left the workforce at four
New Zealand Institute of around the ecstasy of architecture. times the rate that men did.2 The
Architects Awards jury panel. It As we argued and hotly complained country’s architecture industry is
can feel a bit cheesy to say these over downpipes (the sin of a wiggly not sealed off from these social
things but it really was an honour. downpipe – the absolute sin), phenomena because they are global
The ecstasy of architecture: an elephant sat in the jury room and they are structural.
looking up at the detail of a brick with us: the under-representation When I consider the ecstasy of
soffit as if in prayer, trailing a of women, amongst other architecture as a profession that
hand over a balustrade, staring up marginalised peoples and groups. touches everyone, literally, I think
into a vault of light, sighing at an As an Indigenous Pacific woman about what it means to take up a
exquisite handle. The experience myself, the question remained for personal position in the industry
is a roller coaster of intimacies; me: what is the industry doing to informed by my lived experience;
you are invited into people’s ensure Māori and Pacific success? I, also, don’t want to receive an
homes, and over the thresholds These dimensions are intersectional award for being a woman. But, what
into the architects’ heads. I saw and should be considered so. That I really mean, when I think and say
homes that were worth millions said, I heard a turn of phrase that it, is I don’t want the work for which
of dollars. In the same week, I was ABOVE spoke so specifically to the cultural I am recognised undermined by
Karamia, in her
warmly welcomed into neat-as-a- garden. Photo
rhetoric that, I will argue here, others thinking it is awarded only
pin, one-bedroom public housing Leilani Heather. is partly responsible for the low because I am a woman.

Architecture New Zealand 19

Opinion

LEFT Cindy
(Jingyuan)
Huang, ‘Where
is Chinatown?’,
2020, from
Karamia Müller’s
‘Documenting
the Intangible’
elective. The
digital drawing is
from a set which
investigates the
author’s own
identity as a
member of the
female Chinese
diaspora in New
Zealand. The
contours in the
background
reference
Dominion Road,
Auckland.

It is worthwhile spending a the University of Auckland School REFERENCES not an issue of pipeline5 – over
1
touch more time in the space of of Architecture and Planning Te Pūnaha Matatini, the past 15 years, men and
‘Women remain
this admission because it is where, by Professor Errol Haarhoff, under-represented women graduates have been of
at top levels of
for me, some of the rub lies. What Associate Professor Paola Boarin academia’, updated equal numbers; and 2) given the
bothers me when I consider that and Dr Natalie Allen, Architecture 3 June, 2020. ramifications, paradigm shifts are
tepunahamatatini.
my work could be undermined Graduate Progression to Practice ac.nz/2020/06/03/ not only necessary but are long
women-remain-
by my peers is a reputational loss. in New Zealand: 1987–2018, the under-represented-
overdue. We have to consider
It must be because, truthfully, I contextual shape for the country’s at-top-levels-of- more meaningfully the sort
academia-in-new-
like awards, especially when they women architects and graduates zealand of professional culture we are
have my name on them; doesn’t is given light. 2
Tiffany A Reese, creating through our words. For,
Tamia A Harris-
everybody? This is especially so My experience in the industry, Tryon, Jennifer as startling as the statistics are for
when they are bestowed upon you both as an academic and as a jury G Gill and Laura women, there is still work to be
A Banaszynski,
by your peers and when they are member, had somewhat prepared ‘Editorial: done in the representation of black
Supporting
those peers that share in the same me for the numbers but still women in academia women, trans-women, women of
ecstasies as you do. It makes the the rate of change struck me as during and after colour, indigenous women and
a global pandemic’,
long hours, the compromises, the somewhat slow. This is especially accessed 18 May, differently abled women across
2021. advances.
time away from loved ones, and true given the stakes: equity in sciencemag.org/
the industry. My students often
the ups and downs seem worth it the profession that shapes the content/7/9/ show me that the work of making
eabg9310
in the past, and worth the gamble experiences of everybody. In 3
Errol Haarhoff,
architecture more inclusive is as
in the future. If it is a reputational 1987, women constituted 20 per Paola Boarin, Natalie much a collective effort as it is
Allen, Architecture
consideration that sits at the heart cent of graduates; in 2006, parity Graduate an individual one – their work
of it, the statement shifts from with men was first reached3 and Progression to demonstrates their capacities for
Practice in New
“I don’t want to get an award this was the year that I, myself, Zealand: 1987–2018, sensitively, and bravely, working
Research Report
for being a woman” to “I want graduated. In terms of industry 1/2020, School of
with identity in architecture that is
my work to be recognised in the qualifications, between 2007 and Architecture and affirming, inclusive and endlessly
Planning, University
appropriate context”. 2018, the average rate for women of Auckland, New creative. The professional world we
Zealand, 2020.
The emphasis then becomes being registered was 39 per cent, 4
create in which they can flourish
Ibid, p. 55.
on recognition that is attuned compared to 61 per cent for men.4 5
Allison Arieff,
begins with the words we use to
to context rather than concern These data points bring up some 'Where Are All The describe our personal positions,
Female Architects?',
about reputational loss. In the interesting contemplations: 1) nytimes.com/2018/ made poignant because their
longitudinal study conducted by the issue of women being under- 12/15/opinion/ architecture will go on to touch
sunday/women-
the Future Cities Research Hub at represented in the industry is architects.html everyone. This is its ecstasy.

20 Architecture New Zealand

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 Across
the Board
Architectural news and views

UNDER
THE CANOPY
Haumanu by artists Will Ngakuru and Nicole Charles. Photograph: Daan Hoffmann.

Two years in the

making, Haumanu
(meaning revive, restore
to health) was installed
in Auckland Museum’s
Te Whiwhinga, The
Imaginarium, over a
two-week period during
May. The 9.3-metre-
tall tree and floating
overhead canopy,
created by Northland
artists Will Ngakuru
and Nicole Charles of
Building Wilderness,
were designed to
encourage children to
explore the sounds and
stories of the forest
and its place in our
ecosystem.

Architecture New Zealand 23

Across the Board

RECRAFTING THE COURT

Developed design has commenced on Christchurch’s new of the theatre will be carried out on site, including set design
Court Theatre, a joint project between Athfield Architects, and construction, costume-making and rehearsals, with the
UK-based Haworth Tompkins and a wider Christchurch aim of making some of these backstage activities more visible
team of consultants. to the public.
The Christchurch City Council has committed $30 million Project Architect Matthew Webby says that the brief for the
towards the development, which includes construction of theatre emphasised the requirement for an intimacy between
a new three-storey home for The Court Theatre, a series of performers and audience. “The intimate main auditorium
laneways and a central courtyard for outdoor performances, has informed much of the surrounding building,” he explains,
and landscaping by local landscape designers Canopy and “creating a collection of both small and dramatically scaled
Gap Filler. The theatre is looking to fund-raise an additional spaces which you don’t generally find in new builds.”
$6 million towards the project. Christchurch City Council Principal Advisor – Citizens and
Situated on the corner of Colombo and Gloucester Streets Community Brent Smith says the theatre’s new home
in the city’s Performing Arts Precinct, the building will is a reflection of the Council’s and The Court’s commitment
house: two auditoriums, a 360-seat playhouse and a 130-seat to designing and building new environmentally friendly and
studio theatre for children’s and family shows; education and accessible facilities. “The architects have worked hard to
rehearsal rooms; and front-of-house facilities. All aspects ensure that the building includes features that make

24 Architecture New Zealand

 Photography: Angela Scott.
NZIA PRESIDENT-ELECT
ANNOUNCED
Auckland-based Context Architects associate and former
chairperson of the NZIA Wellington branch Judith Taylor has
been nominated Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute
of Architects president-elect and will take over from current
president Judi Keith-Brown in 2022.
Set to be the fourth woman president of the Institute since it
was founded in 1905, Taylor worked extensively as an architect
before being appointed building projects manager and then group
manager for Wellington’s Parliamentary Services. She has sat on
and been an assessor for the Architects Education and Registration
Board, now the New Zealand Registered Architects Board.
Render: Haworth Tompkins.

it easier for those with disabilities to enjoy the

facility, including wheelchair positions on all levels
and level changes being kept to a minimum,” says
Smith. “The design team is hoping to exceed the
New Zealand building code requirements for
accessibility and align with the more-demanding A SENSE OF PLACE
British standards; this is in line with the Council’s Monk Mackenzie has completed work on a 25,000m2 master
policy of Equity and Access for People.” plan for the Cardrona Valley, between Queenstown and
Construction is expected to begin in early 2022, Wanaka, which provides for two high-end hotels, retail and
with the theatre scheduled to open in late 2023. Until general visitor accommodation.
then, The Court will continue to operate from The The architects say the massing of the project will create a
Shed in Addington, the temporary space into which multiplicity of public and private spaces, including courtyards,
it moved following the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes; lanes and plazas, while materials complementary to the region’s
the quakes destroyed its previous home of 30 years traditional palette, such as locally sourced gabion walls, blackened
in the Christchurch Arts Centre (the former timber and steel, will weather naturally and provide solidity and
Engineering School of Canterbury College). mass. The landscape has been treated with local grasses and trees.

Architecture New Zealand 25

Across the Board

GROWING UP, NOT OUT: A REVIEW OF OPEN CHRISTCHURCH

Fritha Powell took to her bike to visit as many architectural projects as she could
when the city of Christchurch opened its doors to the public in mid-May.

I’ve always dreamed of having a key to enter any

building I desire. While I remain keyless, my
aspirations were lived out through the festival of
exceptional architecture – Open Christchurch. In
any other city, this would seem to be an event of
architectural provocation but not for Ōtautahi,
a city shaken by 13,000-plus earthquakes. Open
Christchurch provided visual evidence of progression
and response to 10 years of post-disaster construction.
Numerous site visits of multi-residential and revived
commercial buildings unveiled a lens: witnessing the
urban densification of a city once deemed desolate. 01
On 15 and 16 May, Christchurch opened more than
40 of its doors to its public. The event was organised
by Te Pūtahi, an independent, not-for-profit body,
whose aim was to encourage people to engage with,
and become alive to, their city. Involvement with
your city brings enjoyment and an increased level
of understanding. Te Pūtahi accomplished this over
the weekend with a fun event where everyone was
welcome. Ōtautahi’s kaitiaki offered insights into their
selected projects, gifting knowledge through tours,
talks, activities and performances. With a focus on
urban densification, my visits were mostly tailored to
take in the public and private buildings that exemplify
a push for central living. I was privileged to visit and
explore homes and public buildings that, typically, I
would have cycled past, privy only to the exteriors. 02

Much of Ōtautahi’s pre-earthquake building fabric

was damaged beyond repair. What was left were the
broken bones in the body of the city. Outlined by emptiness. I visited Ōtautahi’s iconic commercial
its four avenues, the city was reduced to rubble in buildings and wove a few residential sites into the
pockets, losing about half of its built environment timetable. Sitting in the Town Hall, listening to the
and more out on the fringes.1 Problems bring gifts; Christchurch Symphony Orchestra rehearsing was one
this was an opportunity for a city to rebuild. The of the standout moments. There was no pressure to be a
01 Lyttelton
almost-blank canvas offered an opportunity to well-behaved crowd and the atmosphere was profoundly Studio
follow progressive overseas models, such as that of relaxed. Families and their tamariki flowed in and out of Monastery
(Bull O’Sullivan
Australia’s Breathe architects. Through initial public the auditorium. It exemplified public participation in an Architecture,
consultancy, it became clear that Christchurch’s otherwise exclusive and somewhat serious setting. An 2015).
residents were harbouring a desire for a sustainable, expert tour of the Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) Photograph:
Sarah Rowlands.
modern and safe city. The early knee-jerk reaction gallery was scarily informative – some people know so
02 Dr Giuseppe
was to flee outwards. Towns like Rolleston and much about buildings.
Loporcaro leads
Rangiora were deemed far enough away from the The engineering mastery of the new builds and a tour looking
carnage, and were readily available, and they thrived. transforming the existing to functional were explained at earthquake
engineering and
Unfortunately, the initial flight response meant an at numerous sites. All buildings in Christchurch, innovation at
increase in commute time, city sprawl and vacation of especially the high-functioning commercial, have the University
proximity. this in common. The engineering-specific tour of the of Canterbury.
Photograph:
I travelled mostly in the city’s core, which felt again library, Tūranga, considered by some to be the safest Peanut
occupied and beginning to shake its post-earthquake building in Ōtautahi, exemplified this. I had no idea Productions.

26 Architecture New Zealand

 03 04

the walls, unconnected to the foundation, were better Open Christchurch gave insight into a city growing 03 An Open
Christchurch
performing in an earthquake: genius. up, not out. It also revealed a wide awareness of attendee enjoys
The Housing Co-Op on Peterborough Street was interest. A diversity of people, including those the details at St
both eye-opening and dramatically progressive – not removed from any aspect of design, invested time Andrew’s College
Centennial
a revolutionary idea internationally but, for Ōtautahi, and energy into our built environment. It was uniting Chapel
it is. The shared site with 16 units, blurring the line to see people on the streets holding their white-and- (Architectus,
between public and private, has a shared laundry and yellow timetables, while volunteers stood at each 2016).
Photograph:
optionally shared communal spaces. This is a great door, welcoming all. After the evident fragility of Peanut
example of the repositioning of the term ‘housing’, the built environment post-earthquake, the value Productions.
and I imagine this will be a neoteric shift for some. placed on what fills the gap and what remains is 04 First Church
I also headed over the hill to Cass Bay and visited the now seemingly, and rightly so, weighed and judged of Christ Scientist
(Warren and
Green family home – the stimulating copper house in the public eye. Mahoney, 1991).
– and finished the day at Michael O’Sullivan’s studio Open Christchurch flaunted the apertures of the Photo: Sarah
monastery, overlooking Lyttelton – a place where built environment. It acted as a medium to showcase Rowlands.

reality tends to wane. to the public the historic building fabric that remains
An early start on Sunday took me to Sydenham and demonstrate the progression in the new: a
for the Chen Anselmi Units, followed by another celebration of how far we have come and what we
site visit that exemplified the trend to move in, up have achieved. With numbers at some sites reaching REFERENCES
or close to. Tight, light, clever articulation of space 700, it was incredibly well received. The selected 1
Mary Hobbs,
and well-thought-through materiality could be said projects highlighted history, technological rigour, Christchurch
for both the Chen Anselmi Units and the Madras advanced engineering and diligent architectural Dreaming,
HarperCollins,
Street Townhouses by Mitchell Coll: a reminder that design, showing the public a city tenacious and 2011, p. 176.
architecture is not always about the maximisation of capable of redeveloping from the clutches of disaster. 2
Barnaby
budget and metres squared. And it doesn’t gain more It was also a lot of fun, ka pai. There are many to be Bennett,
merit by having architecturally designed neighbours. acknowledged: the home-owners, the architects, the James Dann,
Emma Johnson
These projects are on isolated, gritty city sites. I also volunteers, those who facilitated the events, and Te
and Ryan
visited the Millstream Apartments by renowned Pūtahi. I extend a final acknowledgement to those Reynolds (eds),
Christchurch architect Peter Beaven. My weekend without whose input the event would not have been Once in a
Lifetime: City-
concluded with commercial buildings facilitating possible; to the Ōtautahi residents, showing pride building after
the shift into the city, such as the Isaac Theatre Royal, and interest in the regrowth of their tūrangawaewae. Disaster in
and a final glance across the ever-changing and As we are acutely aware in Ōtautahi, cities are always Christchurch,
Freerange
densifying city landscape from the rooftop bar of in the process of unfolding; they are never finished.2 Press, 2014,
The Muse Art Hotel. How exciting are the next 10 years going to be? p. 478.

