The Ugly Truth
Two modern buildings in Melbourne, both of which I have visited and admired, have been named by recent surveys as among the world’s ugliest.
Great emotion can be generated by the appearance of buildings. Reference Prince Charles for instance. He turned up as a royal person at the Royal institute of Architects conference in London a few years ago. He opined that ‘when Hitler bombed London, he had the decency to leave just piles of rubble. You architects not only destroy buildings but replace them with monstrosities’. The extension to the National Gallery, at the edge of Trafalgar Square he described as ‘a carbuncle on an old friend.’
The subsequent debate was welcome though, as the real worry of us architects is that people just don’t notice buildings. The Prince of Wails, can’t have been too serious though, as his identified architectural vandals such as Normal Foster and Richard Rogers received knighthoods. (Foster is now Lord Norman and has a helicopter).
‘Beauty’ and ‘ugliness’ are of course personal perceptions. Thinking about this over a fine pinot at the Tasting Room, I have concluded that symmetry has a lot to do with it. Physical beauty is about symmetry. The face, for instance. That the eyes are the same size and are located equidistantly from either side of the nose is important. The mouth should not be lopsided and a limp should not be evident in the walk. There is a vertical axis about which the elements are ‘balanced’ Read More
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.
I’m not a fan of the term ‘petrolhead’. With the new fuels on the scene, The terms should include ‘dieselhead’, ‘electrichead’ or even a ‘hybridhead’.
I prefer to call myself a ‘car-culturist’. And it’s with this hat on that I was driven to visit the last ever round of the methanol-blend fuelled V8 Supercars, on the leafy streets of Hamilton.
It was brilliant and I loved it.
I stayed with my brother, and was also able to observe how Hamilton is successfully transforming itself from the country town of my youth (tractors were regularly seen in the main street) into a vibrant city. Read More
A tale of two cities
Last week, inspired by John Key’s ambitions, I caught up with Australia. Or to be more precise, Melbourne.
It’s been said that Auckland and Sydney are hedonist sisters, whilst Wellington and Melbourne are more the Brontes.
Physically, whilst one city may one day shake itself to bits, and the other may burn to the ground, what interests me the most is the urban possibilities that younger Wellington can learn from its older sister. (Even taking into account that Melbourne has more people than all of New Zealand.)
My generation of New Zealanders grew up in towns and were metaphorically tied to our native bush. We disliked the ‘concrete jungle’. Read More
A walk around the Red Zone
On March 9th I had to give evidence at a frustrating planning hearing in Christchurch.
Afterwards, and to escape the confines of windowless Hearing Room No 2, I went for a long walk around the red zone. Its still very secure courtesy of Health and Safety official-dom and the prospect of still-unemptied ATM’s.
Anyway, here are captioned images from my circumnavigation.
Conference inspires
Following the successful and enjoyable 2011 conference at Auckland’s Sky City, I was full of anticipation about this year’s conference.
But it got off to a good start simply by being held in Gordon Moller’s recently completed ripply-roofed , sparkly glass jewel box Viaduct Events Centre.
Moller has finally shed Wellington’s Queens Wharf Events centre shedness.
After the disasters in Christchurch, last year’s theme was about architects and earthquakes. This year it was ‘Our Place in the New World – South and East’
Outgoing NZIA president, Patrick Clifford, and the Conference committee excelled in establishing a great lineup of presenters from Chile, Mexico, Japan, China, India, South Africa, Malaysia and Australia. Local architects added condiments to the international feast. Read More
