Innholdsfortegnelse for May-June 2022 i Architecture NZ

MORE BLEAK NEWS – is there any other kind? – on the climate crisis front. Rapidly reducing emissions by the end of this decade to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in Paris in 2015 and subsequently, is almost impossible. That’s according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in early April. “If we don’t achieve deep and rapid reductions during this decade – much more so than we are planning to do collectively – then limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is out of reach”, IPCC vice-chair Dr Andy Reisinger told Morning Report. The IPCC’s stark conclusion was that a century of rising emissions must end before 2025 to keep global heating under 1.5C, beyond which severe impacts will increase further and…

DESIGN FOR WATERFRONT FALE MALAE TAKES SHAPE A concept design has been released for the proposed Fale Malae on Wellington’s waterfront, with backing from manawhenua, Pasifika leaders, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and the government. The design, a collaboration between Jasmax, Albert Refiti, associate professor at AUT and research leader in the field of Pacific spatial and architectural environments, and fine artist Michel Tuffery, represents a significant step forward in the Fale Malae Trust’s plans to create a cultural landmark within the capital’s Frank Kitts Park. Elisapeta Heta, principal and Kaihautū Whaihanga at Jasmax, says the Fale Malae “will hold Pasifika people, tangata moana, at its heart, but will be for all the people of Whanganui-a-Tara, of Aotearoa and of our moana nui”. The sculptural roof form articulates…

TRYING TO DESCRIBE 30 YEARS OF STUDIO Pacific Architecture with, say, two sentences per year is rather like describing a large cloth by talking about a couple of its strands. It is with some of the same naivete, hope and ambition with which we started off the practice that this partial view of Studio Pacific’s history is put together. There have been amazing times and fortunate opportunities; without glossing over a few struggles in between, I (and we) can see now that we have achieved more than we ever dared hope we would at the beginning of the practice. To me, the point was to use our collective creativity to make Aotearoa New Zealand a better place or, at least, the pockets of place we could influence. Two central queries…

AS ARCHITECTS, WE SURE KNOW THAT making a good house is not easy. And, it doesn’t always follow that starting with a great plan will necessarily generate great space and form, and make a delightful sequence of spaces to live in. Making a good house requires the addition of something else that’s hard to define – a sort of architectural magic. The stuff that turns bricks and mortar into a ‘work of architecture’ rather than merely a house. The word magic is not intended to undermine the intellectual workload required to make a good house. It is not to say that masterful architecture results come from a kind of sorcery, from abilities beyond our mortal worlds. It is just to say that the power of a good house is far…

THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND runs an interesting leadership scholarship programme founded and funded, with local support, by Canadians John and Marcy McCall MacBain. The Kupe Leadership Scholarship, as it is called, is one of many the McCall MacBains have established around Commonwealth countries. In New Zealand, it is offered to about 18 postgraduate students from all faculties within the university. It provides a scholarship payment, a mentor for the year the scholarship is held, and a programme of leadership training based around live-in workshops and seminars that include leaders from many fields of political, social and academic endeavour. Though the students, who are awarded the scholarship after a rigorous selection process, are, without a doubt, extremely able academically, it is their potential to be leaders for which they are selected.…

AS I TAKE THE NEW CHRISTCHURCH Southern Motorway for about 20 minutes southwest from Christchurch city, then turn left off State Highway 1, a glimmering, angled object, much taller than the single-level houses and shops in its proximity, catches my eye. This is Te Ara Ātea, a building designed as a beacon to its community and a striking first step for the Selwyn District Council in its plan for Rolleston Town Centre. Te Ara Ātea’s functions are diverse – a hybridised library, museum, community and performance facility – and a reflection of the needs of the people in today’s Rolleston. It joins the global trend of libraries as democratic, accessible, neutral spaces in which to relax and socialise – much more than just a place to borrow books. Despite the…

WHAKATAUKĪ ‘KA PŪ TE RUHA, KA HAO te rangatahi, the old net is put aside, the new net goes fishing,’ isn’t about catching things, the interpretation many of us in Aotearoa New Zealand would leap to. Even though a few people on the street told me this building’s steel lattice frontage looked a bit like a cage, it is quite the opposite. The proverb relates to how the young replace the old and bring with them fresh ways of doing things and new ways of navigating issues. And this new building certainly does that. The City Mission has been providing health and social services to marginalised Aucklanders since the 1920s, mostly operating from a 19th-century building, formerly the Prince of Wales hotel. This new, purpose-built structure replaces the ad hoc…

Ko Tūranga-a-Mua, Tūranga the ancient Ko Tūranga Ararau, Tūranga the pathway of many Ko Tūranga Makaurau, Tūranga of a thousand lovers Ko Tūranga Tangata-rite, Tūranga the meeting place of people Ko Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, The long waiting place of Kiwa THE STORY OF ARRIVAL IS ENGRAINED in the experience of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (Poverty Bay). Kiwa, the high priest of the waka Horouta, gave Tūranga its name. Horouta was followed by the waka Nukutere and Tākitimu. Paikea then famously arrived on the back of a whale and, generations later, Captain James Cook arrived on the Endeavour. Indeed, the story of Aotearoa can be told through the shores of Tūranga. But, today, the story of arrival begins not by land or sea but by air. It is the architecture of Tairāwhiti Gisborne Airport and its…

PYIT TAING HTAUNG is a traditional Myanmar children’s toy, which remains upright despite being knocked down. So the toy has come to represent perseverance, resilience and the ability to pick oneself up and never give up. An understanding of this emblem of perseverance and resistance is essential to the comprehension of this project, which is infused with my personal experience as a Myanmar refugee, born and raised in a refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Myanmar. The inspiration for this study came from my desire to help others. I arrived in New Zealand in 2011, having been given an opportunity that many others would have given their lives for. Globally, there are now approximately 84 million individuals who have been forcefully displaced and more than 26 million of…