Inhabitable art

Welling­ton 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 AwardÂ’, 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.