At last - Basin Reserve, the Movie:

You can play this here on YouTube:

It has taken us a while, and we still haven’t got a sound track, but at long last we have uploaded our movie on a possible solution to the impasse on the Basin Reserve. Please feel free to forward this link to anyone you might think would be interested. And, we look forward to your feedback.

Returning in early 2009 after an absence of a couple of years, the 20 under 40 competition was once more staged by Arch Centre, this time with a concentration on the more relaxed side of Architecture - namely, a Play on Time. The brief was a short and gruesome one, set in the near distant future: the year is 2040 and New Zealand is once more in the grips of a depressing recession. Or perhaps that should be a receding depression. In any case, the good people of our fine country have lost the ability to laugh, to live, to love, to cry. The Ministry for Architecture is having dialogue with the Ministry of Play, and the Minister is about to unveil his plans for the new Play facility, when he is tragically run over on the new inner-city Monorail. The brief is for the entrants to piece together the remnants of the bloodied brief and put together their own vision of what a facility for Play might be. Read the rest of this entry »

The winner of the First Prize is this very tasty looking orange blob!

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More details later on the others - in the mean time, to keep you happy, here are some pictures of the entries and the entrants in the competition…

… … … Read the rest of this entry »

Put simply:

1.The Minister of Architecture was putting together a proposal.
2.It was to be for the Stadium Concourse.
3.It was to lighten the collective depression of the 2030’s by focusing on the potential of PLAY.
4.It was for 1000 people.
5.Now he is horribly, spectacularly dead.
6.His notes are a mess.
7.We need your help to re-order, re-think and complete this grand vision.

8.You’ve got 200g of coffee, some m&m’s and 24 hours.

.  how tragic it was that he was killed just as he was about to release the plans for the new facility for play. here is the crumpled blood-splattered remains of the brief that we believe Read the rest of this entry »

24-Hour Design Competition

Click here or use page link at the top’o'the page

Riding my bike into work this morning, the regular squeeze between car and kerb was suggesting immaterialisation would be my only option. Bloody SUVs. Why do they make cars so wide these days? Easy you say - because we are wider. Read the rest of this entry »

DATE: 15-16th September 2006
SITE: Oaks complex, from the City by Dixon, Cuba and Ghuznee streets
ORGANISERS: Don Roy, Alain Bruner, Emily Reich, Greta Stoutjesdijk, Eloise Veber, James Shaw, Steve Marshall
JUDGES: Gordon Holden, Morten Gjerde, Sally Woods, Louise Ryan

BRIEF:
Irrevocable Irrelevance Is It Too Late?
Unfettered development is rampant!
Our cities are being suffocated by faceless buildings devoid of architecture; malignant clones dotting our urban landscapes that desensitise their inhabitants and contribute nothing to the urban environment.
Has humanity lost its imagination?
Have we become oppressed by these emotionless structures?
The Architecture Centre says ‘yes’ and now is the time to act.
Spear headed by the recently rejuvenated, and already legendary, manifesto the Centre is set to fight for what it believes. As more people are waking up to these issues the newly resurrected Architecture Centre is attracting droves of informed and concerned public and, with the organisation bursting at it’s 20mmm cavities, it is ready to establish a new HQ.
To aid The Centre, Local and National Authorities have (happily) donated some (lost) space. The site for this new Headquarters is the Oaks complex, from the City by Dixon, Cuba and Ghuznee streets. Always intended to be a temporary structure, the now aged Oaks has become irrelevant and decrepit.
As the loudest critic of the state of the city (we heard your derision), the Architecture Centre and its people have requested that you step up and stand by your(?) beliefs. The new HQ is your opportunity to embody the soul and vision of this dedicated volunteer organisation.
As Wellington’s last remaining designers… do us proud.