Architectural History Aotearoa

"more cars and fewer hen houses": New Zealand interior and landscape architectures of the 1960s

Christine McCarthy — 2022-12-13

In New Zealand most extant dolls' houses from the second half of the twentieth century are home-made. The venture by the Auckland firm Jomax into mass-producing a single-storey dolls' house in the mid-sixties was unusual. This venture may have been spurred on by the traditional two-storey dolls' houses being produced by the New Zealand Tri-ang factory, also in Auckland.
The Jomax "Little Princess" dolls' house does not, like the New Zealand Tri-ang houses, reflect a UK heritage, but is clearly a New Zealand house similar in form to many being built and published in the 1960s. Jomax also made sets of modern-style furniture suitable for fitting out its four rooms and a hallway. The paper examines the interiors of this New Zealand-designed house and compares them with those of UK (Tri-ang) and East German (Gottschalk) toy houses of the same vintage. The comparison explores the interiors, with their obvious differences and some similarities, and asks whether they reflect the full-scale versions of the time, or whether they were to some extent aspirational.

Interiors of the 1960s in miniature

Brenda Vale — 2022-12-13

Study of the Photographer as a Study: Looking Inside Duncan Winder's Home (sometime between c1962 and 1965)

Peter Wood — 2022-12-13

In recent years there has been a small increase in research addressing the architectural photography of Duncan Winder. While this scholarship adds to critical appreciation of his skill and productivity as a recorder of New Zealand buildings, of his personal life we remain largely ignorant. To know an artist's life well does not guarantee a transparent view into their creative mind, but in the case of Winder we are so bereft of insight into his private life that the only way we have to explore him biographically is through his photographs. Overwhelmingly, Winder's archived oeuvre demonstrates a photographer determined to keep his own image firmly behind the lens. Foreground shadows and, on occasion, a blurred reflection, signal rare glimpses of the photographer at work. But otherwise, his common technique of bringing a hidden character to the camera suggests a determined effort by Winder to not only remain outside the view of the lens, but apart from the entirety of the scene being recorded. Against this pattern, this paper identifies seven images drawn from the Winder archive that present as being of a common domestic interior dated to the 1960s. Contrary to the proliferation of architect-designed rooms that dominate Winder's archive, these photographs show a modest home whose domestic character might be best categorised as "bach-like." Added to this, the composition of each photograph is unusually casual for Winder's work, and they read more as impulsive snap-shots than considered views. When content details are correlated against archival information it can be faithfully concluded that this interior is the home of Duncan Winder. The remainder of the paper interprets one of these images – "House interior, study" - as a knowing self-portrait by the photographer, and the visual scene is interrogated for evidence of Winder's inner world.

Culture Shock: the legacy of the 1960s power generation schemes in Aotearoa New Zealand

Moira Smith — 2022-12-13

In 1960s Aotearoa New Zealand the response to a post war energy shortage was to look to the country's rivers, lakes, and geothermal areas as a source of electric power. The Ministry of Works began a programme of dam building which peaked in the 1960s and made irreversible changes our lakes, rivers, and landscapes. Although New Zealand now produces about 80% of its electricity through renewable energy, the 1960s also saw a rise in environmental activism and a revaluing of the natural "wilderness." Professor John Salmon's influential book, Heritage Destroyed: The Crisis in Scenery Preservation in New Zealand (1960), drew public attention to the environmental degradation caused by large-scale engineering projects, and the decade ended with the "Save Manapōuri" campaign which, in the early 1970s, prevented the raising of lakes Manapōuri and Te Anau to guarantee power to the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. This paper considers the legacy of the 1960s power generation schemes, including changes to the physical landscape; new legislation for the preservation of the built and natural environments; and alternative ways to consider the cultural and natural landscapes that prioritise Te Mana o te Wai.

