New Zealand E-Book

Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

One of the important themes that have dominated the architectural scene during the last 30 years is the question of regional identity, and the question of New Zealand identity in specific. Traditionally, architectural discourse has been largely concerned with form. It has been dominated by disputes that turn around questions of style. Although architects have been looking overseas for new ideas and models from Europe and America, many architects recognised that the creation of a New Zealand style was a priority. Many New Zealand architects' buildings embody and express cultural and social meanings, which relate them to the wider New Zealand context. Among these architects, Roger Walker and Ian Athfield, whos styles offer a potentially rich field for the discussion of New Zealand identity.

Leseprobe

Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy

New Zealand

An Architectural Identity Dialogue

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

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New Zealand

An Architectural Identity Dialogue

Content

1. Introduction

2. Internationalism and Rootedness

3. New Zealand Architectural Dialogue

4. Conclusion

Appendix 1: Chronological List Of Walker’s Buildings

Appendix 2: Awards And Competitions

Images Credits

References

1. Introduction

One of the important themes that have dominated the architectural scene during the last 30 years is the question of regional identity, and the question of New Zealand identity in specific. Traditionally, architectural discourse has been largely concerned with form. It has been dominated by disputes that turn around questions of style. Although architects have been looking overseas for new ideas and models from Europe and America, many architects recognised that the creation of a New Zealand style was a priority. One of the key events that gave New Zealand architects confidence was the visit of Aldo van Eyck to New Zealand in 1963. Van Eyck rediscovered and pointed out to the benefits of the verandah, which he described as “an ikon of modern architecture here”. Many New Zealand architects’ buildings embody and express cultural and social meanings, which relate them to the wider New Zealand context. Among these architects, Roger Walker (b.1942) and Ian Athfield (1940-2015), whose styles offer a potentially rich field for the discussion of New Zealand identity.

2. Internationalism and Rootedness

Writing in The Architects’ Journal in 1978 Alastair Best stated that in some respects “Kiwi culture may still be deep frozen somewhere around the year 1949, but architecturally it is bang up to date”. Best argued that this was due largely to the energy and enterprise of Roger Walker, who has created a new New Zealand style almost single-handed. Paolo Portoghesi believes that “any work of architecture belongs to a place, and therefore first of all is ‘local’”. He demonstrated the contradiction between internationalism and rootedness; “what is truly international is what has general value, and today, in contrast to yesterday, a work of architecture has true value only if it possesses an urban quality, that is, if it is able to strengthen and renew the sick organism of the contemporary city”. Roger Walker’s work possesses the internationalism, which Portoghesi defines and it is probably for this reason that Best responded so positively to his buildings.

Christian Norberg Schulz believes that human life has always been related to things and places and that human beings posses a sense of belonging to and identity with these places. He pointed out that “the loss of things and places makes up a loss of ‘world’. Modern man becomes ‘worldless’, and thus loses his own identity, as well as the sense of community, and participation. Norberg Schulz argues that modern man experiences existence as “meaningless” and he becomes “homeless” because he no longer belongs to a “meaningful totality”. He also believes that the architects of the modern movement specifically called their designs “New Building” and avoided the word architecture because “it reminded them of a time when building was considered an art”. Norberg Schulz sees that those architects were not creating works of art, but “they wanted to explore the physical needs and functions of man, and the formal aesthetic of the past was replaced by ‘clear construction’ and honest materials”. Like Norberg Schulz, Charles Jencks argues that “Architecture is ‘built meaning’. We may speak or write our thoughts… but architecture reveals what we believe, how we want to live… it fatefully expresses who we are”.

In this respect, Walker’s architectural approach has been close to Norberg Schulz’s concept, as well as Jencks’ viewpoint. Unlike modern movement architects Walker did not ignore the design principles, styles, and traditional detailing of buildings of the past in favour of pure abstract design but he also refused to indulge in pale imitations of buildings from a past age and past technology. He respects old buildings and the important lessons inherent in them. For architects like Walker old buildings are valuable because they are an amalgam of the technology, client needs and functional requirements of a particular point in time. For Walker, the notion of copying or recreating features of old buildings makes no sense because he believes that a new vision was needed. “It is this very nationalistic wavelength that set the energetic Roger Walker to work”.