Architecture of New Zealand

Buildings in New Zealand tell a unique story of immigrants - from both

Polynesia and Europe - coming to a strange land and adapting known
building forms to new conditions and materials.
The immigrants found large, forested islands which had a temperate but
highly variable and sometimes extreme climate.
Combined Traditions

The earliest buildings in New Zealand were the humble huts of the first
Polynesians. By the time of European contact, the Maori had evolved a
particular building type, the meeting house, which is the only building
unique to New Zealand. In form it was a simple, gable-ended structure
with an open porch at one end, but it was a building integrated into its
setting, the marae-atea, and a building which is, in a real sense, the
ancestor after whom most are named.

By the mid nineteenth century the meeting houses were generally highly
carved. These wharenui, or meeting houses, play a role in community life
unlike the role played by any European-derived buildings, even churches.
Some of the most exciting and original buildings in New Zealand (the
Futuna Chapel in Wellington and the Arthur's Pass Chapel for example)
marry the form and spirit of the Maori meeting house with traditions
drawn from European architecture.
Combined Traditions

New Zealand's first European architects began to practice in the early

Victorian period. Though 12,000 miles from the sources of the styles they
used for their buildings, through books and magazines and by way of
travel, New Zealand architects maintained their membership of a broader
British architectural community. Rather than being seen as copying finer
British buildings and "failing" because they did not develop quickly a
distinctive New Zealand styles, New Zealand's architects of the nineteenth
and first half of the twentieth century are better seen as working within an
architectural tradition that spanned the world and as producing notable
buildings within that tradition.
New Zealand Architecture
But buildings in New Zealand did, rather early on, start to look different
from buildings in Britain, or even nearby Australia. This was partly because
New Zealand has always had a relatively small population and lacked the
resources or concentrations of private wealth that would support the
building of larger, finer buildings.
Another reason for early differences between the architecture of New
Zealand and those of other countries was the abundance of wood
available as a building material. Stone and brick quickly became available
in New Zealand, but the early wooden buildings are more typical of the
country than the early masonry buildings. The use of timber for buildings
in the Gothic style gave New Zealand what are perhaps its finest buildings,
Old St Paul's in Wellington pre-eminent among them.
New Zealand Architecture
There has been a tendency in the past to regard the vernacular cottages and
farm buildings of pioneering days as the "true" New Zealand architecture and
the Gothic churches, Italianate commercial buildings and Edwardian Baroque
public buildings in the country's towns and cities as merely pale copies of finer
overseas examples. The argument has been that after a promising start, New
Zealand architecture lost its way through long years when architects simply
mimicked what was being built in Europe and the United States, and that a
true New Zealand architecture, as opposed to "architecture in New Zealand",
emerged only when, after World War II, some architects, especially of houses,
looked back to the simple buildings of New Zealand's colonial origins.

But it is quite wrong to dismiss as uninteresting the large numbers of buildings

in New Zealand designed by architects of the late nineteenth and first half of
the twentieth centuries who saw themselves working as members of a world-
wide British architectural community. Wonderful Gothic churches, in timber,
stone and brick, fine classically inspired commercial buildings and imposing
Baroque public buildings can be found throughout New Zealand.
What to Look For
What particularly should people interested in architecture travelling round
New Zealand look for? First, the buildings of the Maori marae, the only
truly indigenous buildings in New Zealand; then the churches in several
places in the North Island which are European in form but decorated in
traditional Maori ways, buildings which express the fusion of Polynesian
and European that is one of the most remarkable features of New Zealand
history. Many surviving simple colonial buildings, cottages, woolsheds and
other farm buildings, tell the story of pioneering days.

The fine commercial and public buildings of the late Victorian and
Edwardian eras speak of a time when New Zealand was flourishing and
confidently independent, but also proud to belong to a world-wide British
Empire. Many buildings of the first half of the twentieth century reveal
other overseas influences, several of them American, having an impact on
New Zealand architecture.
What to Look For
Devastation in an earthquake gave Napier a remarkable collection of
Art Deco buildings, but other centres too have their share of buildings in
this style.
Some buildings of the post-war years indicate a concern among some
architects to create a distinctively New Zealand architecture, but others
continue to tell the story of New Zealand architects responding creatively
to developments in architecture in Europe and America, producing
buildings, in Modern and then Post-Modern idioms that both reflect
trends overseas but have features that make them unmistakably New
Zealand buildings.
In the 1960s Christchurch became the place to find fine modern
architecture. The buildings of Warren and Mahoney exemplified the style
which emerged. It utilised precast concrete and white painted concrete
block with timber roofs and exposed rafters.
What to Look For
What you should not expect to find in New Zealand are great architectural
monuments ­buildings comparable in age to the older buildings of Europe
or in size and magnificence to the greatest buildings of Europe and
America. But there are many buildings of great architectural distinction
and interest and buildings, which tell the story of a society developing and
changing, taking its cues from Europe and America, but becoming
something different in the particular social and physical conditions that
have prevailed in the South Pacific.
Samples:
A notable example of timber-
construction Gothic Revival by architect
Frederick Thatcher, Old St Pauls dates
from 1866 and was Wellington's Anglican
cathedral church before the new
cathedral in Molesworth Street was
consecrated.