Inside Paremoremo

Christine McCarthy — 2022-12-13

The idea of imprisonment, which substantially dates from the mid-eighteenth-century, is both integral to many societies today and fervently challenged, as criminological research has unquestionably demonstrated that prisons do not effectively achieve aims of protecting society, nor reform or rehabilitation. Over the last 50 years, the history of our prison architecture is bracketed by the building of Paremoremo (in the aftermath of the 1965 Mt Eden prison riot) and the more recent adoption of the American-derived New Generation prisons (e.g. Auckland Central Remand (2000), Mt Eden Corrections Facility (2011), and Kohuora (Auckland South Corrections Facility), Wiri (2015)). Paremoremo (1963-1969; archt: J.R.B. Blake-Kelly), was, at the time, "arguably the most modern and technologically sophisticated gaol in the world." It was influenced by the designs of: Blundeston prison, Suffolk, England (1961-63); Kumla prison, Sweden (1965); and Marion prison, Illinois (1963). The New Generation prisons interiorised the thinking behind 1960s campus-style prisons that displaced the cell to primarily nocturnal habitation. This paper will consider the historical consequences of 1960s prison design and Paremoremo on New Zealand prison architecture.

Part of the Landscape

Lucy Treep — 2022-12-13

In 1969, Lincoln College (later University) opened a two-year postgraduate course in Landscape Architecture, the first of its kind in New Zealand. It was described as "for those who seek employment as professional landscape designers in private consulting practice or as members of planning teams in departments concerned with major engineering projects, highways, forestry, conservation and large-scale agricultural development." The college was seen to actively encourage women into the profession and from the first days of the course at Lincoln, women were part of the landscape. On March 3, 1969, Emily Mulligan was one of five founder students attending the first lecture of this new course. After Mulligan graduated in 1971, she was joined, in 1974, by Di Lucas, Diane Menzies and Esmae Sage, and not long after then, women started to regularly fill about half of each Landscape Architecture class.
In comparison, the first woman student at the Auckland College School of Architecture, Laura Cassels-Browne, enrolled in 1926, nine years after the establishment of the school. The first woman graduate of the School of Architecture was Merle Greenwood in 1933, 16 years after the school's establishment. Even in the 1960s and 70s women architecture students (who still made up small numbers) reported feeling uncertain of their welcome into the profession. Drawing on conversation with Emily Mulligan (now Williams), this paper will explore the nature of the landscape course at Lincoln, in what ways women students were encouraged in its early days, and the relationship of the course with the wider profession.

NZSS 1900 Model Building By-law: a planned evolution

Nigel Isaacs — 2022-12-13

Twenty-five years after its publication, NZSS 95:1935 "Model Building By-law" was starting to show its age. The 1961 City Engineers conference requested it be reorganised to put general requirements first and design requirements later. The NZ Standards Institute's (NZSI) Bylaw Sectional Committee thought this a good idea, although to avoid confusion changed the designation of the new series to NZSS 1900. From late 1963 to mid-1964, NZSS 95 was reissued as NZSS 1900. The 14 parts of NZSS 95 became 11 chapters of NZSS 1900, initially by reprinting with new covers. Over the next 20 years the chapters were modified, revised, split, or amalgamated.
On 1 April 1966 NZSI became the Standards Association of New Zealand (SANZ), and 'New Zealand Standard Specifications" (NZSS) became "New Zealand Standards" (NZS). By late 1966 the revision and publication of NZS 1900 was nearly complete. For the future a five yearly review cycle was planned. However, storm clouds were ahead. NZS 1900 had a mixture of: legal requirements; design and construction requirements; quantitative requirements; and codes of practice. The resultant documents were considered to be hard to: use; inspect on site; and revise. In late 1969 the Standards Council was looking forward to a revision separating requirements (fixed, unchanging and rarely alternative) from solutions (changing as technology develops, often with alternatives). The "means of compliance" could be provided for the majority of users, while other solutions were available as desired or required. This set the scene for the Building Act 1991 and New Zealand Building Code.
The paper reviews the development of NZS 1900, exploring the similarities and differences to NZSS 95. As an example of the process, the evolution of the requirement for windows for ventilation will be examined.

