The Architectural Centre Inc

Category: RANTING

  • 1946 was an eventful year

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    Of course everyone knows that the Arch Centre was born – no doubt on a dark and windy Wellington evening – on Tuesday the 23rd of July 1946 in the Baronia Lounge.

  • Naked streets: the Dutch are doing it – why don’t we?

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    “Naked streets” or “Naked roads” – some even call them (more tamely) “Shared Spaces” – have apparently been around since the 1980s.   Credited to Hans Monderman, the Naked street idea is based on a psychological approach which supports designing roads to reflect the different cognitive skills needed in different transport situations.  Shared suburban spaces…

  • Hot Rod Heritage: Are we too precious about architecture?

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    Such a question will no doubt be met with cries of “What is this woman on about?” And justifiably so. New Zealand’s current stock of architectural heritage is thinly spread, under-researched, under-resourced, largely uncared for and still struggling under the weight of a nineteenth-century bias. It survives, it could be argued, from recession to recession;…

  • Starter Homes

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    The results have come back, but I haven’t seen much comment yet – so why don’t we start it off? The Department of Building and Housing, when under Shane Jones as a Minister, kicked off a competition to design a small scale affordable home. The competition requirements were quite stringent – not much room for…

  • Easter Architecture

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    While Easter has huge significance for those of Christian faith with the story of death and rising again, for the rest of largely heathen New Zealand Easter mainly seems to mean gorging on chocolate and doing a spot of shopping. Do chocolate and architecture mix? Well, almost. Here is the world’s largest easter egg (in…

  • “Something Awful being built” – or not as the case may be.

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    Astute venue of architectural criticism, the Capital Times (8-14th April 2009) came up trumps recently via comic strip “Jitterati”‘s social commentary. With one foul swoop (or more accurately four comic strip frames) local building, the recession, class politics, and architectural disillusionments ensued. One cultural giant was pitted against the merits of another, as the comic…

  • Every Recession needs its Architectural Show Ponies

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    It’s a big scarey world at the moment: Side-lining RMA trauma, capitalism getting egg on its face, the planet going down the climatic toilet, and Memorial Park on hold. Let’s not even mention the National Library. It’s in times like these that irresponsible flippancy becomes one of the few critical tools left unshakable.

  • Architectural reasons for dumping the Monarchy…?

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    Unfortunately the Guardian article that brings this rather strange contemporary building to our attention is dated 31st of March – so I have to assume that it isn’t some April Fool’s Day prank. This is, according to the article, the Prince of Wales’ first attempt at architectural design – a fire station in that weird…

  • Which apocalypse is nigh?

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    I recently came across Gregory Greene’s (dir.) The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream, 2004…

  • Keith Ng – Being a dick about Earth Hour

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    This is hilarious – Keith Ng of the Public Address, in simple calculations, takes apart the whole Earth Hour project:    How much can you save during Earth Hour? If you completely stop using electricity in your house, by my rough but generous estimate, you’d saved about 2,800Wh and reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by…