Old St Pauls Church

Mulgrave Street, Wellington.
Samples:
The Public Trust was established in 1872
to provide an honest agency for
administering wills. This exuberant
Edwardian baroque building was built in
1909. It was designed by the government
architect, John Campbell, and has a
riveted steel frame to help withstand
earthquakes.

Public Trust Building

Lambton Quay Wellington
Samples:
A "new" Brighton Pavillion designed by
Andrew Barclay of Warren and
Mahoney . (1999)

New Brighton Library

New Brighton Coastal Road,
Christchurch.
Samples:
The Queen Elizabeth II Army
Memorial Museum at the Waiouru
military camp is the best place in
New Zealand to gain an overview of
the country’s military history. It
covers both military events and
construction in New Zealand itself
and service by New Zealand soldiers
overseas. Displays at the Army
Queen Elizabeth II Army Museum help bring sites throughout
Memorial Museum New Zealand to life.
State Highway 1, Waiouru.
The fortress like building was
designed by Miles Warren.
Samples:
Lively special exhibits complement
the permanent collection in this well
established gallery. Gallery space is
due to be expanded with a new
building. The new design was the
outcome of a competition won by
Steve McCracken of Warren &
Mahoney,

Sarjeant Art Gallery

Queens Park
Samples:
The grandeur of the Cathedral space
was realized when the 1935 design
by Cecil Wood was completed by Sir
Miles Warren in 1998.
See the historic wooden chapel .

Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Cnr Hill & Molesworth Streets
Samples:
A bleak site is enlivened by a
sculptural form.
Architect - Tom Craig of Warren &
Mahoney,
(1993). Also on the site is a water
tower constructed in 1883 when
there was a major railway workshop
on this site. The water tower was
one of the world's first ferroconcrete
structures.

Christchurch Railway Station

Off Blenheim Road
Samples:
Christchurch College University
of Canterbury. (College House)
Waimari Road
College House is New Zealand’s oldest
and most traditional University
College.
Warren & Mahoney (1964) were the
architects of the Ilam buildings. The
Chapel of the Upper Room dates from
1966- 67 and the library from 1968 -
70.
Built during the brutalist phase of the
modern movement the concrete
beams and white block walls derive
from Warren's earlier work in
Christchurch. The Dining Hall at
Christ's College by Cecil Wood has
served as a model for the wooden
roofed chapel.
See Architecture NZ July/August 1999.
Samples:
Sir Miles Warren has developed his
spectacular Ohinetahi garden over
several decades. Sculptures have
been integrated into the design. The
garden is open to the public on week
days seven months of the year
(admission charge). It has an
architectural character with " a
sequence of clearly defined spaces
or garden rooms leading into one
another and arranged about
interlocking axies". A small art
gallery displays objects in Sir Miles'
Ohinetahi collection which have overflowed
Governors Bay Road from the historic house.
Samples:
One of New Zealand’s most famous
and successful “ modern” buildings,
the Christchurch Town Hall, opened
in 1972, combines modern materials
and forms with echoes of
Christchurch’s earlier building
traditions. It was the work of a
practice, Warren and Mahoney,
which was one of the most
important in New Zealand’s late
twentieth century architectural
history.

Christchurch Town Hall The James Hay Theatre is part of the

Victoria Square Town Hall complex.
Samples:
A formal rose garden designed by Sir
Miles Warren features a world scale
collection of 1150 old roses.
Admission is free. The garden is
named for Trevor Griffiths, who lived
and worked in South Canterbury
most of his life and became a rose
grower of world renown.

Trevor Griffiths Rose Garden

Caroline Bay, Timaru
Samples:
An aquarium has been an attraction
in Napier for over forty years. The
National Aquarium is now in a new
building on the waterfront..

Architect was Warren and Mahoney

(2000)

National Aquarium of New

Zealand
Marine Parade
Samples:
The former 1YA studios in Shortland
Street symbolise the high point of
New Zealand’s radio, or wireless
years, as they would have been
called then. They were completed in
1934 to a design by Norman Wade.
In 2001 the building was refurbished
by Warren & Mahoney to
accommodate the Unversity of
Auckland's School of Creative &
Performing Arts.

The building now houses the

Shortland Street Studios Gusfisher Gallery.
74 Shortland Street
Samples:
Wellington's Westpac Stadium is
colloquially known as the cake tin. It
has proved a popular and highly
successful venue for major sports
and entertainment events in
Wellington including home games of
the Hurricances rugby team.