The introduction of garden centres to the Hutt Valley

Kate Jordan — 2022-12-13

New Zealand gardening histories are frustratingly brief when discussing the shift in garden retailing in the post-war period. Often, only a mere sentence or paragraph considers the introduction of garden centres. Architectural historian Paul Walker provides an excellent example, writing "Drive-in suburban garden centres spread everywhere and displaced older modes of garden retailing – the central-city garden shops, local nurseries, and probably a good many of the bread-and-butter mail-order businesses have gone." He then moves on to another topic.
This paper looks at this shift in garden retailing through three of the earliest garden centres in the Hutt Valley: Zenith, Twiglands and Kents. Each business represents different developments in garden retailing: a nursery that converted into a garden centre, a purpose-built garden centre, and a garden centre with a café. These developments changed how people shopped for plants and garden supplies and evoked various responses from their neighbourhoods. Interestingly the question asked time and again was - do garden centres contribute to the public good? In addition to regular historic sources such as newspapers and advertisements, this talk uses unusual sources such as files from local councils, the Town and Country Planning Appeal Board, and the Shops and Office Tribunal.

Simplicity of Form: a tale of two cathedrals and interiors lost?: Hamilton Founders Memorial Theatre (1962) and St Joseph's Catholic Church Morrinsville (1964)

Laura Kellaway — 2022-12-13

St Joseph's Catholic Church, Morrinsville, was designed in 1958-62 by Doug Angus of Angus, Flood & Griffiths of Hamilton. Built in 1964-65, the design was radical, had simplicity in form both externally and internally. The simple external upturned parabola defied the level of innovation and detailing, creating both the exterior and interior form with the use of pre-stressed concrete ribs, and pre-cast panels between. The parabolic form was 49' 6" in height, designed by engineer Thomas Flood. The 8,000 sqft church accommodated 600 people. It was said to be New Zealand's largest single-pour concrete roof of the time. The Modernist interior was of a grand scale with the specially-designed fittings - only seen by parishioners. And this was part of its demise. The scale was for a cathedral not small-town New Zealand. Regionally significant in terms of architecture and engineering technology, an iconic Waikato church, and the work of an important Modernist architect and engineer, yet it was demolished in 2014.
In the Waikato, at the same time as the church was being designed, the new regional theatre and "town hall" was on the drawing board of architect Aubrey de Lisle, of White, de Lisle and Jenkins of Hamilton. The Founders Memorial Theatre opened in November 1962, inspired by Coventry's Belgrade Theatre, which was the first civic theatre built in Great Britain after World War Two. The 1,249-seat theatre, built a decade before Christchurch Town Hall, has hosted international performers of note to local theatre and music productions within its "gently sloping wood panelled confines." Jazz great Louis Armstrong arrived for shows on 20 March 1963, but due to payment issues he almost didn't play at all. From Louis Armstrong to Cilla Black in 1965, to the home of the Finns, the theatre for over 60 years has been the focus of many from the new teenagers of the 1960s to classical music and the performance of the young ballet students. Closed in 2016 from lack of maintenance and ongoing strengthening, with the Hotere mural removed for the new Waikato Theatre, the interior now only used in the dark for police exercises as its fate awaits. Two very different cultural interiors – a cathedral for faith and a "cathedral" for performance – a church and a theatre.

Gardening the interior: Odo Strewe inside the 1980s

Kerry Francis — 2022-12-13

Odo Strewe arrived in New Zealand in 1938, a refugee from Nazi Germany. After release from internment on Matiu (Somes Island) as an Enemy Alien during World War Two, he married and moved to Auckland where he started a landscape design and construction business. Strewe had explored the idea of plants inside buildings in the very first house that he had made for his family in Glen Eden, Auckland in 1949. An Australian journalist writing about the house described the interior "with tropical paw paws almost coming indoors to join forces with the banana that is really growing and fruiting, right inside the house." Strewe continued to advocate for this disciplinary contest in subsequent years by writing about indoor gardening in New Zealand Modern Homes and Gardens and designing gardens that challenged the boundaries between landscape and the interior. This paper will explore the design strategies of two of Strewe's interior gardens in the 1960s as he developed this aspect of his landscape design practice.

Opening up new worlds for humans to respect

Michael Dudding — 2022-12-13

In 1967, New Zealand architect James Beard took a year-long professional sabbatical in the US to learn more about regional and landscape planning. Following personal advice from MIT's Kevin Lynch, Beard headed to Harvard University to study toward a Master's qualification in their highly regarded landscape department under Professor Hideo Sasaki. While Beard was able to employ some of his learning in his later career (most notably at Kaitoke Regional Park in the 1970s), Beard returned to a New Zealand that was not yet ready for the broader regional-level consideration of landscape planning and design that he had discovered in his US studies.