Hooray!  At last there has been some recognition of Architects in the New Years Honours list.  Today, it was announced, that two men were to be recognised for their services to Architecture: John David Sutherland, of Auckland, and also of the S in Jasmax and a former adjunct Professor of Unitec - and also Friedrich Eisenhofer, of Waikanae, and a keen proponent of using the sun’s energy in his architecture. He’s the one with the house like a series of bubbles, set into the sand dunes in Waikanae.

Congratulations to both of these architects for their achievement. They have both been awarded with the ONZM, which means they are “Officers of the Order” - not the high rank of Knight Companion, so we don’t have to call them Sir, but a very honourable recognition nevertheless. We hope to see more Architect members in the future!

The Architectural Centre, having just put in a submission on the future of Wellington in the year 2040, where we had the pleasure of looking at the city as a whole, are of the opinion that in 30 years time the city will be very different from what we have now. Traffic needs of the city, currently throttling it to death in various places, need to be reassessed - and with a free mind.

Things like the Basin Reserve for instance, may not need to be continuously ringed with roads for traffic. Indeed, we are most concerned that the Basin Reserve is currently reserved mainly for use as a giant traffic roundabout - there are better uses for a Basin than that, and there are certainly better roundabouts. But what if the traffic was to go elsewere? While the traffic planners at Opus and the NZTA are crying “OverPass”, what if the traffic was to go in a tunnel?

Like just about any idea in the world, someone else has thought of it all before. Read the rest of this entry »

The NZIA Wellington branch outperformed themselves last night, at the Awards ceremony held at the City Gallery. A large swathe of awards were given out, the full list of which is available at the NZIA’s website complete with pictures, and also a list available on the DominionPost website. For your convenience, we’ve put a selection of the awards up here (and also so that our foreign roving correspondent m-d can see them at his leisure).

Big thanks to Resene of course, who always know how to throw a good party, to John Mills for his Chairmanship, to Brendon Pongia for his crisp Mastery of the Ceremonies, and of course also to the Judges / Jury who toured the country side looking at 2009’s architecture: Angela Foster, Michael Melville, Morten Gjerde, and Cathryn Munro. Other shout outs go to Mani Dunlop for her powerful lungs last night, and a welcome to Paul Kerr Hislop who confesses that he goes to visit the Eye of the Fish every day, but has never been to the Architectural Centre website! Shame on you - but welcome, if you ever get to read this. And congratulations on your award.

So: who got an award then?
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The results of the competition for the Outer Tee were announced today - this morning, over a very tasty breakfast, with most of the architectural and creative people in Wellington in attendance. The results are that 6 schemes were picked as first place, ie with ideas worth exploring and worth taking further. They are:

Wellington’s Urban Playground - by Michael Callahan
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Wellington’s Architectural Centre are initiating a combined New Zealand Building Industry response to last week’s devastating tsunami that affected Samoa and Tonga. We will be seeking NZ based, pan-building industry help at both personal and company levels. This is in line with the work done in assisting those affected by the Sri Lankan Tsunami a few years back.

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Disappointed! We carefully picked a selection of the most outrageous entries that we thought Auckland might go for: the official choice of 5 contestants is out, and whaddya know - they didn’t agree with any of our choice! No giant Kiwi eggs! No rugby balls! No tacky stuff at all! But at least they have made a decision…. almost. So, here are the final Auckland 5: Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an old adage that while Doctors can bury their mistakes, Architects have to live with them. By the same token, the only thing to do with some buildings to disguise their ugliness, is to plant ivy and hope it covers up the hideousness.

French architect botanist Patrick Blanc has spent Read the rest of this entry »