The architects were Warren and

Mahoney in association with Bligh
Lobb Sports. (2000)

Westpac Trust Stadium

Wellington
Samples:
Warren & Mahoney were the
architects.

Academy of Performing Arts at

the University of Waikato
Knighton Road, University of
Waikato
Samples:
This post modern building by
Warren and Mahoney was built for
the Lyttelton Harbour Board to
reflect its position as the principal
authority in the port town. It was
designed to be in sympathy with the
basic 19th-century of Lyttelton. The
architects say the three-storey
building is about the size and
proportion of a grand English
country house. (1985-1986)

Academy of Performing Arts at

the University of Waikato
Knighton Road, University of
Waikato
Samples:
The 'Hi-tech' image conveyed by this
building and its associated antennae
and satellite dishes is consistent with
its role as the headquarters of
Television New Zealand. Warren &
Mahoney (1985 - 1989) were the
architects.

Television New Zealand

Cnr Victoria & Hobson Street.
Samples:
This Warren & Mahoney designed
three-storey house has weather
boards and iron to meet the
guidelines of the historic Thorndon
area. (1985 - 88).
Town house units on either side
complement the development.

Bornholdt House
100 Hill Street
Samples:
This complex of eleven terrace
houses and a headmaster's house
was built to a Warren & Mahoney
design for Christ's College. (1985).
Each house has a view of the park
and a private walled garden.

Wigram Park
1 Park Terrace
Samples:
Warren & Mahoney as the architects
added substance to the
Paraparauma townscape with this
fine .library building. (See "New
Zealand Architecture", May/June
2004).

Energy efficiency has been sought

with "the design of the building's
envelope" eliminat ing "the need for
traditional air-conditioning".

Paraparaumu Library
Samples:
Built on land given by John Cracroft
Wilson, the original gothic St
Augustine's dated from 1908 with a
shingled spire being added in 1914.
The church was enlarged and
renovated in 1970 by Warren and
Mahoney and thus is a blend of
modern and traditional architectural
styles.

The west end of the nave features a

stained glass window
commemorating those lost in both
St Augustine's Church World Wars, and a font shaped like a
(Anglican) giant clam shell.
3-5 Cracroft Tce, Cashmere
Samples:
Warren and Mahoney (1974 - 80).

Timaru Library
Sophia, Church & Banks
Streets.
Samples:
Warren & Mahoney (1982-5). All the
functions of the Council have been
grouped around a three-storied
atrium.

Rotorua Civic Centre

1061 Haupapa Street
Samples:
Deep precast concrete window units
give rhythm to this fine office block
built before the general use of air
conditioning. (Warren and Mahoney
1966 - 1970)

SIMU Building
Latimer Square.
Samples:
Andrew Barclay and Scott Koopman
of Warren and Mahoney designed
this library with an emphasis on
sustainability. It is surrounded by a
moat, with water as a central design
theme. (2003).

The library building and its facilities

which include a café is a popular
community venue.

South Christchurch Library &

Service Centre
66 Colombo Street
Samples:
Warren and Mahoney (2005) were
the architects. Commentator
Tommy Honey said. " The Karori
library is a box of light that shines
brightly in an overcast suburb. The
relationship to the street is a model
for all those who design for the outer
city."

architecturenz Sept/Oct 2006 pp 72 -

75.

Karori Library
253 Karori Road
Samples:
The library (architects Warren and
Mahoney 2005) serves both the
community and Riccarton High
School.

Critiqued by Ian Lochhead

'archtecturenz', Sept/Oct 2006 pp 69
-71.

Upper Riccarton Library

Main South Road,
Christchurch
Samples:
Mayor/architect Michael Fowler
invited Miles Warren of Warren and
Mahoney to replicate the
Christchurch Town Hall which he did
but with better acoustics.

Wellington's Old Town Hall was to

have been demolished but has been
jutifiably retained. Its architect was
Joshua Charlesworth.

Michael Fowler Centre and

Wellington Town Hall
Wakefield Street.
Samples:
Often an irregular site can prove the
inspiration for a better than average
building. This seems to be the case
here. The architects of this 11 storey
apartment block were JASMAX
(Warren Young).

Summit Apartments
Molseworth
Samples:
In 1955 Miles Warren designed this
now famous group of flats, They
were became the forerunner for
what is commonly referred to "the
Christchurch style". It formed the
basis for many single and multi-unit
houses, generating a regionally
distinctive domestic architecture.
(Source - see link)

On the corner of Dorset Street and

Park Terrace are two later mid-rise
blocks of apartments. "Dorset
Towers" is built in the typical Warren
& Mahoney masonry style with walls
Dorset Street Flats of load-bearing reinforced concrete
Dorset Street block cavity construction (1970 - 73).