Page Text: Boffa Miskell calls for greater application of mātauranga Māori in freshwater management
4 Apr 2022
Environmental planning and design consultancy group makes the call in the latest edition of their Ecology Quarterly newsletter
28 Mar 2022, Pip Cheshire
Pip Cheshire says it’s time we set about creating safe, supportive, resilient and regenerative neighbourhoods.
16 Mar 2022, Chris Barton
Chris Barton considers the nature of occupation.
11 Mar 2022
Context Architects’ Katrina Hall discusses how the firm is weathering the perfect storm in the construction sector.
Auckland’s high density housing history
1 Mar 2022, Dr David Turner
David Turner, Senior lecturer of Architecture at Unitec, revisits the history of high density housing in our biggest city.
Inspiration by incident
23 Feb 2022, Patrick Clifford
Patrick Clifford reflects on what comprises the Architectus design process. He finds a heady mix of methods: from sociograms to serendipity, iterations, words generating spatial arrangements, co-design, collaboration, questioning the extent of the site and asking “why not?” to the primacy of the pin-up, to name a few.
23 Feb 2022, Chris Barton
Chris Barton finds refreshing views on what Aotearoa architecture can be in new TV series Designing Dreams
Idea-building
14 Feb 2022, Daniel K Brown
Daniel K Brown reflects on the ways in which abstract, speculative architectural drawings can play an important role in contemporary professional practice.
Ebb and flow
2 Feb 2022, Chris Barton
Chris Barton finds Te Ngau o Horotiu, Auckland Council and Auckland Transport’s new Downtown Ferry Terminal designed by Isthmus, speaks to the moon.
1 Feb 2022, Karamia Müller
Karamia Müller considers the housing shortage we have inherited because of the value we place on heritage
Instagrammable moments
26 Jan 2022, Scott Compton
Scott Compton discusses changing workplace design in the age of Covid, the rise of the distributed campus model and creating magnetic, experiential workspaces for empowered employees.
The space between
19 Jan 2022, Chris Barton
Chris Barton explores Te Wānanga, the long-planned replacement public space for the former Queen Elizabeth II Square, and Te Ngau o Horotiu, the new Downtown Ferry Terminal.
19 Jan 2022, Karamia Müller
Karamia Müller looks forward to a return to people and place with a renewed sense of aroha.
11 Jan 2022, Pip Cheshire
Pip Cheshire recommends an industry-wide road map to survival and resilience.
Editorial: Chris Barton on no more blah, blah, blah
21 Dec 2021, Chris Barton
Rays of hope emanated from the COP26 ‘Build Better Now’ virtual pavilion, showcasing 17 “exemplary sustainable projects” and explaining the ways in which construction has contributed to climate change and how future buildings could be less carbon intensive.
Re-imagining the concepts of ‘co-living’ and ‘co-working’
12 Nov 2021, Ali Ghaffarianhoseini, Amirhosein Ghaffarianhoseini
Amirhosein Ghaffarianhoseini and Ali Ghaffarianhoseini of AUT’s architecture and engineering schools share student work that explores what shared space might look like in the years to come.
In the land of cars: Housing many vs parking few
28 Oct 2021, Timothy Welch
Timothy Welch, a senior lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Auckland, writes “in a country where the cost of land is so exorbitantly high and the supply of housing so scarce, how could so many surface car parks exist”?
The history of Aotearoa’s landscape through a Māori lens
19 Oct 2021, Landscape Architecture Aotearoa
Drisana Brown is a landscape architecture student who is exploring how the past is influencing when it comes to the landscapes of our nation, and what the future might look like.
Opinion: Force de frappe
5 Oct 2021, Pip Cheshire
Pip Cheshire finds himself in a bit of a dilemma when it comes to government directives on housing density: the nimby versus the urbanist versus the politico.
Architects at home
4 Oct 2021, ArchitectureNow Editorial Desk
During the nationwide Level 4 lockdown, Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects asked architects, designers and graduates to take to the pen, paper and brushes to sketch their work from home set-ups.
Opinion: The journey into knowing
28 Sep 2021, Karamia Müller
Karamia Müller muses on centring Māoridom: “My answer is: we must try and, when we get it wrong, we must be open to correction with humility.”
Building for climate change: Meeting the architectural challenges
21 Sep 2021, Manuel Diaz
Peddlethorp’s Manuel Diaz identifies some of the challenges and opportunities facing architects under the New Zealand Government’s Building for Climate Change programme.
