Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2024 i Architecture NZ

IN THIS YEAR’S FUTUNA LECTURE, Kerstin Thompson laid down a challenge to the profession. “My challenge is that more of us get our hands dirty and operate without full control of outcome and subsequent narrative.” The 2023 Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal recipient had been talking about the difficulty of designing in the public sector: in healthcare and public education projects on limited budgets within the constraints of templates, maintenance schedules and standards; and, in housing, where compliance with the various regulations and standards can be prescriptive in terms of outcomes. “It’s the challenge of innovating despite these that I think is the real hallmark of serious architecting”. She had been talking about the necessity to design without dogma: instead, to “accommodate with intent” as the way through “the…

There’s a hint in the name – Femmely Velues – which references the fact that this is the first all-women project team to have built a folly amongst the nine flights of fancy constructed to date. On a deeper dive, it transpires that ‘femme’ alludes to the role of the matriarch in knowledge-sharing, and that ‘velues’ was originally a loose play on ‘family values’ but with a Kiwi twang. This year’s team, made up of Claire Ford, Elise Cautley and Jennifer Gao of Yellowhammer Services, Architecture HDT and Jack McKinney Architects, respectively, joined forces to design a concept based on the fabric crafts they’d been taught by their mothers. “We were interested in drawing on the idea of sewing and weaving, and how that translated into a hard-material architectural form,”…

1958 Centennial Rest Rooms 10 Onslow Street, Bluff The entire north wall featured modern, glazed joinery with a matching industrial-style inclined clerestory above. A generous porch opened onto the local park. The north elevation was later modified with an addition to house the Bluff Senior Citizens Association. (Monica Barham led/drawn). 1960 Stewart Island Centennial Museum 7 Ayr Street, Stewart Island In 2020, a new museum opened nearby so the original, altered building has now been converted into a cafe and residence. See Stewart Island News, April 2020, p. 7. 1969 Mataura Library 8 McQueen Avenue, Mataura A Scandinavian alpine influence appears with streamlined fascia linings. The simple rectilinear form, with recessed corner entry, has a low-pitched gable roof, tapering skillion ceiling line and gable-end glazing.…

I am writing in response to the cartoon by Malcolm Walker, titled ‘itchy fingers…’, at the back of the March/April 2024 issue of Architecture NZ. The cartoon depicts someone who has made a submission for a verandah extension, and is then being told it will also ‘trigger’ a requirement for an access ramp, which will trigger a flood report, then an erosion report, etc. The final panel continues the trigger metaphor to show the applicant looking very stressed and pointing a gun to their own head. For decades, we have appreciated Malcolm’s relevant and insightful contributions to Architecture NZ and other publications, and I think we can all relate to the frustrations experienced in this cartoon. Visual metaphor and exaggeration are also commonly used by cartoonists but, in this case,…

How did you choose a career in architecture? I was fortunate to grow up within a wider family who encouraged creativity from a young age. I spent hours and hours with my cousins, creating worlds and environments, and we were lucky to have an eccentric collection of aunties and grandparents who each excelled in their own crafts: from music, to woodwork and art. So, I think the exposure to this and a combination of these skills inevitably led us all towards creating worlds of our own. The best way for me to express this was through creating homes for the characters and objects in our lives. We were fascinated by how these inanimate figurines might live their lives so we built worlds around them from timber, fabric and stone. As…

1948–1953 Brown Owl Milk Bar 128 Esk Street, Invercargill Monica’s art and interiors feature in a curved bar and her own sandblasted decorative panels. Closed in 1953, it became part of a major Invercargill city block demolition in 2020, making way for a new retail mall. See New Zealand Home & Building Dec/Jan 1948, pp. 49–51. (Monica Barham led/drawn). 1970 Barham Holiday Cabin 4 Cemetery Road, Queenstown This modern alpine holiday cabin resembled the Barhams’ Mataura library. The cabin was dismantled and removed from site in 2020. (Monica Barham led/drawn).…

READER, OVER THE SUMMER I took the opportunity to begin reading two books on the ever-growing list of literature that I would like to read but, with the demands of a period in human history defined by the internet, titles continue to be added to this list more quickly than items are crossed off it. Reading, for me, remains an activity that enables me to make connections and join dots with a focus that produces new ideas and stretches my thinking. If I am to be transparent, I watch television far more often than I read and, far too quickly, the summer break concluded and I returned to work. As the year progresses, I feel both disbelief at my good fortune to be able to work, and guilt, with reports…

You’re never too long an architect to dream. Think back to those free-time sketches before discovering the constraints of budgets, expansion coefficients and insurance premiums: moments when you weren’t too deeply buried under stacks of practising certificates and built-up realities. So, while you wait for those computer updates to load, why not grab a pencil and whimsy up an impossibly tree-d and pond-ed landscape, or a forest-columned office with people carrying their furniture around. Go on. Let roofs sag. Dig a new mould. There are worlds to discover. Snake that building for a kilometre across a lake and lift those walls to invite the water inside. All a bit fanciful and better get back to the timesheet? There’s no purpose in whimsy, you say. But, wait, this is real: so…

Practice in Profile Supported by AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE AUSTRO-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, Austria became a republic. In 1919, Vienna held its first city council election and the left-wing Social Democratic Party won in a landslide. During the period of ‘Red Vienna’, the state enacted major housing reforms, funded by increased taxes on the wealthy. These buildings weren’t just utilitarian, they were grand, innovative structures, designed by some of the country’s most respected architects.1 “Building public housing with better living conditions than the dominant private market was a key ambition… ‘Paläste fūr die Arbeiter’, palaces for the workers,” explained Kurt Hofstetter, the International Building Exhibition coordinator with the City of Vienna (AWIG1, see Instagram links on page 39). “World War II physically and economically…

Supported by Roxburgh The writing on New Zealand women architects’ practice from the 20th century has, until recently, been woefully scant. This Itinerary is the first in a series, each dedicated to a singular female architect’s practice work. Monica Barham is arguably the first registered female architect to practise as a partner in a successful architectural business in New Zealand, doing so with architect husband Cecil Barham from 1946. Between 1945 and 1975, Invercargill’s post-war population doubled. Cecil Barham had turned down an opportunity of partnership in Monica’s father’s practice, Allan C Ford Architect, as he wanted, with Monica, to practise as equals sharing all aspects of the business. Together, they established Barham and Barham Architects and, at the same time, raised their six children. The Barhams’ practice thrived, fuelled…

As part of International Women’s Day, 8 March, the University of Auckland Creative Arts and Industries, School of Architecture and Planning hosted a talk on the Womb Chair, designed by renowned mid-century modernist architect Eero Saarinen. Initially commissioned by Florence Knoll in 1948, Saarinen’s Womb Chair challenged the conventions of chair design of its time. It pushed the boundaries with its innovative use of technologies: a departure from the traditional techniques of the era. This allowed for a form and functionality that deviated from traditional prescriptive norms, marking a significant shift in design philosophy. A symbol of mid-century design, this chair has, historically, been associated with sexualisation, especially catering to the fantasies of male consumers. This was a reflection of the societal norms of the midcentury era, a time when…