Architecture New Zealand 27

Laminex x Architecture NZ

Michael Leng
Associate Senior Interior Designer
Wingate Architects

My inspiration is drawn from sense

of place: the people, purpose and
values that reflect my background and
connection to Aotearoa – honest, pure
and grounded. I chose Laminam Ossido
Verderame to form the backdrop to
a boutique office lobby concept. Its
green, earthy tones have a beautiful,
rich, bronze undertone and the overall
effect feels very connected to nature.
This product is best applied vertically
so I imagine it lining the, say, five-metre-
high lobby walls as a subtle detail. It
is accented by a palette that elevates
and enrichens this: introducing organic
wood, lighting and furniture from local
makers, and addressing the space with
soft furnishings. I’m also interested in
sculptural elements. Richard Serra’s
Corten steel Te Tuhirangi Contour at
Gibbs Farm expresses movement,
tracing the contour line across the
land. It is grounded, yet appears light
and fluid. The introduction of brass or
art as sculptural or focal points would
further refine the space and play off
the reflections and variations in colour
provided by the Ossido Verderame.

THIS SPREAD Laminam Ossido Verderame (available from late July);

Studio Velvet Curtain in Dragonfly, from Martha’s Furnishing Fabrics;
Dome Pendant in Tea, from Monmouth Glass Studio; SpaceCote Flat
Paint in Resene Warrior; Brass and Walnut Doorstop by Grant Bailey,
from Everyday Needs; Iron Nail, from Everyday Needs; marble ball,
bent brass and branch – stylist’s own. Photography: Toaki Okano.
Styling: Sam van Kan.

28 Architecture New Zealand

Architecture New Zealand 29
Practice in Profile

Practice in Prof ile

Supported by

Matthew Paetz grapples with new density controls in

the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020
(NPS-UD), perhaps the most significant government policy
for cities in Aotearoa New Zealand of the past 30 years.

01

30 Architecture New Zealand

THE NATIONAL POLICY STATEMENT ON
Urban Development (NPS-UD) contains a lot
of policy wonkery but its big-ticket item is its
mandate for our bigger cities that enables ... four or
high-density development near train stations,
CBDs and commercial centres. This mandate possibly five
means councils in Auckland, Hamilton, storeys are
Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch must considered
rezone land in these locations with maximum
building height rules of six storeys (or higher,
the upper limit
if councils choose).1 for a building
It’s not clear when reading the NPS-UD and size that is not
supporting documentation as to the basis for six
storeys. Background reports mention a range of
overly dominant
benefits of concentrating density in areas of high (at least in
demand and near centres and public transport. residential
I’ve heard it said that six storeys is the
maximum building height for retaining human
areas and urban
scale; however, this misconstrues what human villages), and
scale is. If we turn to the literature, then four within which
or possibly five storeys are considered the a reasonable
upper limit for a building size that is not overly
dominant (at least in residential areas and relationship
urban villages), and within which a reasonable between people
relationship between people in buildings and in buildings and
those on the street can be attained.2
Another good reason to promote density near
those on the
train stations is to support public transport street can be
and reduce reliance on car transport, and attained.
the NPS-UD alludes to this. There is a large
amount of literature on this topic and there 02
is a well-established link between density and
transport; however, international authorities on
this subject matter, including Robert Cervero
and Reid Ewing, show that there is not a
linear relationship between density and public and bus stations on rapid transit corridors and in
transport outcomes. Cervero et al. argue that the CBDs and metropolitan centres.4 Interestingly, 01 Georges-
biggest benefits occur when urban form changes areas served by ferries are not included in this Eugène
Haussmann’s
from low-density suburbia to low-rise, medium- requirement – the frequency and capacity of urban renewal
density housing (two and three-storey ‘walk-up’ ferry services are not sufficient to qualify them programme
in Paris in the
townhouses and apartments).3 as ‘rapid transit services’. Notwithstanding this, 1800s saw the
The government may have missed a trick here: there are guidelines in the NPS-UD that suggest rise of distinctive
wide boulevards
six-storey development is likely to be realised councils might still consider higher densities lined with
by the market only sporadically. The NPS-UD’s around settlements served by ferries. uniform six-
storey buildings.
mandates set unrealistic expectations and might In the urban planning discipline, a walkable Image: Mortada
also prove to present a rather unnecessary distance is typically considered to be between Shendy.
public relations nightmare once plan changes are 400 and 800 metres (with a tendency towards 02 Sight
actioned. Further, high densities can be achieved the latter). For many, this usually equates to thresholds are
outlined by
with four-storey development, at a scale much a five-to-10-minute walk. To arrive at a crude Danish architect
more compatible with suburban settings. walkable catchment, a radius of either 400m or and urban
designer
The NPS-UD demands that this rezoning 800m is applied, as the crow flies, from a train Jan Gehl in
should occur within walkable catchments of train station or urban centre. Cities for People.

Architecture New Zealand 31

Practice in Profile

03 Third-
year Urban
Planning
student
Katsuki
Kurimasa’s
walkable
catchment
map shows
walking areas
limited to
within the
800m radii,
taking into
account street
networks and
03 TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT WALKABILITY MAP
other factors.

32 Architecture New Zealand

 Based on the final proposals for each
transit-oriented development (TOD),
this map presents the final walkable
catchment shapes and distances
for each of the three TODs studied
in this report.

04 FINAL WALKABLE CATCHMENT PROPOSAL

However, on the ground, a range of constraints one of the three urban centres and create an urban
impacts on walkability. A nuanced assessment plan based on the NPS-UD’s parameters. Following
of walkability should consider topography and this, they will critique the plan and outline what
04 This map, by
the presence, or otherwise, of major walking their approach would have been without the third-year Urban
barriers, such as motorways, as well as factors NPS-UD’s straitjackets, and while applying the Planning student
Oudom Yat,
such as personal safety and the amenity and skills of true contextual urban planning that shows discrete
visual interest of a walking route. considers a range of factors in determining segments of
each catchment
To bring this concept alive, students appropriate zoning and built form scale. extending to
participating in my third-year Urban Planning As an urbanist, I support the spirit (if not 1200m, to
account for
course at the University of Auckland assessed all the detail) underpinning many of the NPS- favourable
and mapped the walkable catchments of UD’s mandates. We need bolder urban planning amenity and
proposed
three stations on the City Rail Link (CRL) and development to help support our goals of
streetscape
line currently under construction. realising more compact cities in order to address improvements.
In the students’ work, there is effectively two key crises before us – housing and climate Yat supports this
by referencing
one large, contiguous urban area where six- change. Our bigger cities have not been bold some of the
storey redevelopment is enabled (with a few enough on density, although, to be fair, the literature that
suggests that a
exceptions). Remember, this is based on the political economy of urban densification can be distance of up
framework set by the NPS-UD – not on sound very challenging; this provides important context to 1200m can
be considered
urban planning principles. for why the government has imposed the top- walkable in
In a future assignment, the students will select down approach of the NPS-UD. certain instances.

Architecture New Zealand 33

Practice in Profile

ET
STRE
O N DS
SYM
Map to come.

AD
RO
H
RT
NO
W
NE MT
ED
NE
RO
AD

05 Bennet
Atkins’
built form
constraints
map within
his walkable
catchment
for Mount
Eden station
illustrates the
large area of
land subject
to a special
character
overlay. Atkins
is a third-
year Urban
Planning
05 MOUNT EDEN STATION BUILT FORM CONSTRAINTS
student.

34 Architecture New Zealand

ZONE AND THEY WILL COME?
Six-storey built form can work well in dense
urban cores or on wide arterial roads. In
Auckland, Terrace Housing and Apartment
Building (‘THAB’) or Mixed Use zoning often
fronts wide arterial routes such as Great North
Road. In this setting, this scale of building is
more proportionate to the scale of the street
and the public realm. Arterials are also the
locations for good public transit routes, or have
the potential to become so, offering compelling
settings for mid-rise urban intensification.
The most obvious historic precedent is
provided by the Haussmann apartments of
Paris from the mid-1800s; typically, each block
of apartments is six storeys in height with
a 45-degree sloped mansard roof. However, 06
these were a very considered, planned and
comprehensive urban response. Katy Chey states
that, with a blank canvas for urban renewal and
upon instruction from no less than Napoléon III,
“Haussmann saw the street block holistically and
as an entire architectural body”.5 This avoided
ad hoc urban outcomes and a central aspect of
the success of Haussmann’s apartments was that
building scale related well to street width and
design – wide boulevards that were well planted
with large street trees.
In more recent times, Oslo (a city whose
population is similar to that of Auckland)
in Norway has applied a slightly denser,
sustainability focused variation on the
Haussmann concept in its central urban areas.
So, this scale of development can work
07
brilliantly in the right settings, when it is well
coordinated, planned and designed. However,
six storeys can be jarring and out of scale
in suburban contexts where comprehensive
urban development is not possible. The NPS-
UD should have mandated four storeys and
directed higher-scale development to arterial
road frontages and in immediate proximity to
train stations and centres – a more nuanced and
contextual approach.
Even if planning rules enable six-storey
buildings, redevelopment is likely to be
incremental and inconsistent in scale and usually
much lower than this maximum. We have seen 08
with the THAB zone in Auckland that it isn’t
always ‘zone and they will come’. Much of the 06 Six-storey 07 Haussmann’s 08 The Oslo
apartments on ubiquitous Bjørvika tram’s
development occurring in the THAB zone has Auckland’s Great apartments in tree-lined
been of medium density – often two to three North Road. Paris. tramway.

Architecture New Zealand 35

Practice in Profile

storeys, despite the zone enabling development REFERENCES

1
of at least five storeys. There are
some limited
Rules like height in relation to boundary exceptions
make it hard to achieve development of a scale to this
requirement.
higher than three or four storeys on typical
suburban sections. The NPS-UD alludes to the  Jane Jacobs
advocated
need for removing or heavily liberalising height building scales
in relation to boundary rules, and this will help. typically of four
to five storeys –
However, economic factors are perhaps even refer The Death
more important. The cost of construction and Life of
increases significantly once development is Great American
Cities (1964).
higher than three storeys. Much more capital Christopher
is required to fund larger developments – why Alexander et
al. in A Pattern
bother when you can whack up a bunch of two Language (1977)
or three-storey townhouses and make a good advocated for
maximum
buck? Bigger isn’t always better. We need to building heights
distinguish between ‘highest and best use’ – of four storeys.
SOUTH ELEVATION – 26 AROHA AVENUE (THAB) Jan Gehl in
which may be a five or six-storey apartment Cities for People
building offering the greatest profitability suggested that,
– and ‘most probable use’: a development above five
storeys, the
option far less ambitious but still offering good relationship
profitability and requiring significantly less between
buildings
capital (and involving less risk). and streets
In most locations – apart, perhaps, from can become
challenging
areas with very high land values – developers to reconcile.
typically work well within four storeys. The Despite these
‘general rules’
government is likely to find that its vision of on building
widespread six-storey redevelopment fails to scale, all three
eventuate – not because planning rules are too of these great
urban thinkers
restrictive but because of economic factors. made it clear
This is a weakness of the NPS-UD and its neo- that, in certain
circumstances,
liberal philosophical underpinnings, which taller buildings
assume that regulation is the main obstacle to would be
appropriate, and
high-density housing supply. even desirable,
In Auckland, the implications of the depending on
context.
intensification mandate may not be so
significant – with the notable exception, 3
Robert Cervero,
NORTH ELEVATION – 26 AROHA AVENUE (THAB) Erick Guerra
perhaps, of areas with ‘special character’ rules and Stefan Al,
(see below). This is because many areas in Beyond Mobility:
Planning Cities
Auckland are already zoned for medium density for People and
of two to three storeys under the Auckland Places, Island
Unitary Plan – a ‘sweet spot’ for redevelopment. Press, 2017.

In Wellington, with the city’s new District Plan 4

The mandate is
not limited to
due, the NPS-UD is likely to make the plan existing rapid
much bolder on density than it might have transit corridors
been otherwise. – if light rail is
realised in the
Hamilton, Tauranga and Christchurch will future, then
also need to make significant changes to their the NPS-UD’s
requirements
District Plans. With limited rapid transit will apply to it.
service, the high-density zoning will be focused In Auckland, one
can then envision
mostly on areas close to their main commercial a dense, mixed-
09
centres. Again, the rezoning may provide the use corridor.

36 Architecture New Zealand

 10

potential for six-storey apartment buildings but Critically, design will become more
development is likely to occur mainly as low-rise,
medium-density typologies.
important than ever. In particular,
Critically, design will become more important there will need to be emphasis on
than ever. In particular, there will need to be human scale in design. Architects
emphasis on human scale in design. Architects
and urban designers have key roles to play.
and urban designers have key
roles to play.
WHAT ABOUT THE SPECIAL ONES?
Another big question relates to areas identified
as having ‘special character’ (basically, areas with to CBDs, public transport and employment.
consistently high levels of old housing) in district The NPS-UD does provide a potential ‘out’
plans. In Auckland’s central suburbs, such as for councils in terms of the requirement to 09 Kāinga
Ponsonby and Mount Eden, or Wellington’s Mount rezone land for high-density development in Ora’s three-
to-four-storey
Victoria, low-density zoning and special character these settings. That ‘out’ is what the NPS-UD
social housing
rules are applied in plans to manage change in built calls ‘qualifying matters’. The most obvious development in
form and character. Despite their benefits, these example of a qualifying matter is a building or Otahuhu, designed
by Crosson
quite restrictive rules hinder redevelopment of precinct with heritage protection. Architects.
centrally located areas which, in a spatial sense, are Technically, areas subject to special character 10 Wellington’s
13
well suited to higher-density development – close rules might be eligible for exemption from high- Mount Victoria.

Architecture New Zealand 37

Practice in Profile

11

density rezoning. However, a key factor is that Firstly, why mandate onsite parking when 11 Ockham
Residential’s 10
the NPS-UD demands a high level of objective people may not need or want it? While still Homestar-rated
evidence on a site-by-site basis in order to exempt in the minority, an increasing number of Daisy in Auckland
does not provide
intensification requirements. This might make New Zealanders do not own private motor tenant car parks
blanket regulations, as applied in special character vehicles, and levels of car licence-holding but it does offer
areas, difficult for councils to justify. among younger people is decreasing. Car-share two communal-
use, eco-friendly
Even if there is a good case to avoid six-storey schemes, while in their infancy, have potential cars to help
building height limits in these areas, the NPS- to grow significantly. tenants reduce
their carbon
UD demands more than simply sticking with the Secondly, the concept of banning minimum footprints.
status quo. At the very least, we should expect carparking requirements in district plans is
rezoning in these areas that allows for medium- coupled with the pro-intensification agenda
density development of three storeys. It may of the NPS-UD, and its focus on dense urban
be appropriate to retain controls on built form development evolving to offer better support for
and materials to help ensure redevelopment is good public transport services (and vice versa –
sympathetic to special character. there is a bidirectional relationship at play).
REFERENCES
The NPS-UD’s banning of minimum carparking
DON’T FORGET PARKING
5
rules applies everywhere, even in low-density Katy Chey,
Multi-Unit
Another key policy in the NPS-UD is its mandate suburban areas remote from good public Housing in
for councils to remove minimum parking transport services. Parking management strategies Urban Cities –
From 1800 to
requirements for development from district are likely to play a critical role in addressing the Present Day,
plans. There are two key foundations for this. challenges that will come with this policy. Routledge, 2017.

