A Concrete Legacy

Many of you will know that most of the Karori Teach­ers’ Col­lege cam­pus, designed by the late Bill Toomath, is threat­ened with demo­li­tion by its new own­ers, Ryman Health­care. I don’t know enough about the pre­vi­ous VUW/WCC own­er­ship shenani­gans to com­ment on that side, and the prac­ti­cal­i­ty of main­tain­ing its role as a com­mu­ni­ty asset are […]

Shape of the Suburbs

Last week­end a friend asked on Twit­ter whether any­one had made a New Zealand equiv­a­lent of this poster of Lon­don bor­oughs, which took the out­lines of the bor­oughs out of con­text by arrang­ing them alpha­bet­i­cal­ly while keep­ing them to the same scale. This revealed both the weird­ness of some of the shapes, and the strik­ing […]

Acting Local

Not that long ago, we thought we’d have to keep a care­ful eye out for the slow, creep­ing rise of fas­cism in Amer­i­ca; now it’s com­ing on as a rapid, ter­ri­fy­ing avalanche. The mas­sive, spon­ta­neous air­port protests against Trump’s lat­est vile Exec­u­tive Order give some hope for the rise of resis­tance in the US itself, but some­times […]

Where the Wild Wind Blows

We’re expect­ing some severe winds overnight and in the morn­ing, and sen­si­ble peo­ple are bat­ten­ing down their metaphor­i­cal (and occa­sion­al­ly lit­er­al) hatch­es. I saw a com­ment on a friend’s Face­book page from some­one over­seas say­ing “but sure­ly Welling­ton hous­es are built for the wind?”, and the answer is yes, but gusts of 160km/h are extreme enough […]

What Summer?

You’ve heard the com­plaints. You may even have uttered them your­self. “What hap­pened to sum­mer?” “Call this a sum­mer!?” “Bloody Welling­ton sum­mer.” And the half of offi­cial sum­mer that Welling­ton’s had so far is def­i­nite­ly sig­nif­i­cant­ly less warm than usu­al. But is it real­ly that unusu­al, and are we per­haps expect­ing too much from a Welling­ton […]

After the quake

These are try­ing and chaot­ic times, but I hope every­one’s hang­ing in there. Social media means that there’s more infor­ma­tion avail­able than ever before, but also that there’s a lot of mis­in­for­ma­tion and con­fu­sion, so we thought we’d put up a quick post to help you find the most offi­cial sources. Civ­il Defence’s WREMO page and their […]

Winning corner

The New Zealand Archi­tec­ture Awards were announced today, and while there are few Welling­ton projects on the list, one promi­nent devel­op­ment stands out. Zavos Cor­ner by Par­son­son Archi­tects Ltd, a low-rise apart­ment com­plex on the cor­ner of Pirie and Brougham streets in Mt Vic­to­ria, won the Sir Ian Ath­field Award for Hous­ing. The judges praised it […]

So much on our plates!

There’s only three days left of Welling­ton on a Plate, but there’s still a vast array of fes­ti­val dish­es and burg­ers to choose from, so if you can face the com­bined WOAP and rug­by crowds this week­end, here are some of our high­lights. Five & Dime hide a sur­pris­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed kitchen behind their tiny bar, and their Dine […]

The hidden gems surrounding Wellington

This arti­cle is spon­sored by Ezi Car Rental, your best option for car rental Welling­ton One of Welling­ton’s charms is its com­pact­ness, with so many attrac­tions with­in walk­ing dis­tance. But there are many intrigu­ing and attrac­tive less­er-known places on the out­skirts of the city and its sub­urbs, so if you have access to a car they’re worth a […]

Mushroom, mushroom

Last week Zealan­dia pub­lished a glo­ri­ous lit­tle pho­­to-essay An Enchant­ment of Fun­gi, alert­ing us to the fact that after a long dry sum­mer, the recent rains have brought forth a rich crop of fun­gal fruit­ing bod­ies. I went for a walk there last Fri­day and found plen­ty of vari­ety amid the damp for­est, espe­cial­ly on the Val­ley View and […]