Welcome to the past

I took part in a number of events last week for Architecture Week including this story which appeared in a number of newspapers at the beginning of the week.

They were well organised, informative, and well attended events and which it was both a privilege and a pleasure to be part of the week. A big shout out to all those who helped organise it.

But my personal highlight would have gone unnoticed by most.

I delivered a lecture at my alma mater Auckland University as part of its ‘Fast Forward’ series.

At the conclusion of my talk, and after dealing with some very good questions from the pretty full theatre, two groups of people came up to the lecturn to see me.

The first was our Rotorua Rainbow Springs client, who I had not seen for 30 years.

Now a sprightly 82-years-old, he reminisced fondly about the buildings he had commissioned and some overseas travel we had enjoyed together. We talked about our children and grandchildren (an avid art-collector, he was well aware of my son Jake’s work, and he introduced me to his grand-daughter – an architect student). It was a great catch up.

Patiently waiting was a young couple whom I had never met, but as it transpired had recently purchased a house I had designed on Auckland’s North Shore in the 1970s.

They are really loving the house – their only complaint was that it doesn’t feature on my website (a mistake I will be rectifying shortly).

I did, however, take a look at the house when I visited Auckland a year or so ago, and took some sneaky pictures which I can share here.

They presented me with a gift of confectionary and a marvellous letter of thanks. It made my night to hear how much they are enjoying living in their house.

Unexpected joyful and human encounters, like I had on that evening in Auckland, counterbalance the hard work and the difficulties in actually getting buildings constructed.

It makes it all worthwhile.