38 Architecture New Zealand

 GET THE LOOK
TOP-DOWN VERSUS ON YOUR WALLS
COLLABORATIVE PLANNING
Finally, a big philosophical question concerns
the ‘top-down’ approach to urban planning that
the NPS-UD employs. High-density rezoning is
effectively imposed on communities from above
by central government, with limited potential
for exemptions. Although councils must publicly
notify plan changes to deliver on the NPS-UD’s
requirements, there will be limited scope for
individuals and communities to influence final
decisions through submissions.
Some will argue that this mandate is necessary Resene Excalibur™
to enact the urgent change necessary to help
address Aotearoa New Zealand’s arguably two
most pressing issues – housing and climate
change. I fall into that camp but with the caveats
outlined. Others will say that the NPS-UD
fundamentally undermines local decision-
making and democracy and the art of urban
planning, which considers these perspectives
as well as environmental and contextual
considerations. It is certainly a valid perspective.
The NPS-UD sets out time frames for Resene Eighth Stonewashed™
delivery of its requirements by councils.
The intensification requirements need to be
progressed substantially by August 2022, while
the removal of parking requirements must be
actioned by early 2022.
The NPS-UD creates a number of interesting
challenges and opportunities for architects. It
will accelerate the transition of our larger urban
areas from places dominated by low-density,
detached housing typologies towards townhouse
Resene Adrenalin™
and apartment typologies. Notwithstanding
some concerns raised here, this will undoubtedly
deliver many opportunities and benefits.
The canvas has been provided by the
government. It’s now over to architects, urban
designers, planners and councils to paint on it
while continuously advocating for the benefits of
well-designed built form and urban development
– something the NPS-UD doesn’t even address.

Resene Bewitched™

Matthew Paetz is Professional Teaching Fellow in

Urban Planning at the University of Auckland. In 2013, Colours from The Range fashion
his work on medium-density housing policy in Adelaide colours fandeck, only from
received multiple awards from the Planning Institute
of Australia. More recently, he led the development of
the Queenstown District Plan and was an urban policy
advisor at the Ministry for the Environment.
www.resene.co.nz
0800 RESENE (737 363)
Cuba Precinct Redevelopment. Photograph: Jason Mann.

Work
Walking backwards – Cuba Precinct Redevelopment Athfield Architects — p.42

Free range – Flour Mill Malcolm Walker Architects — p.52

A taniwha awakes – Te Matapihi Bulls Community Centre Architecture Workshop — p.58

Walking
backwards
While he misses some
of the grunge and
graffiti patina, Mark
Southcombe finds the
essential character
of Wellington’s Cuba
Street in Athfield
Architects’ remaking
of the Farmers
Building and adjoining
buildings to be a
sensitive bridging of
time and a weaving
of new architectural
layers with the old.
Photography
JASON MANN

RIGHT
The renewed
Mighty Mighty
façade and the
Farmers Building
are viewed from
Cuba Street.
Work

2
1

01 02

WELLINGTON’S CUBA STREET IS A DIVERSE character area that recognises and protects its collective
place, with its own cookbook and street festival, historic, architectural and social significance. Good
CubaDupa. Hip and fine dining restaurants mix luck plays a role, too. Post the Canterbury and Kaikōura
with noodle houses and grungy cafés, second-hand earthquakes, many of us were unsettled in Cuba
clothing and records, night music venues and a range Street because we knew that a similar earthquake in
of boutique shops and services, including several Wellington would be likely to cause significant damage
01 Greater
architects’ offices. It has a low-rise character and there, as occurred in High Street in Christchurch. At Wellington
scale, graduated from tall buildings at the north end Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, we Regional
Council’s
transitioning to a residential scale at the south. The worked with WCC, Heritage New Zealand, building
reception and
small site and building sizes and the advanced age owners and students to re-imagine the architectural waiting spaces
of many of Cuba Street’s buildings have created a potentials of seismic retrofitting, and to educate about illustrate the
recycling of
natural enterprise incubator of cheap tenancies in the synergies of adaptive reuse redeveloping clusters of patterns and
poor condition near the ends of their economic lives. heritage buildings. Many of these buildings have since materials from
Almost every period of our history is represented in undergone seismic retrofitting. The Cuba Precinct the past.

an eclectic mix that includes many Edwardian mixed- redevelopment by Athfield Architects is part of this 02 A mixer
use commercial buildings with heritage designations. ongoing upgrading process. stair runs
through the
The street is relatively narrow in urban terms and Traces of the periodic remaking of architecture come extended
this distinctive characteristic is a part of its charm, to light when we study an existing building prior to light-well.
creating a contained, human-scale urban space. redesign. Generations of work characteristic of particular 03 A break-
Cuba Street has survived the ravages of time eras are layered as palimpsests over one another. out social
collaboration
relatively intact because of the Cuba Street Heritage With heritage regeneration, some key questions area includes
Area: a Wellington City Council (WCC) special emerge: How do we decide what is saved and what is an eating space.

44 Architecture New Zealand

 03

edited? How are cultural and heritage values balanced

with financial and amenity values? Which heritage
values and layers of the historic palimpsest do we
FELTEX LANE

EDWARD STREET

recover and renew? And which layers of history are

erased in the process? These questions are often the
VICTO
RIA S
TREE
T realm of authorities and tensions. They have been
negotiated adroitly here in the second of four stages
3 of a major redevelopment of half a Cuba Street block
3
by developers Willis Bond, with the base and fit-out
DIXON STREET

4 designs by Athfield Architects and construction by LT

McGuinness. The major building of the ensemble faces
2 Cuba Street and is a Category 2 Historic Place: a three-
1
storey, stripped classical building, designed in 1913 by
Joshua Charlesworth for draper Christopher Smith and
CUBA STREET
now known as the Farmers Building. In a remarkable
heritage gain, the whole original building, once doomed
to façadism, has been substantially retained, including
its hybrid structure of solid, closely spaced steel circular
columns and tōtara timber floor beams and joists. This
was able to occur through integration with two heritage
N

LOCATION PLAN
buildings to the south, known and loved in recent years
1 CUBA PRECINCT 3 VICTORIA LANE 4 PROPOSED
2 TE AUAHA CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT CARPARKING BUILDING as the Matterhorn and Mighty Mighty buildings.

Architecture New Zealand 45

04
Both had significant cultural heritage value through in contemporary office workplace design. The ground
their different uses over time. They were the venues floor is imagined as an urban forest floor, with dappled
for first public performances by Fat Freddy’s Drop and light filtering through the central atrium incorporating
Lorde. Strengthening occurred by linking the cluster of a vertical hanging garden and a space that is easily
buildings to create a new, larger, hybrid building. The accessible to council and committee rooms. It has built-
smaller buildings were substantially demolished with in seating niches in areas where people may be waiting.
the Mighty Mighty façade saved and the Matterhorn Minimal purpose-designed services bracing completes
façade mural (itself a remodel) restored and reinstated. the careful attention to detail. Sustainability here is more 04 A central
mixer stair
The Farmers Building strengthening was achieved than heritage resourcefulness, with immediate access to
is designed
primarily by connecting to the new concrete floors electric vehicle charging and a limited number of shared to encourage
and steel structure in the adjacent buildings. The office car parks behind for field staff. There are extensive random
‘bump’– to
Cuba Street heritage façades were reinforced with bike parks and associated changing facilities for the foster staff
new concrete column and beam structures behind, one-third of GWRC staff now biking to work because interaction and
and all exposed 1990s’ steel cross-bracing was it’s easy and they can. Upper levels of the building are innovation.

removed. New 28m-deep piles were retrofitted for intended to convey a sense of a forest canopy through 05 The café
and social hub
braced steel frames. Large 810 UB steel portal frames the detailing of integrated timber screens and include
space.
along the edge of the new-build section and a single a fantastic staff café opening onto a roof terrace set
06 A waiting
row of smaller steel K braces through the length of back from the Cuba Street edge with glass screens. This area is
the existing Farmers Building brace it and enable strange move is to prevent people from being seen from positioned
the original uncluttered, open character to emerge. the street but it also prevents staff from engaging with opposite
the lifts and
The Farmers Building was never really a grand old the wonderful life of the street below in a sad, anti- adjacent to the
department store but it has had its simple dignity urban moment of heritage protection madness. reception area.
restored in what has become a contemporary office
building with an expansive 50m x 50m floor plate, high
stud, large stairs, light-wells and pressed tin ceilings.
Floorboards removed during the fire rating and light-
well addition process were salvaged and reused. In
the foyer and Council Chambers of the new tenant,
the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC),
joists and their herringbone bracing are suspended
as exposed ceiling panel traces of the original floors.
GWRC is a great client match for the project,
enabling a contemporary shared office fit-out for the
upper levels and ground-floor rear of the building
where there is ready access to Cuba Street and services
behind for field staff. The fit-out redesigned the cores,
extended the existing light-well and reinstated portions
of the original light-well to the ground level; a central
05
mixer stair was accommodated within. While heritage
purists may rankle at such changes, the building’s big
floor plates needed some brave moves, and the final
spatial qualities and access to natural light are more
consistent with the original than has been the case
at almost any time in the building’s history. The new
design has facilitated a new, compatible use for the
building into the foreseeable future. GWRC has 390
desks for 450 people and a clean-desk policy, with each
staff member having card-activated lockers for storage
of their work and personal material. The office space is
configured in a diverse series of spatial zones following
a brand-driven internal landscape idea interpreted and
expressed through colour, texture and material selection.
There are centralised retreat pods and meeting rooms
06
and interconnected upper floors as we now expect

Architecture New Zealand 47

Work

07

The pristine newness of the regenerated Cuba hybrid aesthetic and workplace with character and
Precinct buildings that is evident from the street is historical integrity that is also contemporary.
slightly uncanny as if they have travelled from the Heritage regenerations are worthy, sustainable,
past just after they were built. The range of medium memory-building projects that may lack the expressive
and small retail tenancies and their low-key, glazed- opportunities of a new build and require significant
tile fronts fit well with the scale of the street yet there innovation and compromise. Not all base buildings
is a sense of a time warp because, like any translation, offer a lot, as was the case with the Farmers Building’s
the work is not quite the same. We miss the diversity large volume but otherwise degraded and nondescript
of the previous tenants and their signs; the quirky heritage spaces. Heritage regeneration requires
multicoloured Mighty Mighty façade is now a sensitivity, judgement and an understanding of the
nondescript muted dark shade. I even miss the fleeting fragility of a building and its histories over
grunge, as the graffiti and patina were part of the time while, at the same time, drawing out architectural
essential character of the street, although the newness possibilities for a new future. The irony with a
will, no doubt, soften over time. I looked for traces completed heritage regeneration is that, even though
of the beautifully designed Matterhorn restaurant we can usually still read new and old distinctly, the
interior and found few. Subsequent discussion building is immeasurably changed: a new/old
highlighted compromises inherent in redesign, hybrid. And the new architects of the work, this
with multiple players and needs even with the [re]architecture with mixed authorship and bridging
best of clients. The famed Matterhorn narrow rear time may hardly be noticed. We owe a great debt 07 Recovered
courtyards have re-emerged as a vertical slot garden to Katherine Dean, John Hardwick-Smith, Michelle tōtara joist and
and this move highlights the role of the architect Cooper, Athfield Architects’ team, and Paul Cummack, herringbone
bracing feature
and interior architect weaving a dense series of new who, with their eyes on the future, painstakingly in the Council
architectural layers with the old to create a new, reformed and redesigned these traces of our past. Chambers.

48 Architecture New Zealand

4VSYHP]EWWSGMEXIH[MXL%XLƼIPH%VGLMXIGXWERH;MPPMW&SRH
SRXLICuba Precinct Redevelopment

Architecture New Zealand 49

Work

13 13
Project Information
10 LOCATION HYDRAULIC ENGINEER
7
94–106 Cuba Street, Wellington Michael Stretton
5 FLOOR SIZE 7757m2 MECHANICAL ENGINEER CORA
3
13
ARCHITECT Athfield Architects ELECTRICAL AND
13 2
PROJECT TEAM LIGHTING ENGINEER
7
5 Katherine Dean, Michelle Cooper, Blackyard Engineering
11
John Hardwick-Smith, Andre Bishop, FAÇADE ENGINEER
12 Kim Salt, Jonie Molloy, Solange Mott MacDonald
Thorp, Maurice Hartnett, Martijn QUANTITY SURVEYOR BBD, RLB
13 14
10
van der Tol, Paul Cummack (Athfield SURVEYOR Spencer Holmes
Architects heritage architect) PLANNING CONSULTANT
HERITAGE ARCHITECT Urban Perspective
LEVEL 2 FLOOR PLAN CONSULTANT Archifact FIRE CONSULTANT Holmes Fire
Architecture and Conservation ACOUSTICS Marshall Day
CONSTRUCTION/BUILDER PROJECT MANAGER RCP, TSA
LT McGuinness WINDOWS AND
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER SKYLIGHTS Thermosash
10
7 Dunning Thornton ROOFING Rooflogic
DOORS Hallmark
FLOORING Forbo, Marmoleum,
5
3 Nora, Milliken-Ontera
7
2 INTERIOR PRODUCTS
Autex, Laminex, Austratus
5

11

12

7
10 LEVEL 2

LEVEL 1 FLOOR PLAN

9 8 8

10 WIDER SITE DEVELOPMENT AXONOMETRIC

4
5 3
7 LEVEL 1
2
1 WORKSPACE

OPEN COLLABORATION
8

ENCLOSED COLLABORATION

UTILITY/SUPPORT
8
WELCOME

8 PUBLIC INTERFACE
6
COURTYARD
8
END OF TRIP
N STAIRS / LIFTS
GROUND-FLOOR PLAN
PRIMARY CIRCULATION
1 ENTRY 6 COUNCIL CHAMBERS 10 TOILETS GROUND
ATRIUM
LEVEL
2 LOBBY 7 COMMERCIAL 11 RISER
3 LIFT TENANCY 12 CLEANER VERTICAL CIRCULATION
4 KIOSK 8 RETAIL 13 SKYLIGHT WORKPLACE FIT-OUT CONCEPT
CUBA MALL
5 LIGHT-WELL 9 LOADING DOCK 14 BALCONY VISUAL CONNECTION

50 Architecture New Zealand

Rooflogic are pleased to have had the opportunity to provide the
complete range of high performance roof system solutions for
the stunning Cuba Dixon Precinct Redevelopment

- Victoria Lane Apartments (2021)

- Farmers Redevelopment (2020)
- Te Auaha (2016)

If you want a roof system that effectively manages air and vapour movement to eliminate
condensation, mould and corrosion risk and provides the highest levels of durability,
FRQWDFWWKHWHDPDW5RRÁRJLFEHFDXVHYOUR ROOF IS OUR REPUTATION.

Dallas Ell - 0274477011 ZZZURRÁRJLFFRQ]

Work

Free
range
Jeremy Smith
discovers a small
‘mufti day’ in the
search for housing
when he visits a
reworked flour mill
by Malcolm Walker
Architects.
Photography
PATRICK REYNOLDS

RIGHT
Flour Mill’s borders
have been opened
to the street.

52 Architecture New Zealand

Architecture New Zealand 53
Work

WE ALL NEED SOMEWHERE NICE TO LIVE:

a house with a way in, some friends and a little
respite. Yet, these days, private life seems to
require more planning than ever: setbacks, height
restrictions, living circles, fencing, acoustics, fire
ratings. Throw in some curtains or blinds and our
seclusion seems well guarded if not a little blinkered.
Boundaries increasingly come with walls and,
as housing efforts ramp upwards and outwards,
communities are easily lost amongst all that privacy.
Going to town with your housing development and
pushing copy on that plan for the afternoon can
quickly contribute many individual spaces but the
divided uniformity of a spreadsheet. It’s all math and
ever-decreasing squares. Ironically, in the search for
neighbours, plans that follow the plan seem to do well
keeping us apart.
The outcome of all this privacy planning is, of
course, most evident in Auckland, where the success
has been in not running houses quite as far as
Hamilton. But it’s not all the same out there; not all
housing demands space. Malcolm Walker and the
team at Malcolm Walker Architects’ reworking of a
former Epsom flour mill into a café and house tangles
things up a little and sets a table where people might
actually live and meet. This is a different kind of
housing plan: one without a uniform, and one about
connections, where asking your neighbour if you can
borrow some flour isn’t so far-fetched. Flour Mill is a
small mufti day in the search for housing.
Food critics seem quicker to review good things
than architects and Flour Mill’s pink coffee cups were
quickly praised by the likes of Denizen, Zomato and
Metro after the café opened in February 2019. The
foodies are right. It is a good space: little, warm and
full. But it’s around the edges where everything comes
alive. Out on the street, the borders between café and
footpath have been opened, just as American urban
activist Jane Jacobs might have liked with her coffee.
“Often, borders are thought of as passive objects, or
matter-of-factly just as edges,” she asserts. “However,
a border exerts an active influence”1 and that’s the
trick here. Neighbourly life keeps breathing because
you can brush shoulders a little. This blueprint feels
drawn rather than printed.
Walker is also a renowned cartoonist and long-
time back-page provocateur for Architecture NZ.
He occupies the street here with the same clever
informality. There’s none of the strict chair
THIS PAGE
orientation of Parisian cafés or the strings that seem Malcolm
to delineate outside café spaces in New Zealand when Walker
they step out onto the street. His chairs carry the Architects’ live
planning keeps
right planning certificates to be let out like this, I’m neighbourly life
02
told, but roping these multidirectional, yellow stools breathing.