Passive, active and simple
14 Sep 2021, Ferdinand Oswald
Ferdinand Oswald explores three research pathways to sustainable housing design and how they might fit in with the Aotearoa climate.
Editorial: Chris Barton on a wound upon a building
13 Sep 2021, Chris Barton
“The architecture of suicide is not an easy topic but, for architects who might adhere to an ethical position akin to “first, do no harm”, it’s a topic that can’t be avoided.”
From A(uckland) to Z(aha): Three years on
30 Aug 2021, Matthew LeGrice
Warren and Mahoney’s digital design lead, Matthew LeGrice, reflects on his three years in New Zealand since leaving Zaha Hadid Architects in London and the ways Aotearoa’s AEC industry has embraced a digitally-led design approach.
Mara Hupara: More than nature play
23 Aug 2021, Landscape Architecture Aotearoa
Boffa Miskell’s William Hatton, Rangitahi Kawe and Aynsley Cisaria discuss the universal language of storytelling and learning through play and what sets apart indigenous versions of this enriching activity from what we know as “nature play”.
Future of Design: Towards smart urban environments
17 Aug 2021, Gabriela Mazorra
Data expert Gabriela Mazorra explores what the cities of our future need in order to create healthy environments and inhabitants and how some urban areas around the world are leveraging data to meet these needs.
Opinion: Ecstasy and equity
10 Aug 2021, Karamia Müller
Karamia Müller notes: “Architecture does touch everybody. This is its ecstasy. And it is this quality that makes the debates underpinning the profession, the practices and the community of practitioners so compelling and critical.”
Opinion: On confusion
3 Aug 2021, Pip Cheshire
Pip Cheshire writes about the critical place anticipation and agency have in our trade. “We spend most of our time making marks and orchestrating events with long gestations and repercussions well beyond our formal engagement.”
NZIA: “We agree: climate change is an urgent issue for architects”
21 Jul 2021
Te Kāhui Whaihanga responds to an editorial published in Architecture NZ magazine saying, “…a high level of competency in [sustainability] must be maintained by architects throughout their careers.”
Editorial: Chris Barton on a duty of care
12 Jul 2021, Chris Barton
Architecture NZ editor Barton notes a lack of language regarding sustainability in our professional bodies’ codes. “Distressingly … there is no mention of climate change in the NZRAB’s code.”
Six storey love song
7 Jul 2021, Matthew Paetz
Matthew Paetz grapples with new density controls in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020, perhaps the most significant government policy for cities in Aotearoa New Zealand of the past 30 years.
Ko te whare e hanga te tangata, ko te tangata e hangaia e te whare
28 Jun 2021
The whare (whare tangata) builds the people, the people build the whare. Sarah Bookman and Seth Schanzer reflect on losing the site of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation and Kadimah School.
Anti-social distancing
17 Jun 2021, Dr David Turner
Dr. David Turner revisits Auckland’s Unitary Plan and explores how the housing density changes implemented by it have affected urban development since 2016.
Opinion: A planetary price to pay
7 Jun 2021, Pip Cheshire
Pip Cheshire discusses the architects’ role in saving the world: “At issue, though, is whether we architects can effect any meaningful change in our bailiwick…”
Opinion: Twenty minutes in Tāmaki Makaurau
18 May 2021, Karamia Müller
As a sort of homage to the late architect and New Yorker Michael Sorkin and his book Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, columnist Karamia Müller muses on her 20-minute walking commute through the City of Sails.
Transcolonisation: 1990–2020
11 May 2021, Anthony Hoete
Anthony Hoete traces 30 years of the slow road to Te Ao Māori architecture in Aotearoa and the quest to reconcile colonial traditions and European influences with a sustained interest in the indigenous project.
Editorial: Chris Barton on male architects
10 May 2021, Chris Barton
Please no, not Alvar Aalto. Finnish female director Virpi Suutari’s brilliant examination, Aalto, lays bare some uneasy home truths about the man lauded as an icon of modernism.
13 Apr 2021, Dave Strachan
This NZIA Gold Medal Award 2020 recipient reflects on the forces that have shaped his architectural practice.
9 Apr 2021, Gabrielle Gatt
Senior interior designer at Warren and Mahoney, Gabrielle Gatt, discusses her research on flexible, unassigned workplaces.