Category: News

  • Love Lego?

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    From discussions with others, it seems that most architects have grown up with Lego. Years ago all you would get is a box of Lego bits, whereas nowadays a pre-determined object is decreed. But wouldn’t it be nice to go further than just a scale model of your architectural dream?

  • New Zealand House

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    Not just any old New Zealand house, this is about THE New Zealand House. Hitting the news this week, and probably the gutter / talk back radio as well: Taxpayers face a $150 million bill to renovate New Zealand House in London – $23m more than the building’s book value. The newspaper seems

  • Ever Near a Fairy-Land

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    The Architecture Centre pays hommage to the passing of the King (of Pop) pity he wasn’t also a king of architecture. As the Architect’s Journal yesterday said: the ranch was a disneyfied mashup of Queen Anne Style and New England vernacular. Not that I’ve got anything against mash-ups, Charles Jencks & Terry Farrell made them…

  • Pared to the core – Local Body Councils on a Hiding to nothing

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    First they let him loose on the dance floor, then Super-Auckland, and now the rest of us – does this man know no humility…? Rodney Hide is set to Tango all over Local Body law in order to reduce them to core services – such as public health and safety, and rubbish collection. Here is…

  • Heading out east?

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    In conjunction with plans for the indoor sports stadium on Cobham Drive (not that this is mentioned in any of the council documents) Kilbirnie town is to become a bit more of a town.

  • Architecture & Contingency

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    Straw House by Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till. Jeremy Till claims in his new book that architecture exists in a bubble and ignores the way people really live. Follow the link to listen to a BBC interview where Till discusses with Laurie Taylor how architecture engages – or fails to engage – with the society for which it…

  • Maori Architecture

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    Those of you with sharp eyes, or even sharp ears, will have seen, or heard, of Deidre Brown’s new book Maori Architecture.

  • Now that’s deconstructivism…

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    …or has Prince Charles (also, see our other story here), finally developed psychokinetic powers of destruction for contemporary architecture…?   Mwahahaha… Click here for the ‘real’ story…

  • Wood House for Sale

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    We don’t often run ads for houses on the Arch Centre website, but here’s one that you may be interested in. Indeed, you may have even been to a Thanksgiving dinner there once or twice. The architect who designed it, Ted Wood, created a pole house of interesting forms perched up amongst the fantails. The…

  • WCC – ‘design’ competition

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    Posted by the Council last week, this competition is open until the July 3 (details click here): “Entrants are required to design an upgrade to a typical Council housing complex consisting of four bed-sit units, with a focus on making them more practical to live in for everyone, regardless of mobility or age [ie. people…