54 Architecture New Zealand

 LEFT Up in
in won’t be easy; they’re free-range out there on the the house
footpath. This is more like the space-finding in off- above the café.
the-beat places in Tokyo. There, amongst all the action
and demands on space, the void of the street often
offers the only possible place to perch with something
to eat or drink while everyone and everything slips
by. This live planning seems to work in Epsom just
as it does in Tokyo. Funny that, and here’s where
we find the house. REFERENCES
Walker has freed the stair from inside the Flour 1
Jane Jacobs,
Mill and fitted it into a gap between buildings so The Death and
that it ascends from the midst of those yellow stools Life of Great
American
gathering at the café entry. The stair then winds up Cities, Harm-
and around to find the house in the upper storey. ondsworth,
Pelican Books,
Along the way, it makes a little outdoor deck and helps
Penguin, 1964,
out by connecting and liberating a neighbour’s upper p. 257.
level for good measure. Come join the party: coffee? 2
Hiroyasu
There’s not much fuss in putting all this together. It is Fujioka,
mostly what is there already – some brick and some referring to
Kotoriku 2014,
render, with earthquake strengthening artfully added ‘A history of
to bond beams and gables, and, no doubt, down low as the individual
house in
well. Throw in some new insulation and it is all feeling
modern
nice and homely up there. But, even with these new Japan’, in
bits and pieces, the building is as much about what is Pippo Ciorra
and Florence
not there as it is about any walls or finishes. This is all Ostende (eds.),
about finding space. Walker suggests that, if we work The Japanese
to better grade the edges to those buildings we already House:
Architecture
have, we might find more places to live much closer and Life after
to home. Even better, we might meet some people housing”.3 Kries cites collectives banding together to 1945, Marsilio
along the way. solve housing problems. Such ‘Vive la Révolution!’ Editori in
association
Sitting on one of those yellow stools, sampling a cries may be true in the re-imagining of Berlin or the with Barbican
coffee with Walker and pretending to be food critics, freedoms of the Amsterdam canals, but rebellions here Art Gallery,
London, and
I’m reminded of Japanese architect Akihisa Hirata still seem somewhat dampened under the noise of
MAXXI,
footnoting an apparent mayhem of stairs, balconies trying to build all the way to Hamilton. But aficionados National
and balustrades in residential Tokyo. “Houses, shouldn’t plan on all the fun heading farther out into Museum of
21st Century
although small, should be more than simply buildings” the hinterland to set up life with bells on, like Paolo Arts, Rome,
and things like “greenery”, even “birds”, all encourage Soleri in the desert at Arcosanti, or even scaling up 2017, p. 23.
connections.2 Walker simply adds what he likes best: buildings to have their own social street networks, like 3
Mateo Kries
life. In true style, he then raises the roof a little and Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation. There’s a simpler and (ed.), Together!
The New
lifts a striped canvas awning unnecessarily high over less-evasive way to form a troupe. Cities are already
Architecture of
the street, as if to say “it’s just a footpath and up there collectives; they have bands of buildings that might the Collective,
is a house!” Unnecessarily high, did you say? Walker band together if we let them. Vitra Design
Museum, Weil
leans in a little and I learn that verandahs aren’t So, it is also a little ironic that it is, now, 110 years am Rhein, and
so easy to let out onto the street. The height isn’t since more New Zealanders were found living in Ruby Press,
necessitated by social niceties like shade and weather cities than in the country,4 and we find a small café Berlin, 2017,
p. 35.
protection, or even any mother-duck parenting efforts and house reminding us not to forget neighbours in
4
Ben Schrader,
to keep those stools from wandering far from home. the frantic search for places to live. Sometimes, it
The Big
There’s a transport rule book involved and another takes a clever architect or a good cartoon to point us Smoke: New
certificate in a bottom drawer somewhere. I can feel back in the right direction. It feels like time to make a Zealand Cities
1840–1920,
a cartoon coming. collective plan and we should pay close attention when Wellington,
Finding places to live isn’t just our problem, of Walker and his free-ranging drawing board add to New Zealand,
course. “Living space is a scarce resource” the world their Sod the Villa housing discussions like this. There Bridget
Williams
over and this, German writer Mateo Kries suggests, is plenty of fun and good living to learn. I know which Books, 2016,
has “led to a quiet revolution in architecture and house I’m in; you can never have enough flour. p. 353.

Architecture New Zealand 55

Work

QUEEN MARY AVENUE

11
10
Project
5 5
1
Information
LOCATION Queen Mary Avenue,
2 Epsom, Auckland
FLOOR SIZE 54m2 x 2 = 108m2
3 ARCHITECT
Malcolm Walker Architects
PROJECT TEAM
4 9

NEIGHBOURING
Malcolm Walker
8 TENANCY
CONSTRUCTION/BUILDER
K J Brawn Builders
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
6
7 EQSTRUC
AWNINGS Covercorp
ROOF Pro-Roofing,
NEIGHBOURING
Metalcraft Roofing
GARAGE
EXTERIOR JOINERY
Auckland Joinery
N STEELWORK
GROUND-LEVEL FLOOR PLAN Noble Engineering
1 COURTYARD 4 KITCHEN 7 ACCESSIBLE 9 STAIRS 11 OUTDOOR
2 ENTRY 5 BAR SEATING BATHROOM 10 CANVAS SEATING
3 SERVERY 6 BATHROOM 8 STORAGE AWNING

10 9

8 6
EAST ELEVATION
7 5 4

1
3 NEIGHBOURING
TENANCY

FIRST-FLOOR PLAN NORTH ELEVATION

1 STAIRS 3 ENTRY 5 PANTRY 7 BATHROOM 9 LIVING AREA
2 DECK 4 KITCHEN 6 FRIDGE 8 WARDROBE 10 BEDROOM

56 Architecture New Zealand

 Metalcraft Roofing’s espan® 340
profile in COLORSTEEL® Lichen.

Architecture by Cheshire Architects.

Photography ©Jackie Meiring

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undertones. It works well with everything from dark hues to from Metalcraft Roofing. Our wide selection of roofing, rainwater systems,
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Work

THIS PAGE The

asymmetrical
carapace of
champagne
aluminium
glistens in the
changing light.
A taniwha
awakes
Felicity Wallace
contemplates the
Te Matapihi Bulls
Community Centre by
Architecture Workshop
and finds a building
full of wonderful ideas
– some, such as its
adjacent public square,
yet to be completed.
Photography
GRANT DAVIS

DISCLAIMER

Felicity Wallace, BArch (Hons), is

the Western Director of the Te Kāhui
Whaihanga NZIA Board and a registered
architect practising in New Zealand: she
is based in Marton, a small town in the
Rangitīkei district, not far from Bulls.
She has more than 30 years’ experience in
private practice and teaching design.
In 2014, Felicity Wallace Architects was
invited to submit a proposal for the
preparation of a concept design and
feasibility study for the proposed Bulls
Community Centre but chose not to
submit. Her partner, who is a business
owner in Bulls, has been a vocal critic of
the cost overruns on this project.
The views in this review are personal and
do not represent the views of the NZIA.
Work

01

HIGH STREET STATE HIGHWAY ONE IT’S PRETTY HARD TO MAKE A BUILDING LOOK
like a bull without creating a cartoon figure. The Greeks
literally constructed a horse to surprise their opponents
and, centuries later, those Roman masters of the baroque,
Bernini and Borromini, used perspective, light and
reverse form to create a sense of movement in stone.
7
Watching this building take shape for some time
T

has surprised me. Not many completed buildings look

EE
TR
ES

CRITERION STREET better than the perspectives that promote them. And
IDG

not many buildings jump out at you, just as you think

BR

6
4 you’ve made it past the main intersection.
6 I’m not completely sure this is a building. I see it as
1 2 3
a Pokémon, a transforming figure, a lure. It has the
E

character of a bull, from the outside. Architect Chris

ON
AY

Kelly sees it as a taniwha, a protector, embodying

HW
HIG

the spirit of the Rangitīkei River. The asymmetrical

TE

DA
LZI
STA

EL
ST
RE carapace of champagne aluminium glistens in changing
T

ET
EE

light; it can look dull on grey days and then change

R
ST
ELL

7 again in the sun, creating shadows. It has a European

NN
FU

5
aspect; I think of Chareau and Nouvel. At night, a veil,
N lit up, energised. The Pokémon, the taniwha, wakes up.
SITE PLAN During the final months of construction, local iwi
1 NEW COMMUNITY 3 FUTURE BUS STOP 5 OLD RANGITĪKEI RIVER BANK Ngāti Parewahawaha and Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa
CENTRE AND BUS LANE 6 PROPOSED JOINT VENTURE BUILDINGS
2 CAR PARK 4 PROPOSED MARKET SQUARE 7 PEDESTRIAN NETWORK EXTENDED gifted the name Te Matapihi to the Rangitīkei District

60 Architecture New Zealand

 Council; it is translated as ‘a window to the future’.
It’s really a box with a screen – a carapace, veil,
CARAPACE
mask, that’s very beautiful. A very clever building, full
of wonderful, exciting ideas. Not large, with a footprint
of about 500m2, including the verandah, this pocket
monster/box of tricks/treasure chest does many things.
The Bulls community, while small, is diverse and
includes local iwi, individuals and families who have lived
in Bulls for many years, families connected to the Ōhakea
Air Base, farming families and many newcomers seeing
the opportunity to buy close to Palmerston North and
OVERHANGING ROOF
Whanganui in a hot property market.
Around 2014, the Council decided to rebuild and
combine the town hall, library, Plunket rooms and
toy library, rather than strengthen and refurbish the
existing buildings spread across the town. David
Engwicht of Creative Communities International,
based in Australia, whose website states he has no
formal training as an urban planner, was engaged to
LEVEL 2 ROOF TERRACE
prepare a Town Centre Plan.
The outcome was to abandon several distinctive
buildings, including the Bulls Public War Memorial
Library and the corrugated-iron-clad, shed-like
original town hall, to create a new ‘civic heart’ and
bring the facilities into one multifunctional building –
LEVEL 1 LIBRARY/HALL
“by sharing spaces, the building is far more flexible”.
The Council also formed a joint partnership with
local private developers who planned to build a
commercial building, including company offices, along
the SH1/south-western side of the proposed square.
The Rangitīkei District Council was ambitious for
the new Community Centre to become a landmark
structure for Bulls, branded as “the gateway to the
Rangitīkei district, with a dual role of providing
STEEL CIRCULAR
facilities to the local community as well as a
STAIR ACCESS
destination or reason to stop for travellers”.
The ambition to combine many uses within a small
CRUCIFORM BRACED footprint brought challenges: in particular, how to
STEEL FRAME
combine specialist services, such as the library and
visitor information, with community gathering spaces.
Events such as the local rose show, school prizegivings,
distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine and a large funeral
have been held in the hall since it was completed.
Kelly says that the concept was for “an efficient
little rectangle, as overlapping spaces, as small as we
NEW TOWN can… the first three-story building in Bulls”. Key to
SQUARE PROPOSED
CR
IT BUILDING this concept was for the building to open onto the new
E RI
O
N
ST
public square so that the hall could become a stage,
RE
ET
PROPOSED
opening to the south-west.
01 The hall
BUILDING
The ceremonial access is quite lovely, via the verandah
opens to the BRIDGE STREET on the south-west; however, this is the least-sheltered
new town side of the building so it is exposed to the prevailing
square along
a covered westerly, the mean southerly and the road noise. This is
EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC
verandah. an entrance that relies on a public square yet to be built.

Architecture New Zealand 61

Work

The warm and sheltered north-east flank provides leading on from the library creates an exhilarating
24-hour access to public bathrooms; the consequent connection with the hall below, while capturing a
squeeze on the interior sacrifices ease of access for wide, urban view of the town beneath the curve of the
visitors and service deliveries. carapace. This is the space for Romeo and Juliet.
Signage clearly suggests the main entrance to the Deeply recessed under floating roof canopies, the
Community Centre is from the street. This leads into top floor seems strangely disconnected from the floors
an awkward space that feels more like a collection of below. When I visited, two executives were working
objects dominated by a steel stair that obstructs any silently in separate rooms, swamped by space and
sense of clarity of direction. The i-Site is hidden in a focused completely on their screens, luxuriating in
corner. Once inside, it’s difficult to move around. the peace. The township seemed a long way below
Individual spaces are beautifully crafted; the hall, and there was no view of the river. The top floor felt
especially, has a sense of richness – the proportions, corporate and disengaged, with the obligatory large, 02–03 The
material selection, sense of light and volume create glazed openings onto nature designed to impress. gallery leading
a room both intimate and ceremonial. Long, loopy The idea to maximise space by providing access on from the
library creates
door-pulls link with soft, round columns; fixings are to all sides of the building is inspired but, to be an exhilarating
emphatic, shaped. successful, the interior connections need to flow. connection
with the hall
The first-floor library is cleverly laid out, combining For Kelly, the stair is a metaphor for the river,
below.
well-lit open spaces that connect visually with the connecting the new square to the new urban space of
04 The stair
surrounding buildings and more-private, darkened the rooftop. The stair is a strong blue; however, the is a metaphor
spaces for computers and book display. The gallery steel sounds loud and feels cold. Despite high risers, for the river.

02

62 Architecture New Zealand

the stair landing restricts access below.
From the exterior, the timber bonework framing
the stairwell can be picked out by sunlight during
the day and, like a fishhook, at night, the shape of
the stairwell makes shadows.
The image is poetic but, I wonder, should the
reference be to Tūtaeporoporo, the shark? Len Hetet
(Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Maniapoto,
Te Āti Awa) was commissioned during construction
to look at “how Māori culture and mana whenua
can be infused into the current architectural
building and landscape typology for the Bulls
Community Centre”.
Tūtaeporoporo was raised by Tū Ariki in a deep
hole in the Rangitīkei River and is a very famous
taniwha, who travelled to Whanganui to seek
revenge for those who had killed Tū Ariki.
Hetet’s artworks provide a delicate, ethereal
overlay to the structure of the carapace and the hall,
and the proscenium arch framing the stage.

03 04

7 8 8 7 9

5 5

1 2 3

LONG SECTION

1 INFORMATION HUB 2 KITCHEN 3 HALL 4 BASEMENT STORAGE 5 LIBRARY 6 STAGE 7 ROOF TERRACE 8 MEETING ROOM 9 MILLENNIAL ROOM

Architecture New Zealand 63

Work

“There is a necessity to develop narrative from iwi Central to the crossing of Te Matapihi is another 05 The top
floor opens
that lays a foundation and helps give meaning to the problematic intersection. While there are alternative to a large
artworks. Without the meaning, the artworks will access doors from the verandah, the only interior rooftop
have no life,” says Hetet. “The pattern represents the access to the hall is a narrow, 1200mm width, with terrace.

