Rog on Beauty
NZIA IN:SITU Conference 2019
Every two years New Zealand architects have their conference. I really look forward to it, and after weeks of anticipation, the two days of it were over in a flash. I needee to comment on the last conference and I need to comment on the significance of this one. It was the largest ever, with […]
More Colour Please
I have written before about colour (or the lack of it) but recently there has been a public debate on the observation of the greying of our suburban roofs. Apparently this ‘Stuff’ editorial even reached Australia. A fellow in his 90s rang me last week to say the Wellington suburb he had lived in for […]
The Pertinence of Park Mews
I was sitting in my office one day minding my own business when the phone rang. The caller introduced himself as comedian Billy Connolly’s New Zealand agent. “Billy wants to meet you,” he said. Apparently on the way in from the airport, he’d passed Park Mews in Hataitai and stated: “The architect clearly possesses a […]
RIP David Mitchell
New Zealand architecture has lost a treasure this week with the death of David Mitchell. There will be much written about David by people much closer to him than I, but I would like to talk about his personal influence on me.
Downsizing
In the 1940’s my parents built a classic brick and tile on ¼ acre in Hamilton suburbia and lived there for the rest of their lives. It was a nuclear family home of its time. After us kids left home, three of the four bedrooms remained empty. The land remained, with its maintenance intensive lawn, […]
The Art of the Collective Noun
Miss M and I are avid television quiz watchers. We pitch ourselves against the television contestants, with quiet competition between the two of us. She shines on the arts and literature subjects. I have distinct superiority when it comes to cars, building, and science. We’re both not too bad on geography and rubbish on contemporary […]
The Leadfoot Festival
I recently attended New Zealand’s best kept car culture secret. Barely publicised, this amazing event is held over two days in early February, at Rod and Shelly Millen’s immaculate ‘ranch’ at Hahei in the glorious Coromandel, a piece of paradise which they purchased 9 years ago. It’s 150 acres of parkland and woods without […]
The world’s largest construction site
I have recently returned from the world’s largest construction site. Tower cranes and trucks everywhere. 30 years ago Dubai started as a poor fishing village at the mouth of natural waterway called Dubai Creek. Then ‘liquid gold’ was discovered.
AUCKLAND SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE CENTENNIAL WEEKEND
First up, allow me some nostalgia. Several years ago a group of us graduates from the Auckland School of Architecture elected to conduct a regular lunch event to celebrate the life of one of our Wellington colleagues, Brian Hope, who had died suddenly. This tradition has continued 2-3 times a year ever since, depending on […]
Tourism and architecture
People, because they are not plants rooted to the ground, move around. They choose places to go, save up, and then go there. After the visit they mostly come back home. Tourism is the largest industry in New Zealand and possibly the globe’s biggest financial activity. My interest, naturally, is buildings. I have visited two […]
