Wellington Architecture Week - pamphlet cover imageWellington Architecture Week kicks off next Monday, including everything from a visit to the exquisite and hidden Futuna Chapel to a sandcastle competition on Petone Beach.

My WellUrban post gives a bit of context, including links to relevant developments and controversies, and the full illustrated programme (in glorious black, white and blue) is available on the Architectural Centre website, but here’s a text listing of all events.


Monday

Crime and Design
12.15pm Museum of Wellington City and Sea
Avoid crime by better design. This panel discussion takes a close look at how architectural design and the use of space impacts on crime and crime prevention.
Panelists: Rob Stevens, Architect, Department of Corrections; Georgina Thompson, Wellington Rape Crisis; Jeremy Wood, Ministry of Justice

Pilkingtons Keynote lecture: Richard Francis-Jones (FJMT, Australia)
7pm, Rutherford House, VUW
Richard is a Partner of Francis-Jones MorehenThorp (fjmt) and has been the Design Director for many highly acclaimed competition winning and RAIA award winning projects. Awards include: the Lachlan Macquarie Award for Conservation, the MIPIM/AR ‘International Project Award’, the Sir Zelman Cowen Award, the Sulman Award, the Lloyd Rees Civic Design Award, the National Interior Architecture Award and the Canberra Medallion. Most recently fjmt was awarded the 2005 Sir John Sulman Medallion for architecture and the 2005 Greenway Award for Conservation for the Mint project on Macquarie Street, Sydney. This is the first time in the history of the awards that a single project has received both prestigious awards.

Tuesday

The Painted Ladies of old San Francisco
12.15pm, Museum of Wellington City and Sea
Karen Wardell, Colour Design & Colour Education, Nelson
Take a tour through time and some of the glorious wooden buildings from the Victorian era with four or more colours on their facades. Compare these famous houses with some of our own styles in Wellington.

Open Practices
Andrew Sexton Architecture, 4.30-7.30pm, Level 10 175 Victoria Street
Island Architects, 4.30-6.30pm, Unit 17, 13 Leeds Street, Hannah Warehouse Buildings – Entrance next to Pizza Pomodoro, Te Aro, Wellington, ph. 384 7170
Peddle Thorp & Montgomery, 4.30-6.30pm, Level 3, 23 Waring Taylor St, ph. 472-1666
Studio Pacific Architecture, 74 Cuba Street – Level 2: Studio Pacific will be showing a selection of recent and current projects from around New Zealand. The practice has been in its purpose-designed offices for just over a year, and this is the first time their new offices will be open to the public.

Wednesday

Health, housing, and avoiding squalid apartments
12.15pm, Museum of Wellington City and Sea
Can your home really make you ill? Find out how your home measures up and what you can do to make your house, apartment or castle a better place to live in at this panel discussion examining issues to do with health and housing.
Panelists: Phillipa Howden-Chapman, School of Medicine, University of Otago; Tracey Moore, Housing New Zealand; Christina Mackay, School of Design, Victoria University

6 o’clock views: Designing for an Older New Zealand: more than adding handrails to bathrooms!!
6pm, Law School, Old Government Buildings
We’re all getting older and wiser – but how will this impact on architecture and design? As our bodies age design can make a significant difference as to whether living is pleasureable or difficult. The increasingly aged population means that the design of our homes, our cities, and our mobility is a critical issue for all of society. What are the current and future issues relating to accommodation options for older people? What specific considerations are made when designing living spaces and the things that go in them?
Guest speakers: Judith Davey, Director, New Zealand Institute for Research on Ageing, VUW; Patricia Moore, President, MooreDesign Associates, internationally renowned gerontologist and designer; Gordon Holden, Head, School of Architecture, Victoria University

Thursday

Can architecture save the planet?: Architecture and Climate Change
12.15pm, Museum of Wellington City and Sea
We all know about climate change is an urgent issue – but what does it mean for architecture and the built environment. What can we as clients or designers do about it? This panel discussion looks at architecture and climate change, and how the way we building can affect wider issues on the planet.
Panelists: Peter Barrett, Antarctic Research Centre; Alex Couchman, Warren and Mahoney ESD Principal; Alexandra Hills, Research Fellow, Victoria University

The Pivotal Architectural Debate: “Urban designers should leave heritage alone”
7pm, Te Papa
Our cities are a site of conflict – built heritage versus future growth – and in the middle are urban designers, wrestling with an ever-growing city and their own desire to create “a sense of place.” Heritage buildings are often toppled or usurped for shallow aesthetic imagery, but perhaps this is all they are good for? … Supporters of historic places fervently disagree – heritage is more than just old good looks!! The question then is: Should urban designers be involved in decisions about the value of heritage? – or should they just leave heritage well alone?

Friday

60 years young!: the Wellington Architectural Centre on celluloid
12.15pm, NZ Film Archive
As anyone involved in architecture in Wellington knows – the Wellington Architectural Centre celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. To acknowledge this achievement, this film selection looks at Wellington architecture over the last sixty years, highlighting the audio-visual record of the Architectural Centre and its members from its early days of the Demonstration House, through the battles to save buildings such as Old St Pauls and the Wellington Club, and more recent times.