Rangitīkei land plains and the Rangitīkei River. It shows narrower doorways at each end. The only internal
the coming together of people and the connection to access to the bathrooms is almost directly facing * Before going
the land and the waterways. The koru patterns above a door to the kitchen. This is not only culturally to press,
we received
and below represent Ranginui and Papatūānuku.” I also offensive but also impractical. notification
see the impression of a matador’s cape. There is no easy path within. From here, it’s not from the
architect
Creating space that honours the treaty has to be possible for two people to walk into this public hall advising that
about more than words or abstraction; each of us needs at the same time. It just doesn’t work.* an arrow was
incorrectly
to feel the spirit of the space in our gut. How we first Public buildings need to feel accessible, easy, placed on
view the building, how we approach, how we enter and friendly, considerate. They can also inspire us, as the floor
during fit-out,
engage with the spaces, all need to be considered from Te Matapihi certainly does. Te Matapihi may be a indicating
more than one perspective. Individually, each space is window, a signboard for a great dream. It is Bulls’ the way to
beautiful; how these spaces intersect is problematic. Opera House: exciting, problematic, challenging the hall via a
“back service
The Bulls township sits at a significant intersection and, most definitely, a place of beginning, for a door”. Signage
of SH1 and SH3; the highways turn and combine future where the relationship between tangata is being
improved to
at the Mansell’s Building, a moment of Edwardian whenua and tangata tiriti can grow. show the main
density in a wide-open landscape. This crossing is Again, I wonder… this bull is thin where it should entry route to
the hall is via
known and regarded by locals for the risk it poses. be fat, and tall where it could put its head down. the verandah
It is difficult to cross the road at Bulls. It could be a shark with a wide-open mouth. doors. – Editor

05

64 Architecture New Zealand

FIRE. REIMAGINED.
At Rinnai, we’ve completely changed
the way we think about gas fires, from
design through to build. The result is
a stunning new range of premium gas
fires that look more realistic and more
impressive than ever before. To see the
Linear Collection, go to rinnai.co.nz
Work

1 2 1 1

1
7
3
4 2 1
6
2

5 4 4

5 5
8
6

N N N

GROUND-FLOOR PLAN LEVEL-ONE FLOOR PLAN LEVEL-TWO FLOOR PLAN

1 ENTRANCE 3 LIFT 6 BASEMENT STORAGE 1 MEETING ROOM 4 HALL BELOW 1 MEETING ROOM 4 ROOF TERRACE
VERANDAH 4 KITCHEN 7 PUBLIC WC 2 LIBRARY 5 STAGE 2 STORAGE 5 MILLENNIAL
2 INFORMATION HUB 5 HALL 8 SERVICES 3 MEZZANINE LIBRARY 6 OFFICE 3 DISPLAY HALLWAY ROOM

Project Information
LOCATION 4 Criterion Street, BUILDER/CONTRACTOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL
Bulls, Rangitīkei W&W Construction CONSULTANT Subsurface
CLIENT Rangitīkei District Council IWI CONSULTANT Baked Design FIRE CONSULTANT
ARCHITECT STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Holmes Fire
Architecture Workshop New Zealand Consulting Engineers STEEL FABRICATOR
PROJECT TEAM CIVIL ENGINEER WSP Ludlow Manufacturing
Hamish McLachlan, Sam Ellis, HYDRAULIC/MECHANICAL/ ACOUSTICS
Victoria Wright, Nigel James, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER eCubed Marshall Day Acoustics
Christopher Kelly, and with LIGHTING eCubed SOUND PROOFING Autex
assistance from Jesse Matthews QUANTITY SURVEYOR Maltbys FINISHES Dryden WoodOil

66 Architecture New Zealand

 N

GROUND-FLOOR PLAN

1 WEAVING AREA 3 CUTTING AREA 5 WALKWAY 7 LABORATORY AREA 9 DISPLAY AREA

2 CARVING AREA 4 WHARE WAKA 6 PUBLIC VIEWING AREA 8 COVERED WALKWAY 10 BATHROOMS
 Architecture NZ X Resene Colour Collab

earthy browns: from the beautiful Resene Karaka green to

the dark and rich Resene Banjul stain. These colours are
beautifully understated and they complement and enhance the
greens in the planting. This collaboration gave me a chance to
explore and experiment with Resene’s brighter palettes.

What inspired your choice of Resene colours for the

collab you have created?
I grew up in northern Lombardy in a small village called Solza

Portrait: Victoria Birkinshaw.

and, nearby, the River Adda passes through a narrow valley,
making its way from the Alps to the River Po. While up and
down stream it is calm and languid, the narrow pass gives it
the energy of a fresh, fast-flowing mountain river, with all the
magical foam and mist that come with that. Leonardo da Vinci
referenced this river and its Ceppo rock formed a backdrop to
many of his paintings. My palette represents the landscape of

ERMANNO CATTANEO the river and the rocks which line its edge. Ceppo is a natural
terrazzo of cool blues and greys but it also has hints of yellow
Originally trained as an architect, and orange. I walked into Designsource not long ago and felt
Italian designer Ermanno Cattaneo an overwhelming sense of nostalgia when I saw their new
stone-clad reception countertop – we checked the file, which
works for Suzanne Turley Landscapes,
confirmed it came from ‘home’.
where he creates bespoke residential
landscapes and the occasional small- How is Ceppo stone normally used as a building material?
scale architecture project for clients It’s mostly used as a cladding material on church façades or
throughout New Zealand. for staircases and balustrades in the gardens of Italian villas
and historic buildings. There is even a beautiful hydroelectric
power station in Trezzo that is clad in it. It’s a traditional stone
How did you make the move from architecture that is now popping up in design magazines and enjoying a
to landscape design? new lease of life on countertops and terraces.
I studied architecture in Milan and Barcelona and then,
towards the end of my university career, I worked for an The colour Resene Corn is at the centre of your artwork.
architecture practice specialising in landscape architecture What does it depict?
and urban design. That’s where I learned firsthand how the Resene Corn has a real warmth to it. The Resene Half New
design of the surrounding spaces, the ‘interstitial’, the ‘empty’, Denim Blue and Resene Undercover surrounding it remind
is important to the creation of good architecture. Technology me of the freshness of the water but there is also a warmth
nowadays could allow buildings to become site agnostic. associated with the river rocks that balances the coolness.
Landscape design, to me, has the role of grounding the They possess hues of orange, yellow and brown, which I have
building to the specifics of the site and being true to the introduced through Resene Corn and Resene Arrowtown.
land, the orientation, the microclimate.

In your line of work, you must draw great inspiration

from the colours of nature.
When using colour in my work, the main intent is often
to complement and enhance the colours of nature in our
gardens. We often use colours from Resene’s most natural
Resene Resene Resene Resene
palettes, from the muddy greens to the charcoals and the Arrowtown Corn Half New Denim Blue Undercover

68 Architecture New Zealand

THIS PAGE
Resene Arrowtown,
Resene Undercover,
Resene Half New
Denim Blue and
Resene Corn.
Art direction by
Thomas Cannings.
Photography by
Toaki Okano.
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 —
P R E S E N T E D BY
A R C H I T E CT U R E N Z
M AG A Z I N E , T H E
I N T E R I O R AWA R D S
R E C O G N I S E E XC E L L E N C E
IN COMMERCIAL
AND RESIDENTIAL
INTERIOR DESIGN.
Contents —
Winners

78 80 82 84
— — — — —
category — category — category — category — category —
Supreme Civic Workplace Workplace Hospitality
Award 2
(up to 1000m ) 2
(over 1000m )
— —
project — — — project —
Te Ao Mārama project — project — The Hotel Britomart
Tāmaki Paenga Hira PwC Tower Sky Lobby MinterEllison-
Auckland War at Commercial Bay RuddWatts —
Memorial Museum Auckland design —
— Office Fit-out Cheshire Architects
— design —
design — Warren and —
Jasmax with FJMT Mahoney design —
and designTRIBE Jasmax

72 Architecture New Zealand

86 88 90 92 94
— — — — —
category — category — category — category — category —
Retail Residential Residential Healthcare and Emerging
Kitchen Wellness Design
— — Professional
project — project — — —
Comvita Toto Whare project — project — —
Wellness Lab Hong Kong- O-Studio designer —
— inspired Kitchen Elisapeta Heta
— design — —
design — Bull O’Sullivan — design —
Blur the Lines Architecture design — Establish Studio
Atelier Jones and Three Sixty
Design Architecture

Architecture New Zealand 73

Awards —
Process

A decade ago, AGM launched the Interior Awards programme to recognise interior design excellence and celebrate the industry’s best interior
design projects. Since then, designers and architects have battled it out each year in front of a diverse panel of industry professionals, made up
of their colleagues, academics, curators and editors. This year, in celebrating our Supreme Award winner, our category winners and our finalists,
we must applaud their hard work, commitment and professionalism. To realise these exceptional projects in the face of lockdowns, supply chain
disruptions and possible reductions or deferrals in expenditure was no mean feat. While judging, we were faced with the perennial issues. Where
does the architecture of a project end and the interior design begin or are the two inextricably linked? How do we judge David vs Goliath, as seen,
for example, in considering the magnificence of a civic town hall rebuild alongside the modesty of a te reo preschool for 20 tamariki? How do we
balance our own social, cultural and environmental agendas with those specified and answered in the client’s brief? After some enthusiastic debate,
the projects which prevailed were those that demonstrated collaboration, authenticity, craftsmanship, inclusiveness and, above all, impeccable
design. On behalf of the jury, I would like to congratulate all of our finalists – you and your projects shone brightly but, unfortunately, we can have
only one winner in each category. Congratulations to our nine award-winners and our Supreme Award winner for rising above the rest with your
incredible work. And, finally, a huge thank-you to our sponsors – we couldn’t do this without you – and to all those who made this year’s Awards
such a success. It has been an absolute pleasure to help recognise and celebrate the industry’s best in this milestone 10th year. Amanda Harkness

Awards —
Jury

RUFUS KNIGHT SARAH BRYANT RAUKURA TUREI CRAIG MOLLER AMANDA HARKNESS
Director Workplace Strategist/ Architect Director Interior Editor
Knight Associates Interior Designer Monk Mackenzie Moller Architects Architecture NZ
Peddlethorp
— — — —
Rufus studied at Victoria — Raukura is an architect Craig is a director at Moller A former editor of Houses
University’s School of Sarah is a leading workplace based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Architects. He has degrees magazine, Amanda has
Architecture and Design in strategist and designer, She was the recipient of the in architecture from the written for Urbis and
Wellington. After working having delivered some of New Interior Awards Residential University of Auckland and Interior and is also assistant
in Europe, he started his Zealand’s largest commercial award in 2020 for her Yale University. His work editor of Architecture NZ.
Auckland-based studio, and award-winning fit-outs. project, Ōwairaka House, at Moller Architects varies While studying towards
Knight Associates, in 2016, She has practised for almost which she designed through from the small to the large, her Bachelor of Arts degree
concentrating on interior 20 years, both internationally her practice, Studio RT. She the private to the public. He at Victoria University, she
architecture and design. and locally, recently joining has practised in Aotearoa teaches studio part time at took two architectural
Rufus was awarded the the Peddlethorp team to lead and North America, gaining the University of Auckland papers with the late Russell
Designers Institute of what is a rapidly evolving her registration with Stevens and he is on the Board of Walden and developed an
New Zealand’s highest world of workplace design. Lawson Architects. She Trustees at Western Springs enduring appreciation for
achievement for Spatial Sarah is passionate has worked on a range College Ngā Puna o Waiōrea. the works of John Scott,
Design, The Purple Pin, in about creating inspiring of projects with Monk He considers education to be Ian Athfield, Le Corbusier
2015. His studio curated environments that support Mackenzie, from large-scale of fundamental importance. and Frank Lloyd Wright,
part of the New Zealand us to work, learn, socialise commercial to high-end Craig draws in his spare time amongst others.
pavilion at the 2016 Venice and celebrate together. She residential and, currently, and rides a bike. Amanda started off
Architecture Biennale and, works with leading public and a community centre and working in magazines
recently, completed work private sector organisations transitional housing project many years ago and,
on prestigious Auckland to create workplaces that for Te Kiingitanga and Te following forays into
multi-residential project, provide the flexibility and Ara Poutama. Raukura is also advertising, television
The International. Rufus is adaptability to prepare them an artist and has exhibited and PR, as well as editing
currently collaborating with for the future; she is respected throughout Aotearoa and a cookbook, she has
Les Mills, Fisher & Paykel for her ability to hear each internationally, including been working in design
and Aēsop, amongst others. client’s needs and translate representing New Zealand at publishing for the past
them into a tangible outcome the Art Fair Tokyo in 2018. three years.
which reflects the business
and its people.

74 Architecture New Zealand

Awards —
Sponsors

These makers, importers,

craftspeople, business mavericks
and all-round design enthusiasts,
and their respective companies,
have sponsored this year’s
Interior Awards.

Andrew Thorburn, Mike Thorburn and Richard Thorburn

Solomon Matiu, Sophia Bristow and Aaron Hooson

Ross Millin, Natalie Wilkinson and Kelly Morris

TJ Lee, Hadleigh Armstrong and John Lawrence

76 Architecture New Zealand

 Scott Ronald and Kate Ward

Marcel Herbke, Michelle Robinson and Jonathan Mountfort

Jarrod Langstone, Mike Bryan and Steve Aschebrock

Maurice Ward, Sara Morles and Dave White

Ellis Mitchell, Bernie Hanrahan, Sandy Wallace and Shane Harris

Architecture New Zealand 77

Winner — Winner —
Supreme Civic

Design —
Jasmax with FJMT
and designTRIBE

7H$R0¾UDPD
7¾PDNL3DHQJD+LUD
$XFNODQG:DU0HPRULDO0XVHXP
PA R N E L L , AU C K L A N D —

78 Architecture New Zealand

 project —
Te Ao Maˉrama
Taˉmaki Paenga Hira
Auckland War
Memorial Museum
Parnell, Auckland

client —
Auckland War
Memorial Museum
aucklandmuseum.com

design —
Jasmax with FJMT
and designTRIBE
jasmax.com

design team —
Marianne Riley,
Paul Lelieveld,
Hunter Gillies,
Neil Martin,
Richard Francis-Jones,
Rau Hoskins

photography —
Dennis Radermacher

Jury comment —
This significant landmark project is the result
of a thoughtful unlayering of past interventions
and an addition of interstitial elements,
underpinned with a strong bicultural narrative.
Following an eight-year-long collaborative and
consultative process, the design team has
succeeded in balancing the mana of the north
and south atriums: bringing back volume to the
space, releasing the tanoa, and creating
prominent east and west boulevards to bring
together a series of complex geometries. The
entry waharoa provides a powerful welcome
gesture to mark the transformation of this
ritualised museum procession. Commissioned
artworks activate the practice of tikanga,
layered tawa fins define and provide access to
spaces, and detailing of the light trench
enables instinctive and intuitive wayfinding.
This exceptional project brings together the
successive eras of the building holistically
while providing a place of welcome, gathering
and belonging for the wider community.

Architecture New Zealand 79

Winner —
Workplace (up to 1000m2)

Design —
Warren and Mahoney

3Z&7RZHU
6N\/REE\DW
&RPPHUFLDO%D\
C B D, AU C K L A N D —

80 Architecture New Zealand

 project —
PwC Tower Sky Lobby
at Commercial Bay
CBD, Auckland

client —
Precinct Properties
precinct.co.nz

design —
Warren and Mahoney
warrenandmahoney.com

design team —
Blair Johnston,
Michael Mason, Peter
Westbrook, Patrick
Daly, Lucille Ynosencio,
Christine Talbot

photography —
Jono Parker, Simon
Devitt, Sam Hartnett

Jury comment —
In what was perhaps one of the most
difficult categories to judge, as it
challenged the jury’s preconceptions of
what constitutes a workplace, it was a
foyer and lobby experience on a scale not
typically seen in New Zealand which rose
above the rest. Elevated from the busy
street, with the integration of a café and
bar opening onto a landscaped outdoor
terrace, this next-generation commercial
lobby offers employees in the PwC
Tower an extension of the workplace
itself: a place for connection and
exchange with colleagues and clients.
High-quality natural materials and
furniture raise the six-metre-high, glass-
walled interior to a level of unexpected
luxury and local artists are celebrated
throughout. With a lobby such as this,
and a sophisticated in-house hospitality
offering designed to cater ‘from coffee to
cocktails’, the Tower’s employees may
well find it hard to return to their desks.

