Airport terminal on the rocks?
Love it or loath it, ‘The Rock’ at Wellington Airport, welcomes visitors to a unique place, with a unique building. It doesn’t directly add any more visitors to the airport, but it does make their arrivals and departures more memorable and this is clearly its purpose.
30 years ago we did the same thing for Whakatane Airport. Our clients, the District Council, wanted a ‘gateway’ building that would welcome visitors to the Bay of Plenty.
They felt their district was off the tourist beaten trail and that overseas visitors landed in Auckland, went to Rotorua and then on to Wellington and the South Island. They were missing out, they thought, and their brief to us was to do something special as an introduction to the charms and wonders of their region.
The building met this brief and succeeded in meeting our client’s expectations. In the year that it was built it won a Tourism Award and 25 years later it won an NZIA Enduring Architecture Award.
Now its future is uncertain. There is a plan to expand the airport, and it could be demolished.
Urban Designspeak
Since its publication in 1971, Danish Urban Designer Jan Gehl’s “Life between Buildings” has become the bible of Urban Design. Like Gideon’s bibles finding their way into hotel rooms , Gehl’s book is at every town planning department in the western world.
It’s been reported that as a young architect working in the suburbs he and his wife, a psychologist, had many discussions about why the human side of architecture was not more carefully looked after by architects, landscape architects and planners.
This may sound laudable and the worldwide success of his practice, including 2009 pre-earthquake advice in Christchurch, is testament to the receptiveness of Councils to his message.
But I can’t help thinking of visits to great cities like Paris, London, Rome, Florence, Venice and New York. These are cities where the ’human side of architecture’ was indeed looked after by architects.
None of these cities seem to have had the benefit of Urban Design advice.
The profession of architecture is becoming marginalised, by the new kids on the block, the Urban Designers. They are more and more calling the shots about how our cities should look.
A Bog Blog
Toilets are by necessity private and hygienic places.
But ever since their probably Egyptian inception, there has sometimes been a design element, to this unglorified but essential element of our built environment.
They generally don’t rise above the purely functional at most Service Stations, schools, theatres, offices or even at medical centres.
Happily though some owners are splashing out into a realm beyond the utilitarian
In terms of loos as architectural theatre then, we have for instance, Hundertwasser’s marvellous exhuberance in the main street of Kawakawa.
As a tourist attraction it’s a lot more practical than a giant carrot, gumboot, or L&P bottle and is possibly the world’s most photographed dunny.
Design by Delight
Who knew that there was a Daffodil Capital of New Zealand, let alone that it is Carterton?
Fresh from visiting UK friends staying among the grapes in Martinborough, Miss M and I stumbled across the annual Daffodil Festival. How joyful it was. Here was small town New Zealand still full of optimism.
The best book shop in the region, Almo’s Books, was busy as. As well as having a great range of children’s books (my grandaughter Isla is about to celebrate her first year on earth) I found Michael Smythe’s new book New Zealand By Design.
Buy it at once.
Michael ends his wonderful book by saying that New Zealand design’s point of difference from Italy, Scandinavia, Germany and the USA, is ‘Design by Delight’. Read More
Verandah speak
Springtime came to Wellington in all its glory last weekend and after a quick trip to the City Market, Miss M and I celebrated with a picnic at Battle Hill, near Pauatahanui.
I thought this may be is where architects meet with the Porirua District Council, but no way: it was far too idyllic. New little lambs were gambolling around eagerly enjoying their first (and probably only) year of life and the rural buildings at Battle Hill are all painted barn red and reekingly heritage.
We moved on to try the Lighthouse Pauatahanui (we are big fans of Lighthouse Petone but this was our first trip to its sister cinema). The experience couldn’t have been more extreme than the bucolic loveliness of Battle Creek. We had front row seats at TT3D: Closer to the Edge, a documentary about the annual TT motorcycle race held on the Isle of Man.
Aside from being a tax haven, (or perhaps because of it) the Isle of Man is also picturesque and seriously bucolic for most of the year, except for the week when this this annual event destroys the peace.
