Quite alot happens at the edges of our roads. Read the rest of this entry »

While up-cycling is the fad amongst crafty (industrial) designers, I have been wondering what up-cycling for architecture might be. Sure we have had adaptive reuse, from Scarpa’s Castelvecchio to Herzog & de Meuron’s Tate Modern, but you know, they just not as ’sustainable’ sounding as ‘up-cycling’. Really adaptive reuse is just a bit too much culture/heritage - it sounds like making concessions, perhaps even negotiating intellectual property rights! Where as up-cycling has the nice ‘chi-ching’ sound of making (and selling) stuff for free from ‘rubbish’. Read the rest of this entry »

In all of the current hoohaa surrounding Prince Charles’s latest intervention in the UK architectural scene, we can at least acknowledge his contribution to the field with his (in)famous descriptor “monstrous carbuncle”, with which he originally described the proposed Sainsbury Wing extension to London’s National Gallery (Prince Charles’s opposition led to the dropping of the original modernist proposal in favour, and subsequent realisation of the very postmodernist Venturi/Scott-Brown building). Read the rest of this entry »

Following the councils decision to ignore everyones advice except from those that agreed with them they have lost no time in commencing the change process in Manners Mall. New pedestrian calming measures have been introduced into the centre of the mall which also perform more than adequately as holding pens for paving contractors looking to gather up pavers from beneath the pedestrians feet and redistribute them to a place more deserving.

These new street installations also serve to squeeze the pedestrian flow into a space into which it seems less than comfortable, no longer able to promenade we are forced to engage with the edge of the arcade and to confront just how drab and uninspiring it really is. This was not part of the protests and resistance but maybe just maybe it should have been. Now the choice has to be regarding navigation of this edge where you have the opportunity to dally with the red eyed pale faced smokers outside the electronic video wonderland, marvel at the interpretation of middle eastern decoration at the kebab house or visually embrace with the diners at the McD’s amongst other delights. I just cant wait for the diesel smoke disgorging monsters to be added into the mix. The paradise that the council envisioned will surely then be complete.

Just to show that we are not completely parochial here at the Arch Centre, from time to time it is necessary to cast our eyes south of the Strait and north of the Tararua Ranges and acknolwedge that building activity does take place in various regional centres… such as, say, Auckland - the City of Sales (no typo there, just the impression I get every time I visit downtown Queen Street)…

No - not a post addressing the super-amalgamated-councils and the super’men’ behind it all - just a little something that caught my eye recently - some artist’s impressions of a new ASB headquarters for the ex-Tank Farm (now more elegantly(?) renamed Wynyard Quarter).

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Life in the outer suburbs has never been so tight. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a while since property developers and their supporters last came out publicly against contemporary urban planning practices, but yes, it is time to roll your eyes and mutter: “here we go again”. Rodney Dickens, posting on the popular interest.co.nz blog, takes aim at “government-imposed town planning regulations, often dubbed the ‘smart growth’ approach”. While there is nothing new here, including the supporting cast of Pavletich, McShane, et al, who are the key drivers of this line of reasoning, with a National-led government in power, we do actually have something more to fear.

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