Architecture New Zealand 81

Winner —
Workplace (over 1000m2)

Design —
Jasmax

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5XGG:DWWV
$XFNODQG2ŴFH
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C B D, AU C K L A N D —

82 Architecture New Zealand

project —
MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Auckland Office Fit-out
CBD, Auckland

client —
MinterEllisonRuddWatts
minterellison.co.nz

design —
Jasmax
jasmax.com

design team —
Phil Judd, Nick Moyes,
Chris Kim, Alasdair Hood

photography —
Sam Hartnett

Jury comment —
This sophisticated project represents a
carefully crafted response to a brief that
shifts the client group from its traditional
individual offices into a transformational,
‘office-free’ working environment, while
providing multifunctional spaces for quiet
working, meetings and team sessions as well
as staff facilities. A crisply detailed, inter-level
stair connects the business over four levels
and stained-timber joinery, brass detailing
and marble flooring provide an elegant,
timeless backdrop reflecting the culture of
the client. A rigorous sustainability agenda
called for life-cycle and energy efficiency,
minimised energy consumption and robust
environmental management certification.
Encouraging lawyers out of their offices is no
mean feat but this collaborative, open-plan
design has successfully done just that.

Architecture New Zealand 83

Winner —
Hospitality

Design —
Cheshire Architects

7KH+RWHO
%ULWRPDUW
C B D, AU C K L A N D —

84 Architecture New Zealand

 project —
The Hotel Britomart
CBD, Auckland

client —
Cooper and Company
cooperandcompany.org

design —
Cheshire Architects
cheshirearchitects.com

design team —
Nat Cheshire,
Dajiang Tai,
Emily Priest,
Jin Young Jeong,
Simon McLean,
Aiden Thornhill

photography —
Sam Hartnett

Jury comment —
This exceptional project, which celebrates
Cheshire Architects’ 10-year-long
relationship with its client in the Britomart
Precinct, is a sensorial feast. Demonstrating
a level of craftsmanship and collaboration
with local artisans that goes far beyond
what is typically seen in commercial
projects of this scale, the architects have
created an interior spatial experience that
is layered with history and an emotional
connection to our land. In response to a bar
set high by their client, the architects have
fulfilled the brief while setting a new way
of working, drawing extensively on local
resource and essentially hand-building
every element of the final result. Nothing
has been left behind in this fully immersive,
yet seemingly effortless, hotel experience.

Architecture New Zealand 85

Winner —
Retail

Design —
Blur the Lines

&RPYLWD
:HOOQHVV/DE
C B D, AU C K L A N D —

86 Architecture New Zealand

Jury comment —
This sumptuous, sensory space brings a
gallery and spa experience to the retail
domain through a combination of
seduction and education. Fully engaging
with a wide range of senses, the Comvita
Wellness Lab succeeds in developing the
brand in unexpected ways, where the
focus is on the product rather than on
sales. A unique, immersive tasting and
multisensory experience delivered from
the perspective of a bee – without being
reduced to a gimmick – is designed to project —
Comvita Wellness Lab
bring us closer to nature and help us fall CBD, Auckland
in love with bees again. As much thought
client —
has been given to the online retail Comvita
wellnesslab.comvita.co.nz
experience as to the in-store purchase.
It is hardly surprising that this exceptional design —
Blur the Lines
project, with its golden curves and weblurthelines.com
glowing forms, is likely to be used as a
design team —
prototype for the brand and rolled out Danielle Barclay,
internationally. Naomi Rushmer,
Craig McKay,
Preston Thomas

photography —
Kieran E Scott

Architecture New Zealand 87

Winner —
Residential

Design —
Bull O’Sullivan Architecture

7RWR:KDUH
U P H A M T E R R AC E , LY T T E LTO N —

88 Architecture New Zealand

Jury comment —
A joyful addition to an existing house
provides a range of interior spaces for both
whānau and friends, in a relaxed manner
that belies the careful control in the
unfolding sequence of spaces. A strong
sense of wairua (spirit) reflects both the
whānau and the architects’ poetic nod to
Ngā Rangi Tūhāhā, the various heavens that
lead up to Te Toi o Ngā Rangi. Reclaimed
native timbers, cork and sumptuous carpet
have been installed by the home-owners
with much aroha and bespoke furniture,
which is both functional and beautiful, has
been designed specifically for each space.
Rimu exterior weatherboards have been
repurposed and now line the interior with
warmth and history. Past, present and future
generations and their interconnectedness
have been considered in the thoughtful
reinvention of this character-filled place
of whakapapa.

project —
Toto Whare
Upham Terrace
Lyttelton

client —
Alistair Toto and
Linda Falwasser

design —
Bull O’Sullivan
Architecture
bosarchitecture.co.nz

design team —
Michael O’Sullivan,
Baz Cheng

photography —
Patrick Reynolds,
Sam Hartnett

Architecture New Zealand 89

Winner —
Residential Kitchen

Design —
Atelier Jones Design

+RQJ.RQJ
LQVSLUHG.LWFKHQ
WA I R AU VA L L E Y, AU C K L A N D —

90 Architecture New Zealand

 Jury comment —
This small but beautifully crafted
project weaves the client’s own
history and nostalgic memories of his
grandmother’s kitchen into an interior
while, at the same time, providing a
completely fit-for-purpose space
around the practicalities and
efficiencies of mise en place food
preparation. The result is a bold,
project — playful kitchen, which draws on a rich
Hong Kong- and heart-warming cultural and
inspired Kitchen
Wairau Valley material narrative – referencing
Auckland
chequered floor patterns from early
client — 19th-century China, metro station tiles
Eugene Isack
and Hong Kong’s ubiquitous ‘jade
design — green’. From the slender-steel-profiled,
Atelier Jones Design
atelierjonesdesign.co.nz rimu-topped peninsula to the
hand-blackened steel benchtop’s
design team —
Raimana Jones homage to the wok, this bespoke
kitchen is the delightful result of a
photography —
Sam Hartnett truly craft-led design process.

Architecture New Zealand 91

Winner —
Healthcare and Wellness

Design —
Establish Studio and
Three Sixty Architecture

26WXGLR
C E N T R A L C H R I S TC H U R C H —

92 Architecture New Zealand

 project —
O-Studio
Central Christchurch

client —
O-Studio
ostudio.co.nz

design —
Establish Studio and
Three Sixty Architecture
establishstudio.co.nz
threesixtyarch.co.nz

design team —
Jessica Mckenzie
(Establish Studio),
Dean Cowell,
Tom Norman,
Daniella Pizey
(Three Sixty
Architecture)

photography —
Sam Hartnett

Jury comment —
An insertion into an industrial section of
the city, this new wellness retreat model
provides a range of calming spaces for the
rejuvenation of both mind and body. Human
experience is at the forefront of the design,
with the focus on delivering a connection to
the space through the five senses. Natural,
handmade materials offer an earthy, tactile
quality and provide a warm complement to
the raw shell of the building. Bespoke oils,
tea and music complete the sensory
journey. This project embodies the spirit
of the client and embraces cultural and
community values, with subtle cues of
colour tones referencing Te Orokohanga
o te Ao, the Māori creation story, and the
inclusion of bilingual signage marking a
thoughtful engagement with tikanga Māori.

Architecture New Zealand 93

Winner —
Emerging Design Professional

Current design practice —

Jasmax

(OLVDSHWD+HWD
PA R N E L L , AU C K L A N D —

94 Architecture New Zealand

Jury comment —
Elisapeta is a natural leader in our
industry, championing tikanga Māori
and a collaborative design approach
that is generous in spirit. Her work has
enriched both the culture of the office
at Jasmax and the cultural credibility of designer —
Elisapeta Heta
its projects. She has brought her skills,
thoughts, philosophy and personality to project
involvement —
Waka Māia (Jasmax’s bicultural design Blenheim Cultural
and advisory team), maintaining and Centre Feasibility study,
Western Springs College
developing her design thinking while Ngā Puna o Waiōrea,
New Zealand Pavilion at
enhancing the work of the practice. Expo 2020 Dubai, Puhinui
Elisapeta has co-chaired and acted as Station, Rugby World
Cup kūwaha, Scott Base
secretary for Architecture+Women.NZ Redevelopment Antarctica,
and was co-opted as Ngā Aho North Shore Hospital
Marae, Tōtara Haumaru,
representative to Te Kāhui Whaihanga Parihaka Visitor Centre
NZIA. Her ambition is to continue to
current design
co-design authentic, identity-enhancing practice —
Jasmax
spaces that whakamana (uplift and
jasmax.com
empower) all who interact with them.
photography —
Dennis Radermacher,
Sam Hartnett

Architecture New Zealand 95

(YHQWKHEHVWLGHDVDUHQRWKLQJZLWKRXW
H[HFXWLRQ:K\"
%HFDXVHWKH\VWD\LQ\RXUKHDGDQGGRQ·WPRYHWKHZRUOG:HJLYH
RXUDOOIRULGHDVRXUHQJLQHHULQJDQGRXUNQRZKRZ7RFUHDWH
LQQRYDWLYHVWRUDJHVROXWLRQVWKDWGRPRUHWKDQMXVWRSHQDQGFORVH
FDELQHWU\7RLQVSLUHTXDOLW\RIOLYLQJ6ROHW·VEXLOGWKHIXWXUHWRJHWKHU
#EOXPQHZ]HDODQG

EOXPFRPPRYLQJLGHDV
Finalists —
Workplace (up to 1000m2)

Te Taura
:KLULLWH
5HR0¾RUL
ŗ0¾RUL
/DQJXDJH
&RPPLVVLRQ
design —
RCG
rcg.co.nz

project —
Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori
– Māori Language Commission,
Auckland

client —
Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori
tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

design team —
Andy Florkowski, Anzac Tasker,
Nate Te Rei, Jamie Howard,
Matu Ihaka

photography —
Mark Scowen

:DUUHQDQG
0DKRQH\
:HOOLQJWRQ
Studio
design —
Warren and Mahoney
warrenandmahoney.com

project —
Warren and Mahoney
Wellington Studio
Central Wellington

client —
Warren and Mahoney
warrenandmahoney.com

design team —
Katherine Skipper, Jono Coates,
Charlotte Hughes-Hallett,
Julia McPherson, Cliff Leong

photography —
Thomas Seear-Budd

Architecture New Zealand 97

Finalists —
Workplace (over 1000m2)

5RFNHW:HUN] Scion
design —
Unispace
,QQRYDWLRQ
unispace.com
+XE
project —
RocketWerkz
7H:KDUH
Auckland
Nui
client —
RocketWerkz
rocketwerkz.com
o Tuteata
design —
design team —
Harry Rowntree, Angie Wang,
RTA Studio and
Catherine Patton Irving Smith Architects
rtastudio.co.nz
photography — isarchitects.nz
David Straight

project —
Scion Innovation Hub
Te Whare Nui o Tuteata
Rotorua

client —
Scion
scionresearch.com

design team —
RTA Studio: Richard Naish, Ben
Dallimore, Adam Dwen. Irving
Smith Architects: Jeremy Smith,
Andrew Irving

photography —
Patrick Reynolds

98 Architecture New Zealand

Recognition

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sponsored the awards to show our
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Finalists —
Civic

7H+RKHSD
.ĉKDQJD5HR
design —
Bull O’Sullivan Architecture
bosarchitecture.co.nz

project —
Te Hohepa Kōhanga Reo
Phillipstown, Christchurch

client —
Te Hohepa Kōhanga Reo
Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust
kohanga.ac.nz

design team —
Michael O’Sullivan (project principal)
&KULVWFKXUFK
Paul Anselmi (architect)
E James Builders (builders)
7RZQ+DOO
Engco Consulting Engineers
design —
(structural, geotechnical, civil)
Warren and Mahoney
photography — warrenandmahoney.com
Sam Hartnett

project —
Christchurch Town Hall
Christchurch

client —
Christchurch City Council
ccc.govt.nz

design team —
Peter Marshall, Richard McGowan,
Simon Laurie, Angela Pelham,
Shane Horgan, Eoin Hudson

photography —
Stephen Goodenough,
Olivia Spencer-Bower

100 Architecture New Zealand

Finalists —
Hospitality

+RWHO
3RQVRQE\
design —
CTRL Space
ctrlspace.co.nz

project —
Hotel Ponsonby
Ponsonby, Auckland

client —
Hugo Baird

design team —
Chris Stevens, Sam Griffin,
Summer Bishop,
1DXPL6WXGLR Lauren Marshall

:HOOLQJWRQ photography —
Jono Parker

design —
Material Creative
materialcreative.co.nz

project —
Naumi Studio
Wellington

client —
Naumi Hotels
naumihotels.com/studiowellington

design team —
Toni Brandso, Liv Patience,
Olivia McNeil, Jaime Aspinall,
Anna Douglas

photography —
Sam Hartnett

0DU\ V
design —
Izzard Design
izzard.co.nz

project —
Mary’s
Havelock North

client —
Mary’s
marys.co.nz

design team —
Paul Izzard,
Kate Wotherspoon

photography —
Jono Parker

Architecture New Zealand 101

Finalists —
Retail

Good
%RRNV
design —
Bonnifait+Giesen
Atelierworkshop Architects
atelierworkshop.com

project —
Good Books
Te Aro, Wellington

client —

/R &R Jane Arthur and

Catherine Robertson
goodbookshop.nz
6KRZURRP design team —
Cecile Bonnifait, William Giesen,
design — Olivia Ong
Material Creative
materialcreative.co.nz photography —
Russell Kleyn

project —
Lo & Co Showroom
Auckland

client —
Lo & Co
loandcointeriors.com.au

design team —
Toni Brandso, Liv Patience,
Jaime Aspinall, Julia Brown

photography —
Melanie Jenkins

$XFNODQG
:DU0HPRULDO
0XVHXP6WRUH
design —
Ignite
ignitearchitects.com

project —
Auckland War Memorial
Museum Store
Parnell, Auckland

client —
Auckland War Memorial Museum
aucklandmuseum.com

design team —
Richard Voss, Nathan Carey,
Phaedra Applin, Sam Castle,
Vicky Lam

photography —
Sam Hartnett

102 Architecture New Zealand

Finalists —
Residential

6H\PRXU +RXVHRQ
Street D5RFN
$OWHUDWLRQV design —
South by Southeast
design — Architects
Salmond Reed Architects southbysoutheast.co.nz
salmondreed.co.nz

project —
project — House on a Rock
Seymour Street Alterations Sumner, Christchurch
Ponsonby, Auckland
client —
client — Sarina and Ken Powrie
Karen and Stephen Pearson
lionsshare.co.nz designer —
Ken Powrie
designer —
Philip Graham photography —
Sarah Rowlands
photography —
Patrick Reynolds

%HQGHPHHU
Estate
design —
Seagar Design
seagardesign.com

project —
Bendemeer Estate
Lake Hayes, Central Otago

design team —
Adrienne Seagar
in conjunction with Ponting
Fitzgerald Architects,
David Ponting

photography —
Simon Wilson

Architecture New Zealand 103

6450. &4*(/0-65*0/4
Finalists —
Residential Kitchen

=RQQHEULHV
Mead ŗ.LWFKHQ
design —
Residence SGA
(Strachan Group Architects)
design — sgaltd.co.nz
Rowson Kitchens
rowsonkitchens.co.nz
project —
Zonnebries – Kitchen
project — Auckland
Mead Residence
Raglan client —
Tom Pasley and Veronika van Dijck
design team —
Annika Rowson, design team —
Brad Rowson Pat de Pont, Gaynor Eade,
Fritha Hobbs, Maria Hosking
photography — Main contractor:
Jono Parker J R Hosking Carpenters and Co
Cabinetry: Philbe Design

photography —
Simon Devitt

Architecture New Zealand 105

Finalists —
Healthcare and Wellness

Auckland
Spine
Surgery
Centre
design —
Unispace
unispace.com

project —
Auckland Spine
Surgery Centre
Auckland

client —
Auckland Spine Surgery Centre

design team —
Harry Rowntree, Alice Dalton,
Angie Wang, Chris Kim,
Vinisha Topiwala

photography —
David Straight

MacMurray
Centre
design —
Warren and Mahoney
warrenandmahoney.com

project —
MacMurray Centre
Remuera, Auckland

client —
MacMurray Centre
Digestive Diseases
& Endoscopy
macmurray.co.nz

design team —
Patrick Sloan, Phil Grey,
Matthew Roberts,
Matthew McFetridge,
Scott Compton

photography —
Jono Parker

106 Architecture New Zealand

 Designer: 4Work
Rothbury Insurance Brokers,
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Finalists —
Emerging Design Professional

Keri
Cunliffe
current design practice —
Warren and Mahoney
warrenandmahoney.com

project involvement —
ANZ Raranga, Harmos Horton Lusk,
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare

photography —
Sam Hartnett

Lauren
Speer
current design practice —
Architectus
architectus.co.nz

project involvement —
Saint Kentigern Girls’ Primary
School, Te Whare Wānanga
o Waikato Te Pā,
Symonds Street Canopy

renders by —
Architectus

photography —
Simon Devitt

108 Architecture New Zealand

 —
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Crit / Itinerary Supported by

ITINERARY_

06

05
11

07

04

14 09

08 13

03

Guide:
10
01

12 02

Queenstown LAKE WAKATIPU

Words by Andrew Barrie and Victoria Gancheva.

