Yes they’ve done it again …

The Women’s Weekly have another Word Search with an Architectural Theme.

The words to find are: Balcony, Column, Corridor, Cupola, Design, Excavation, Facade, Flooring, Foundations, Fresco, Geodesic dome, Glazed, Mantelpiece, Mezzanine floor, Panel, Partition, Passage, Pillars, Roof, Shutter, Spiral staircase, Stud, Tiles, Transom, Truss, Vestibule.  Bonus points for: Butanol, E2 and Code compliant.

You are warmly invited to the opening of the next exhibition at Toi Poneke Gallery

Built Fabric

Mizuho Nishioka & Tane Moleta

Thursday 4 March, 5.30pm

Built Fabric is an exhibition of two different mediums - photography and architectural drawing. Both artists explore the idea that the constructed, or built, environments exist as representations of our value systems. Does the act of demolition and disposal ultimately indicate that our appreciation of the use of space constantly changes?

Built Fabric runs until 26 March 2010  

Open: Mon-Fri 9am - 7.30pm

Toi Poneke Gallery 

61 Abel Smith St 

Te Aro

Wellington 

Ph: 385 1929       

E: artscentre@wcc.govt.nz

In recent weeks (something about tragic airline promotions), the notion of the cougar has been roaming the airwaves (probably more than our streets).  Rather than Baudelaire’s notion of a flaneur (the more placid experience of the city through walking), a more aggressive and sexually-charged urban exploration is gaining currency in our city’s lexicon. More »

On Sunday 7th March we’re having a Site Visit to visit a couple of special Bill Toomath houses, for the first 30 people to rsvp to arch@architecture.org.nz - we’ll be taking off from the City Gallery at 2.00pm and returning you about 4.00pm. There’s a small $5 cover charge, and afternoon tea will be provided.

This is part of the events to tie in with the Bill Toomath exhibition at the City Gallery in Wellington (well worth a visit - fantastic little exhibition in the newly revamped Michael Hirschfeld gallery). You can read more about it here, or here, and even here. We’ll see you there.
toomathtwohouses

If you’ve come here today from reading the Capital Times - then welcome! We’ve been around since 1946, and provide a voice on architecture, design, and urban issues in Wellington. The current issue of the Capital Times has picked up on our submission for Wellington 2040 - a Council run call for submissions on what the city might look like in another 30 years time.

While no one knows for sure, in about 30 years, there are bound to be a few changes. We’ve put together a scenario of what the city might be like then - and included some nice big images for the Council, hoping that they will be as excited by the future possibilities as we are. More »

I remember many years ago there was a death in Cable Bay in Northland.  The area was deemed a wahi tapu.  There was to be no access to the restricted area, and the death was communally acknowledged through this marking of space.  I think this was the first time I had heard of this practice of temporarily and formally making a space restricted after death.  It seemed to make alot of sense. More »

It’s the start of a new decade (well, a month in already) and I got to thinking - what are the architectural achievements we’ve seen over the last ten years? Were they good for you? Or did they pass by in a miasma of non-events? Te Papa - always a contentious subject - is outside the 10 year cut-off (but even then, would it be nominated as one of the best architectural achievements in NZ?). We’ve had a decade of boom time, in which surely some architectural gems have been created. The NZIA has given literally hundreds of awards all over the country in the last decade - are any of them valid? Has there really been any architectural quality achieved? We’d like you to nominate your favourites inside NZ, from the last ten years. The more the better - and a few descriptive words why you like it would be good too. More »