Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.
I’m not a fan of the term ‘petrolhead’. With the new fuels on the scene, The terms should include ‘dieselhead’, ‘electrichead’ or even a ‘hybridhead’.
I prefer to call myself a ‘car-culturist’. And it’s with this hat on that I was driven to visit the last ever round of the methanol-blend fuelled V8 Supercars, on the leafy streets of Hamilton.
It was brilliant and I loved it.
I stayed with my brother, and was also able to observe how Hamilton is successfully transforming itself from the country town of my youth (tractors were regularly seen in the main street) into a vibrant city. Read More
A tale of two cities
Last week, inspired by John Key’s ambitions, I caught up with Australia. Or to be more precise, Melbourne.
It’s been said that Auckland and Sydney are hedonist sisters, whilst Wellington and Melbourne are more the Brontes.
Physically, whilst one city may one day shake itself to bits, and the other may burn to the ground, what interests me the most is the urban possibilities that younger Wellington can learn from its older sister. (Even taking into account that Melbourne has more people than all of New Zealand.)
My generation of New Zealanders grew up in towns and were metaphorically tied to our native bush. We disliked the ‘concrete jungle’. Read More
A walk around the Red Zone
On March 9th I had to give evidence at a frustrating planning hearing in Christchurch.
Afterwards, and to escape the confines of windowless Hearing Room No 2, I went for a long walk around the red zone. Its still very secure courtesy of Health and Safety official-dom and the prospect of still-unemptied ATM’s.
Anyway, here are captioned images from my circumnavigation.
Conference inspires
Following the successful and enjoyable 2011 conference at Auckland’s Sky City, I was full of anticipation about this year’s conference.
But it got off to a good start simply by being held in Gordon Moller’s recently completed ripply-roofed , sparkly glass jewel box Viaduct Events Centre.
Moller has finally shed Wellington’s Queens Wharf Events centre shedness.
After the disasters in Christchurch, last year’s theme was about architects and earthquakes. This year it was ‘Our Place in the New World – South and East’
Outgoing NZIA president, Patrick Clifford, and the Conference committee excelled in establishing a great lineup of presenters from Chile, Mexico, Japan, China, India, South Africa, Malaysia and Australia. Local architects added condiments to the international feast. Read More
Walden’s Triumph
During the hustle and bustle of the pre-Christmas social season, one of the stand-out social occasions for me was to celebrate the work of one of our country’s outstanding educators. Dr Russell Walden, a long-time staffer at Victoria University’s School of Architecture, has clearly been making the most of retirement.
In December he launched his most important (but hopefully not his last) book. ‘Triumphs of Change: Architecture Reconsidered’ is published by Peter Lang AG in Switzerland and is almost a life’s work for Russell. It has Charles Jencksian’ opus, but without that polemicist’s pretentiousness. A triumph in itself.
I want to include him in my blog about ‘beauty’ because he truly believes that the real task of our profession is to promote beauty and repudiate ugliness.Two days after the camaraderie and vinos at the School of Architecture, Russell circulated a moving email to his many friends:
I quote a portion: I spent so much of my life wanting to lecture with direction, passion and joy. I hope NZers will begin to understand why my public commentary in NZ was so critical. I can’t stand ugliness in Architecture.
Te Papa is a camel (a horse designed by a committee) to Russell. He had the courage to say so, and on public television.
Even though Russell doesn’t see Calatrava’s work as reminiscent of the bleached rib cages of dead animals, and that he speaks of Athfield and myself in the past tense (we apparently died around the mid-nineties) I do celebrate his great passion for architecture. He is a great lighthouse for generations of architecture students who would otherwise drift on to the reefs of apathy.
Though his light may be dimming, his passion and enthusiasm are not. In my view, he deserves wide recognition as one of the few enduring architectural educators in our young architecturally emerging country.