Gold was discovered in the Warren and Mahoney to supervise without lessons to offer. Not much structures, absorbing the sometimes
Queenstown district in 1862. the Travelodge’s construction; he happened in Queenstown during ostentatious new buildings and
Prospectors flooded in and a stayed on as the only architect the modernist years, so the wave of allowing some truly striking work
makeshift canvas township appeared resident in town. He became the tourism-powered development took to emerge along the way.
on the shores of Lake Wakatipu local maestro and, capitalising on place in the context of fairly specific
to service them. The area was opportunities unusual in a small and vivid historical architecture,
constituted as a borough in 1866 town, built a career of national and of an architectural culture
but prosperity was fleeting. By significance. Blair’s office became embracing the let’s-make-a-reference 01

1870, miners had begun to disperse an incubator, fostering other local games of postmodernism. The 1863
and, by the end of the century, the talents such as Michael Wyatt. In results were mixed. There’s great Lake Lodge of Ophir
unspectacular industries of farming more recent years, the district has architecture in central Queenstown: 13 Marine Parade
and mining were the area’s mainstays. become home to a concentration of John Blair’s commercial work of Thomas Paterson and William Ford
In the latter decades of the significant female-led firms – Anna- the ’70s and early ’80s includes (builders)
20th century, tourism ramped up, Marie Chin Architects, Mary Jowett numerous under-appreciated gems.
gradually at first but steeply later, Architects, Salmond Architecture Other, less-gifted designers have
injecting a new prosperity. The (led by NZIA Distinguished Fellow resorted to using schist in the way
town has retained its intimate Anne Salmond) and Jackie Gillies children use tomato sauce – to give
scale and much of its heritage + Associates, amongst others – a little flavour to an otherwise bland
architecture, such that Queenstown as well as a number of husband- morsel. Those in between have
is characterised by the historical and-wife or mixed teams, such as tended to work by taking various
and the contemporary sitting side Assembly Architects, Kerr Ritchie styles – miners’ cabins, colonial
by side. This might be thanks to and Condon Scott Architects. cottages, Renaissance villas, and the
both the constrained topography – Queenstown’s architecture alpine architectures of Como and
the core of the town is small – and undoubtedly gains from its Colorado – and hollowing them out
the unusual pattern of affluence: magnificent setting. Glistening for reuse as sporting goods stores,
the sudden spike of the gold rush Lake Wakatipu provides a tapas bars and real estate agents.
Following the discovery of gold, a
and the low hum of sheep farming, beautiful waterfront; the heft and It’s a kind of hermit crab approach canvas township sprang up on the
followed by the more sustained but monumentality of the mountains, to design, in which the discarded shores of Lake Wakatipu. Within a year,
equally lucrative rush of tourism. and the changing light they shells from another time and place leading citizens gathered to form a
With no industry or even a milk generate, inject any vista with are occupied by new inhabitants. Masonic Lodge and, a few weeks later,
factory to close down, the town drama. The geography is also, However, while it’s tempting to laid the foundation stone for a building
took none of the economic hits unsurprisingly, the main formal sniff at some wonky individual on the lake foreshore. It was the first
that led to empty shops, main reference for many buildings: the buildings, their collective effect is stone building erected in the town –
in a locale with little timber, it was a
street demolitions and fractured jagged graph of mountain peaks – perhaps unique in New Zealand.
natural choice. Note the lantern on
streetscapes in other towns. like the kete or the eel trap in other The town has, thus far, maintained
the roof, perhaps explaining why roof
Affluence and opportunity have, parts of the country – is amusingly a human scale in its commercial lanterns have become a local motif.
of course, brought architects to the unmissable as the region’s default architecture and is very walkable. It A Category 1 Historic Place, the
area. The 1970s saw the arrival of architectural metaphor. accommodates lively activity while building is now an art gallery and a
John Blair, first in the employ of The town is not, however, protecting its very humble historic good portion of it can be visited.

Wakatipu Architecture New Zealand 111

Crit / Itinerary

02 03 04 05

c. 1866 1869 1876 1881

Williams Cottage Eichardt’s Private Hotel Courthouse and Library Old Lake County Council Chambers
21 Marine Parade 2–11 Marine Parade 45 Ballarat Street 50 Ballarat Street
John Williams Frederick Burwell Frederick Burwell Frederick Burwell

These Category 1 Historic Places

This Category 2 Historic Place stands were designed by Scottish-born As with his earlier Courthouse
on the site of the first building in Frederick Burwell, who lived for and Library across the street,
This Category 1 Historic Place is the Queenstown, a homestead built some years in Queenstown but, later, Burwell combined schist stone and
oldest surviving cottage in Queenstown. by William Rees, the ‘Father of made significant contributions in Romanesque motifs. Council meetings
It was built by John Williams, a boatman Queenstown’. Rees soon converted Invercargill and various Australian were apparently wild affairs marked
who established key shipping services this into a timber tavern and it passed cities, including Freemantle. The by ‘riot and violence’. There was
across the lake, and was later owned by into the ownership of Albert Eichardt, Courthouse was built first in 1876 – heated opposition to the construction
James McNeil, a stonemason who built who rebuilt it in masonry to a design the year the now-gigantic Wellingtonia of the Chambers but its completion
some of the town’s key early structures. by Frederick Burwell. It was restored Pines were planted – and the Library was a key marker of Queenstown’s
Still occupying prime waterfront real by Wyatt + Gray Architects and (Athenaeum) the following year. They evolution from gold rush encampment
estate, the Cottage and the adjacent Salmond Reed Architects, winning an were rescued from demolition in the to settled town. Now both a Category
historic buildings stand as testament to NZIA Resene Architecture Award in 1960s and are now home to a Citizens 2 Historic Place and a Speight’s Ale
Queenstown’s unpretentious beginnings 2002. The 2016 extension, Eichardt’s Advice Bureau and the aptly named House, the building was constructed
during the gold rush era. The interior of II, is known colloquially as the ‘Louis 1876 bar and restaurant. by stonemason James McNeil (see
the building is remarkably original – the Vuitton building’, referring to the Burwell enthusiasts might make the listing 02), who also built the Ballarat
old shingles are visible under the roofing luxury boutique on the ground floor. drive to his St Patrick’s Catholic Street Bridge down the block in 1882.
on the porch – and, now it is a store, it It also houses the office of its designers, Church (1874) at 7 Hertford Street Next to the bridge is Boffa Miskell’s
can be quite thoroughly explored. Wyatt + Gray Architects. in Arrowtown. Queenstown Village Green (1994).

06 07 08 09

1888 1898 1932 1968

Hulbert House St Joseph’s Catholic Church St Peter’s Anglican Church St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church
68 Ballarat Street 41 Melbourne Street 2 Church Street 26 Stanley Street
Mason & Wales Architects Francis Petre Henry McDowell Smith Miller, White & Dunn

Established in 1863, Mason & Wales

Architects is the nation’s longest- This Gothic Revival charmer was An austere composition in concrete
surviving architectural firm. This built from local schist and rimu block and river stones, the main space
house also has a colourful history: to the design of Wellington-born Replacing a wooden building erected is sheltered under a subtly twisting
one that encapsulates the whole arc architect Francis Petre. After training in 1863, this quaint timber and stone roof. It was completed by long-running
of Queenstown’s development. It in London, Petre returned to New church was designed by architect Dunedin firm Miller, White & Dunn.
was built for Queenstown’s official Zealand and worked on railway lines Henry McDowell Smith in 1926, They are best known for much flashier
Mining Registrar, who was, soon after, in the South Island before setting up although construction didn’t proceed buildings in Dunedin, such as art-deco
imprisoned for embezzlement. His wife a practice in Dunedin as an architect until 1932. Smith practised in Dunedin tour de force NZ Railways Road Services
then ran it as a boarding house and, and civil engineer. He became known and was, for a time, a business partner building (1939) and the brutalist towers
over the years, it was used as a private for churches and cathedrals, including of Edmund Anscombe. In independent of John Wickliffe House (1977).
nursing home, a maternity home, a St Joseph’s Cathedral, Dunedin practice, he is best known for the grand Fans of Presbyterian architecture
guest house, a bed and breakfast, and (1886), Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Hudson House in Dunedin, built for the might also like to visit Frederick
a backpackers’; now, it is a swanky Wellington (1901), and the now- family whose confectionery empire was Burwell’s St John’s Church (1880)
boutique hotel. See hulberthouse.co.nz demolished Cathedral of the Blessed eventually taken over by Cadbury. Next at 26 Berkshire Street, Arrowtown.
for bookings. Nearby, at 11 Henry Sacrament, Christchurch (1905). door is the former vicarage, dating from Alternatively, those seeking urgent rest
Street, is the Commercial Building Petre admirers should see the Catholic 1869 and the second-oldest wooden might step across the road to McAuliffe
(1988), now Tahuna Pod Hostel, by Church of Mary Immaculate and the building in town, and the 1905 Church Stevens’ Holiday Inn Express & Suites
Max Wild, another local notable. Irish Martyrs (1909) in Cromwell. Hall. All are Category 2 Historic Places. (2019) on Sydney Street.

112 Architecture New Zealand

 Supported by

10 11 12 Worth the drive

1975 1984–2003 1995
Crowne Plaza Queenstown Camp and Shotover Intersection Steamer Wharf Chinese Miners’ Huts (1860s)
Beach Street Corner Camp and Shotover Streets 88 Beach Street Buckingham Street, Arrowtown
Warren and Mahoney John Blair Architect; Michael Wyatt Architects
Michael Wyatt Architects Arrowtown Library (1985)
58 Buckingham Street,
Arrowtown
Michael Wyatt Architects

Chard Farm Winery (1993)

205 Chard Road, Gibbston
Custance & Associates

Originally a Travelodge, this hotel The corners of this intersection are Amisfield Winery and Bistro
was one of the last in Warren and occupied by four separate buildings, An integral part of the Queenstown (2002)
Mahoney’s series of constructivist two each by the two most prominent waterfront, Steamer Wharf is one of 10 Lake Hayes Road,
projects. The lobby and rooms have local architects. The urban ensemble Wyatt’s most well-known projects. Lake Hayes
been refurbished over the years (by includes John Blair’s shingle-style Reminiscent of boat sheds partially
John Blair Architect in 1993 and Clock Tower building (1984) to suspended over the lake, its village- Warren and Mahoney
by Dalman Architects in 2007) but the south and his Chester Building like feel is a deliberate choice, as
the building’s bold form still sits (1986) to the north. The Station a development of this size might AJ Hackett Kawarau Bungy
magnificently in the townscape and (1990s) and The Forge building easily have felt overwhelming in Centre (2003)
the vertiginous circulation spaces (2003) by Michael Wyatt (who had Queenstown. Winner of an NZIA 1693 Gibbston Highway,
retain their original verve. worked for Blair) stand to the west Resene Southern Branch Award in Gibbston
It’s worth noting that John Blair first and east, respectively. Together, 1995, this collection of bars and
came to the region in the employ of the buildings showcase various restaurants is a hub for locals and Patterson Associates
Warren and Mahoney to supervise strands of postmodernism found in tourists alike. To see Wyatt’s work at a
the hotel’s construction, staying on town – Blair’s picturesque, context- smaller scale, visitors can head further Peregrine Winery (2003)
as the only architect resident in town driven shingle style and his signature up Beach Street to the Earnslaw Park 2127 Gibbston Highway,
to become the local maestro and, geometricism, and Wyatt’s assertive toilets (2013). Stroll further up to Gibbston
eventually, build a career of national classicism and his gentler, more 8 Ballarat Street to see Maurice Orr’s
Architecture Workshop
significance. eclectic pomo sampling. BONZ building (1994).