Book Council Keynote lecture: Douglas lloyd Jenkins, “Watch this Space”
6pm, National Library, $12.00
Douglas lloyd Jenkins is a well-known and out-spoken critic on New Zealand architecture and design. Formerly an Associate Professor at UNITEC, Auckland, he is now the Director of the Hawke’s Bay Museum & Art Gallery, Napier. Douglas has been a long-time columnist for the New Zealand Herald, and the Listener. He is a contributor to magazines such as Architecture New Zealand, Heritage, and New Zealand Home and Entertaining. He has recently published significant books “At Home: a Century of New Zealand Design” (2004) and “New Dreamland: Writing New Zealand Architecture” (2005), as well as presenting television programmes, such as “New Zealand At Home.” Book ahead at the Book Council website.

Saturday

Draw Wellington: Interactive public and architectural students event
11am to 2pm Cuba Mall, the City to Sea Bridge, Te Papa forecourt, Calzone footpath on Courtenay Place, and Midland Park.
This annual architectural design event is a spontaneous performance, interactive drawing event which sees first year architecture students from Victoria University WellingtonÂ’s School of Architecture engage with six inner-city sites. This event is jointly organised by Fiona Christeller Architects, Judi Keith-Brown Architect, and VUW School of Architecture 1st year students coordinated by Alexandra Hills

Open Projects
Rafe Maclean Architects: A recently completed house in Owhiro Bay will be open to view. Other works in progress will also be on show. 72a Owhiro Bay Parade, Owhiro Bay, 10am to 1pm. Contact: Rafe Maclean – Rafe Maclean Architects, Ph: 384 5889)
Truby King House: Truby King Park, 21b Manchester Terrace, open 1-5pm Tour of historic and famed Truby King House, Mount Melrose by architect Alex Greig.
The Dowse, 12 noon, Dowse, Lower Hutt: A rare opportunity to take a guided tour through the nearly completed Dowse redevelopment. This tour follows a presentation from Athfield Architects (page ref). Tour numbers are limited so please contact The Dowse to book. Contact: tara.sellers@huttcity.govt.nz, 45 Laings Road, Lower Hutt, Ph: 5601470

Athfield Architects: The New Dowse (lecture)
11am, the Dowse
The New Dowse began with an invited competition in 2000. The intervening 6 years has seen a rigorous interaction of design, construction, art, money, and manufacturing with the outcome being a building to publicly open in Feb 2007. Athfield Architects will discuss this process, the competition entry and the physical reality to be toured on site today.

Sand castle Competition
2pm, Petone Beach by the Petone Settlers’ Museum
Bring your lunch and sand-castle making tools (hands, buckets, spades etc), and accessories. Prizes galore, with special awards for: most creative, most sculptural, most structurally sound and, of course, best castle made only from things found on the beach. Judges from dubious and orthodox architectural professions. Don’t forget to check out the FREE exhibitions at the Petone Settlers Museum. Food stalls will be at the beach to supplement or replace b.y.o food supplies.

NAWIC Buildings Tour: Architecture by Women
2pm-5pm, venue advised on booking
NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction) will host a coach tour visiting a selection of Wellington buildings where women architects have played a key role in design or project management. The bus tour will commence from central Wellington locations. Limited numbers. To book and for more information contact: Megan Smailes: megan.smailes@orica.com

Holcim Keynote: Anthea Hartg
7pm, Old St Pauls
Anthea Hartig directs the National Trust for Historic PreservationÂ’s Western Office which now serves the six continental far western states along with Hawaii and Alaska. She served as a preservation planner for over a decade, most recently at the Senior Planner level for the City of Riverside, and directed a cultural resources consulting firm. She has served on many local and national history-related non-profit foundations including the California Preservation Foundation and the California Council for the Promotion of History, and has published in both academic and professional journals.

Sunday

Site Visit: Old High Court
10am-1pm, 36-42 Stout St
The Old High Court is to be renovated and a new building built on the adjacent site to accommodate the new Supreme Court of New Zealand. Agreement has been reached that it will be open to the public on Sunday 8 October from 10am until 1pm, entrance off Stout Street. Roy Wilson from Warren and Mahoney, the architects of the project, will give a presentation at 10.30am. A scale model of the project and drawings will also be on display. This will be the only chance to access the building before construction starts.

Site Visit: Futuna Chapel
3-5pm, 62 Friend St, Karori, Please park on the road.
Visit this icon of New Zealand bicultural architecture. Recognised as the most important building built in C20th New Zealand, Futuna’s siginificance has been acknowledged by the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Docomomo(NZ), the Wellington City Council, and the Wellington Architectural Centre. Sadly in recent years the Chapel of Futuna has not been treated as well as it should have been – it’s most recent function being a builder’s storage shed!! But hope is on the horizon, the building is to be purchased by the Futuna Trust which is currently fundraising money to buy and preserve Futuna Chapel for all New Zealand – come and see what the fuss is about.

Site Visit: Antrim House
10am-4pm, 63 Boulcott St
As a fantastic finale to Architecture Week, Antrim House will be open to the public for tours. Built in 1905 for successful businessman Robert Hannah, Antrim House has been home to many people as a family residence, private hotel, and hostel. Antrim House was built at the height of Robert Hannah’s commercial success as head of the RJ Hannah shoe empire. Leading architects of the time, Thomas Turnbull and Son, were commisioned to design Antrim House. It now serves as the national headquarters of the N.Z. Historic Places Trust.