Wakatipu Ski Club (2008)

Coronet Peak
13 14
Sources John Blair Architect
2006 2010
Queenstown Resort College Church Street Development Various aspects of Queenstown’s Frankton Terminus (2010)
7 Coronation Drive 11 Church Street architecture are covered in our history
State Highway 6, Frankton
Michael Wyatt Architects +MAP books. Have a look in John Stacpoole’s
Colonial Architecture in New Zealand Mary Jowett Architects
(Wellington: A H & A W Reed,
1976), Peter Shaw’s New Zealand Remarkables Primary
Architecture (Auckland: Hodder & School (2010)
Stoughton, 1991) and Frances Porter’s 49 Lake Avenue, Frankton
(ed.) Historic Buildings of
New Zealand: South Island (Auckland:
Babbage Architecture
Methuen Publishing, 1983).
The Heritage New Zealand database The Shed and The Barn (2018)
is a great resource for older projects: 4 Buckingham Street, Arrowtown
heritage.org.nz Maurice Orr
In honouring this project with an This four-story mixed-use development The late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki
NZIA Resene Architecture Award in seeks to marry almost every aspect of wrote an entry on Frederick Burwell
2007, the jury wrote: “This modest- the region’s architectural vocabulary – (1846–1915) in Jane Thomson Aosta (2019)
Photography: Andrew Barrie and Victoria Gancheva.

scale commercial development fits the old schist cottages, contemporary (ed.), Southern People: A Dictionary 18 Buckingham Street,
comfortably in its urban surroundings steel-framed houses, metal-skinned of Otago Southland Biography Arrowtown
and makes the most of its awkward, agricultural architecture, and the super- (Dunedin: Longacre Press, 1998). Anna-Marie Chin Architects
steeply sloping triangular site. The heavy timber structures of the area’s A healthy chunk of Queenstown’s
resulting structure belies its five levels. mines and wharves. That’s a big ask later architectural history is covered
The brick cladding, an unexpected but the composition holds together; the in John Balasoglou’s John Blair:
Abodo Cardrona Showroom
material in Queenstown, relates well crisply gabled forms in stone, glass and Architect (Auckland: NZ Architectural (2020)
to its setting adjacent to the densely steel balconies, and huge timber frames Publications Trust, 2010). For a useful 2340 Cardrona Valley Road,
treed reserve and the chunky pre- (each element must have been a whole profile of three Queenstown architects Cardrona
cast concrete frame to the southwest tree), have weight and authenticity – Max Wild, Alan Poor and Gillian Assembly Architects
corner anchors the building to the site. that is missing in many other local Macleod – see Nick Karlovsky’s ‘The
Sunshades to the western elevation buildings that attempt the same feat. It Queenstown Connection’, Architecture
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Te Kano Estate
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an otherwise solid wall.” Tip: The Japanese noodle bar on the can be found in Architecture NZ 92 Felton Road, Bannockburn
See Architecture NZ May/June 2007. ground floor is worth the wait. Jul/Aug 1994. Mason & Wales Architects

Wakatipu Architecture New Zealand 113

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Exhibition
Tai Moana Tai Tangata
BRETT GRAHAM (NGĀTI KOROKĪ KAHUKURA, TAINUI)
CURATED BY ANNA-MARIE WHITE (TE ĀTIAWA)
GOVETT-BREWSTER ART GALLERY, NEW PLYMOUTH
5 DECEMBER 2020 – 2 MAY 2021

During a recent discussion between Brett Graham and

Dame Anne Salmond about the Māori notion of space-time
or wā,1 it was concluded that wā is to be understood as an
interlinked spiral of time and space: a dancing vortex that
collapses past, present and future. We can see and experience
wā only from a privileged position composed of moments
organised around rituals and ceremonies. For architecture, it
is the ways in which rituals are given their proper shape and
form that create a temporal place from which wā can unfold.
Architecture in this context can be only an apparatus that
congeals materials in the shape of rituals.
Graham’s Tai Moana Tai Tangata exhibition at New
Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery expresses this
effusively. The show was two years in the making. To
experience this work within a stepping, four-levelled vertical
space is to be enveloped by a place that is saturated with
narratives of trauma and exploitation, and the extractive
violence meted out by the process of colonialism on the
tangata whenua and the landscape of Taranaki’s west coast, all
the way up to the Manukau Heads. As we ascend and travel
upwards in the gallery, the works come in and out of view.
And, in that space, there is an invisible woven thread of time
that never leaves us, and we sense it as a vertical up-and-down
movement that takes us to a precipice that makes us feel as
though we are going to fall deep inside the earth or ascend into
the heavens. Fear, love, hate, beauty and indifference are all
driven by that sense of standing at the precipice of spiral-time
and, when all these feelings are congealed in one moment, we
are then struck with astoundment. Well, that is what moved
me with Tai Moana Tai Tangata.
01
Graham took on the research for the project to address
the proverb Te Kīwai o te Kete (holding together the
handles of a shared basket), with reference to an alliance
forged between Tainui and Taranaki Māori during the As you ascend the gallery
New Zealand Land Wars. He conceived the exhibition as to see the other three
an opportunity for Tainui and Taranaki Māori to restate
these principles in the present and in the face of pressing
monumental sculptures,
ecological challenges. Coupled with his interest as a child in Cease Tide of Wrongdoing, 01 Cease
Tide of
the monuments of colonial conquest of Māori that littered a foreboding and exquisite Wrongdoing,
a 10-metre-
that Waikato landscape, he rejigged the larger-than-life
symbol of gluttony and greed, tall graphite-
sculptures within the vertical space to be viewed in overlaid covered niu,
vistas that collapse and contrast the works with one another is always visually present to stands at the
entry to the
horizontally and vertically. To do this, Graham produced frame the other works. exhibition.

Architecture New Zealand 115

Crit

several maquettes of the artworks on a scaled model of

the gallery to work out a spiral configuration that makes
us ascend the space. At the same time, each sculpture
stands out in contrast to the others on different levels of
the gallery. The small floor layout and unusual vertical
space, with small intermediate mezzanine landing spaces,
of the Govett-Brewster lend themselves wonderfully to
this notion of the spiral of time or wā in our movement
through the gallery.
The most striking of the works is by the entry – a
graphite-covered, monolithic towering sculpture titled Cease
Tide of Wrongdoing, which rises three floors with carved,
vertical, notched tāniko patterns that taper to a needle-like
point. The tower was designed to incorporate the ritual
02
form of a niu or divining pole used by adherents of the Pai
Mārire religion of Taranaki Māori to receive divine signals of
coming war or peace. Two sections of the tower have cross-
way extrusions in the form of small pātaka food storage, to
mark the abundance of resources extracted from Māori. As
you ascend the gallery to see the other three monumental
sculptures, Cease Tide of Wrongdoing, a foreboding and
exquisite symbol of gluttony and greed, is always visually
present to frame the other works.
The other graphite work, Maungārongo ki te Whenua,
Maungārongo ki te Tangata, is the most beautiful piece
in the exhibition. Graham’s reworking of the above Māori
incantation meaning ‘peace to the land and the people’,
forms a pātaka (food store) with wagon wheels that are
intricately carved in the manner of the Motunui pātaka
panels that are in the Puke Ariki Museum, a few streets
03 from the exhibition. In an interview, Graham said the
pātaka is an architectural form that represents collective
Māori identities and resources, and contains the people’s
treasures.2 The British Crown coveted this wealth and
seized these resources by various means. Where Māori
initially responded to British settlement with curiosity
and generosity, Taranaki Māori quickly learned to defend
their resources actively, evoking both Tūmatauenga
(the god of war) and Rongomātāne (the god of peace).
Maungārongo ki te Whenua, Maungārongo ki te Tangata
is mobilised as a wagon that commemorates the dual
strategies of Tītokowaru, a leader in war and a broker of
04
peace, and the determined pacifism of Parihaka leaders
Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi.
Photography: Neil Pardington.

Creating a ritualistic and beautiful world out of so

02 03 In the 04 Based on REFERENCES
Maungārongo background, a World War 1
much grief makes this exhibition something of a miracle
30 March 2021 at
ki te Whenua, Grande Folly One war and one that will be hard to repeat elsewhere. If you
the Te Wānanga o
Maungārongo Egmont is a memorial,
Waipapa, University were lucky enough to see it at the Govett-Brewster, then
ki te Tangata, sculptural O’Pioneer is
of Auckland.
peace to the land recreation of adorned in you have witnessed a contemporary artist at the height
and the people, the Āwhitu patterns derived  Personal comments,
is a mobile lighthouse, from Victorian 25 April 2021. of his powers.
pātaka of sorts. built in 1874. wallpaper. Albert L Refiti

116 Architecture New Zealand

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Exhibition
Pouwātū: Active Presence
OBJECTSPACE
9 MARCH – 30 MAY 2021

With the world drowning under an avalanche

of disposable images, it is increasingly difficult
to conceive of a space where photographs
might speak to us and slowly reveal their
stories. A remarkable collaboration between
photographer John Miller and architectural
designer Elisapeta Heta offers a solution and

Photography: Sam Hartnett.

presents a cogent challenge to the ephemeral
status photographs have acquired in the age of
social media.
Originally commissioned for the 2020 Sydney
Biennale, the show is brought to home soil as
part of Auckland Arts Festival Te Ahurei Toi o
Tāmaki. Drawing on her deep understanding
of te ao Māori, Elisapeta Heta has reconfigured of pou-like structures where the photos of Māori protest, which has played such a
the main gallery at Objectspace, making it are thematically grouped and the display is crucial role in defining who we are as a nation.
resonate with the essence of a wharenui. The centred around a large, artfully constructed Many of the events recorded are familiar
transformation makes particular reference to Te table with wooden benches, beckoning from newspaper and television reportage
Tai Tokerau wharenui, which often reserve an visitors to come together and enter into a but the photos are unique in offering the
honoured space for the display of photographs deeper engagement with the images. The call personal viewpoint of a participant rather
of the dead. By translating this tradition into a to conversation is persuasively echoed in the than an observer. The images take us behind
gallery context, the exhibition acknowledges the photos themselves, especially the series from the scenes, bringing us inside the vans, buses,
mana of the people represented in the photos Māori Artists and Writers Association hui, tents, makeshift dwellings and marae where
and invites the audience to view the images with beautifully composed images of informal the protest movement forged the solidarity
with a measure of reverence. clusters of attentive listeners gathering and commitment needed to maintain its
Invoking the sacred, which is reinforced around speakers whose passion is eloquently public face.
by a discreet request to remove footwear signified in hand gestures. There is an intense lyricism to Miller’s
before entering the gallery, disrupts the John Miller is extremely well suited to vision as he responds to the fluid geometry
predominately secular ethos of contemporary fulfilling the promise of the exhibition design. of marchers stretched out along rural roads;
art and calls to mind what Roland Barthes With none of the reticence of artists who the striking contrast of red and black flags
describes as photography’s terrible power insist their art speaks for itself, he is always set against the cool blue of a cloud-flecked
to bring about the ‘return of the dead’. It is a willing to give a fulsome account of the sky; the play of light raking across a jumble
quality we take for granted and it has been stories which stand behind his commitment, of baggage and mattresses in a dimly lit
greatly diminished by the overwhelming over four decades, to record aspects of the wharenui; and, most movingly, the highly
ubiquity of digital imagery; however, Māori world. His conversation, informed animated faces of the protest participants.
Pouwātū: Active Presence offers a timely by a prodigious memory for the events The photographs on the walls form a tiny
reminder that there are still places where and personalities depicted in his work, is fragment of Miller’s work and touchscreens set
the mana of a photograph is recognised abundantly loquacious and wildly digressive. in the central table offer a tantalising glimpse
and respected. The photographs cast a revealing light on of a vast archive of photos standing behind the
In a similar way, the exhibition design several aspects of te ao Māori and testify selected work. A taonga of this kind demands
reconstitutes the gallery space as a site for to John Miller’s intimate connection to the an appropriate setting and Elisapeta Heta has
conversation, listening and learning. Working community he is documenting. There are created ideal conditions for delving into the
against expectations of the gallery as a space celebratory images of the Rātana movement rich storehouse of knowledge contained in
to move through, the show repeatedly urges and Māori Women’s Welfare League but the these precious photographs.
viewers to sit down. Angled seats link a series main emphasis is on the long, ongoing history Paul Simei-Barton

Architecture New Zealand 119

 01 Bennet
Atkins’
built form
constraints
map within
his walkable
catchment
for Mount
Eden station
illustrates the
02 Bennet
Atkins’
built form
Cover image: Amy Yalland.

constraints
map within
his walkable
catchment
for Mount
Eden station

Book
Making Ways: Alternative Auckland to immerse herself in the exhibition architects are confronting the question of
Architectural Practice in Aotearoa and lecture on what she’d seen. Her essay how to earn decent pay whilst doing what
EDITED BY MIKE DAVIS offers a succinct biography of each practice seems right and good. There’s a common
AND KATHY WAGHORN and gives an overview of its exhibition. acceptance that achievements to date have
OBJECTSPACE, 2021 Following the essay are edited transcripts been on the backs of economic sacrifices
of interviews held with each of the practices that are unpalatable in the long term, or are
Co-edited by Mike Davis (University of and these are set alongside photographs of supported by financial grants with limited
Auckland) and Kathy Waghorn (AUT), Making the installations. lives, or are sustained by day jobs (i.e. in
Ways: Alternative Architectural Practice in The transcripts lend Making Ways a academia) that offset costs.
Aotearoa is a bright, new publication that seeks personal tone and capture the unpretentious Making Ways also raises questions about
to conceptualise architectural work. Published nature of the subject. Our work and how what exactly constitutes an alternative practice.
by Objectspace, the book is, in one respect, we do it are not things of high rhetoric but, The exhibition gave four examples and let us
a record of the Making Ways exhibition the instead, raise a common concern and a search for the ties that bind. But the book has
gallery hosted in September and October 2019. question of the common good. This common given curator and editor Kathy Waghorn the
But, in another, it represents the hope for a sensibility is evident in the informality of the time and space to reflect on what was meant
continuation of conversations the show started. interviews, which reveal how each of these by the idea of an ‘alternative’, to consider more
Making Ways – the exhibition – involved youthful (or youthful-at-heart) practices is generally what characterises these ‘new forms
a four-week series of installations, lectures working out its place in the world. There is of practice’ and to propose reasons for the
and workshops focusing on the ways-of- often an innocent surety to their motivations importance of such alternatives.
work of four boutique practices – Makers – typically, a mix of social, cultural, One challenge Waghorn faces is how to
of Architecture, Hatch Workshop, unit Y technological and environmental activism. deal with the parallel need, or inevitability,
and ĀKAU. But there’s also uncertainty about where to of defining the other. Making Ways celebrates
As a record, Making Ways – the book – from here. Time and again, that uncertainty practices ‘on the edge’ and people working
opens with an essay by visiting academic turns around the economic function of work. in ‘expanded fields’. But what does it make
Kester Rattenbury from the University of Having shaped practices that foster of ‘normative architectural practice’?
Westminster. Rattenbury was invited to dignified and socially fulfilling work, the If the edge is honoured, what of the centre?

Architecture New Zealand 121

Crit

PREVIOUS
PAGE
Wellington-
based Makers
of Architecture
reconfigured
the gallery
with operable
screens, data
projection and
BIM in action.
THIS PAGE
ĀKAU, which
has a base in
Kaikohe and
one in Titirangi,
is seen here in
conversation.

Is it derided as the ossification of tradition, resistance to a capitalist, political economy. and raise awareness of how little we talk
convention and conformity? Whether Alongside its capitalised economic function, about our work in terms of labour. Ask
intentionally or not, is it denigrated? And is architectural work fulfils a social function. It an architect about their ‘work’ and they’ll
this fair? This is particularly relevant given is a way to cultivate and exercise our abilities invariably describe a building rather than
the centre seems to provide more readily for a to produce something that society (hopefully) what they did to help make it.
core function of work that eludes those at the values. The experience of contributing to Waghorn and Davis’ research is beginning
edge: a decent wage. And with a decent wage, society and feeling the esteem of fellow to historicise the labour side of architecture.
one can raise a family, help build a community citizens is vital to human flourishing. But the pair reports that, post the 1980s,
and make a home. These are all core functions This social idea precedes the profession’s the published material about architectural
of work that, in turn, contribute to a sense of capitalist monetisation. Architectural work practices stops questioning ethics, politics
esteem and all-important social recognition. traces a complicated line through the different and the common good, and, instead, focuses
So, the centre may have something going political and financial models that have shaped almost entirely on the business of building. This
for it or, at least, it might if architects can history. Today’s architectural work, including paucity of material about practice presents a
earn a decent wage and work in a dignified that of the ‘alternative practices’, must be challenge, but the struggle they describe recalls
way. Whether or not they do is something considered as part of this history. Deamer’s diagnosis that architects suffer ‘work
Peggy Deamer questions in her studies of Waghorn and Davis acknowledge this by aphasia’. We seem incapable of speaking about
architecture and labour. concluding Making Ways with an essay entitled what we do as work/labour.
The relationship between edges and ‘Looking Backwards to Look Forwards’. Here, This may prove to be one of those cases
centres needs to be negotiated by this inquiry the pair presents their historical research into where the absence of research material is as
into architectural work. Waghorn and Davis local models of alternative practice. They revealing as the material itself. Nonetheless,
Photography: Sam Hartnett.

admit they came to Making Ways with a bias outline their methods and the selection criteria the editors suggest they won’t be deterred
for an expanded and diverse future brought for deciding what is ‘alternative’, and then give by the difficulties and say their work has
about through structural change rather than brief biographies of eight architectural practices only just begun. The promise that more is
through the manipulation of existing systems. that fit the bill. to come renders Making Ways an exciting
They’re attracted to the edges. They’re The biographies – of practices old and piece of work.
interested in architectural work offering new – point to the potential of this project Sean Flanagan

122 Architecture New Zealand

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