Media Release
September 13, 2007

Architecture Week Auckland 07

Affordable housing, sustainable architecture and green buildings will be among the hot topics of the second ever Architecture Week Auckland to be held from October 15 – 19, 2007.

Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, Architecture Week Auckland 07, organised by the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA), will celebrate and explore the history, people, places and spaces that make Auckland the city it is.

Pete Bossley, award winning architect and chair of the Auckland branch of the NZIA, says Architecture Week Auckland provides an important opportunity for people of all ages and from all walks of life to learn, enjoy, explore and raise their expectations of contemporary architecture; and to find ways to improve the built environment by exploring relevant and topical issues.

Says Pete Bossley: “The built environment is much more important than people often realise. Architecture Week Auckland 07 aims to get people excited about architecture and Auckland, and involved in a conversation about the issues that affect our built environment.”

Highlights of the week long architectural extravaganza include a nostalgic look at local church architecture by the late great architect Professor Richard (Dick) Toy starting with a “sermon” at one of his churches, All Saints Church in Ponsonby Road; an appearance from the highly regarded Californian architect Steven Ehrlich who’s designed award-winning buildings of all variety, and a breakfast with one of the master architects of Britomart.

Most of the events will be held in or near the Britomart Pavilion, with all events (excluding the Steven Ehrlich lecture) open to the public and free of charge.

Exhibitions and installations, which were popular with the Auckland public last year, will make a return to this year’s schedule. City workers and passers-by will enjoy watching the future stars of architecture transform the Britomart precinct with their Urban Spoiler project, which will see students from each of the three Auckland architectural schools design and build three giant sculptural pavilions from scaffolding materials.

And from the up and coming to the established, Auckland’s well known architectural heavyweights will go head-to-head and compete to design a large scale model of an iconic building to take pride of place in Auckland’s controversial tank farm. Architects (and the public) will also demonstrate that it’s good to be green, donning their bike shorts and helmets and competing in an inner city bike race, which is sure to attract stares from passers-by.

During the evening the Britomart precinct will come alive, with images from Auckland architecture firms and students projected onto the exterior walls of buildings.

This year’s event also sees the return of a variety of architectural tours including a guided train tour to New Lynn and Henderson; a look at some of Auckland’s most significant heritage sites, and a tour of Dick Toy’s Auckland churches.

The two keynote guest speakers and the “stars” of the event will be Steven Ehrlich, an award winning Californian architect, and Richard Johnson, a Sydney based architect who is the master architect in charge of the rejuvenation of Auckland’s Britomart precinct.

There will be lectures and debates (discussions) at 8am, 12pm, 5.15pm and 6pm daily on hot topics such as affordable housing and green buildings, with guest speakers including Rewi Thompson (Adjunct Professor at the University of Auckland’s Architecture School), Warren Jack (Habitat for Humanity), Jane Henley (Green Council), Lance Herbst (master of the New Zealand bach idiom) and Stas Louca, a British born architect who has worked in the field of affordable housing in the United Kingdom for over 10 years.

The week long architectural celebration will be officially opened at 12.30pm on Monday, October 15.

Landscape architecture will also be included in the event schedule, with the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Spring Series talk. Panel discussions organised by HOME New Zealand (formally New Zealand Home & Entertaining) featuring ‘Home of The Year’ winners and finalists and their work will also be a highlight, as will the NZIA Resene Local Architecture Awards.

Architecture Week Auckland 07 will conclude with an evening of Pecha Kucha, a presentation format which has spread virally throughout the world.

It’s expected that large crowds will gather on Friday evening for the Architecture Week Auckland 07 closing parties, which will include a massive student party in the Pavilion.

And, just to prove that architects can have fun and let their hair down, the recently formed Architecture Week Auckland 07 rock band (which is yet to be named and is comprised of a group of architects), will make their stage debut, joining three of Auckland University’s rock bands to entertain the crowds and farewell the event.

The Auckland City Council, Auckland Regional Council, Bluewater Management Company, University of Auckland, AUT, UNITEC, Habitat for Humanity, Housing New Zealand, IPENZ Engineering, Holmes Consulting Group and the Green Council are among the community groups and organisations who will take part in the event.

For a full list of events and activities visit: www.architectureweek.co.nz (the website will go live shortly)

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Steven Ehrlich

Steven Ehrlich is a principal at Steven Ehrlich Architects, a 30 person California based practice which is known for its modern award winning residential work, and also for top notch commercial and institutional projects for noteworthy clients such as Sony Music, Dreamworks SKG, and UCLA.

Erhlich’s buildings are known for their intrinsic livability and high design. He spent many of his early career years in the Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa and calls his approach to architecture “Multicultural Modernism”, a philosophy deeply rooted in his African experiences, yet entwined with the imperatives of living and practising in Los Angeles.

His slogan is “architecture that is concerned with people, the particulars of the indigenous climate and culture, and the power of simple forms and spaces.”

Recent high profile commissions include the US$61 million Walter Cronkite School of Journalism for Arizona State University, a 35,000 square foot private residence in Dubai and a six tower residential complex in Taipei, Taiwan.

Ehrlich has a strong interest in sustainability and at the age of 12, won the New Jersey State Science fair with a model for a solar home. These days his own Southern Californian home has radiant floors, a solar hot water heater, photovoltaic panels on the garage roof and siding made of Tyrex, a recycled plastic and wood scrap decking product. Tyrex and the rusted steel panels that make up the house’s skin float half an inch away from the exterior walls, allowing heat to rise and disperse between the surfaces.

Richard Johnson

Sydney based Richard Johnson is an award winning architect, Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of New South Wales and a director of Johnson Pilton Walker Architects, a multidisciplinary design firm. He is the master planner behind Auckland’s Britomart revitalisation project.
He is also an associate of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and the Japan Institute of Architects, and a member of the Design Institute of Australia.
Johnson was involved in the design of the Australian embassies in Beijing and Tokyo, is the Chief Architect for the Sydney Opera House and is also currently working on projects including the Australian War Memorial, the Hilton Hotel and the Asian wing of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
He has a Bachelor of Architecture (1st Class Honours) from the University of NSW and a Master of Philosophy (Town Planning) from University College, London. In 1976 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to Architecture.

Richard (Dick) Toy

Richard Toy was the former Professor of Architectural Design at Auckland University (1957-1977).
He designed the Memorial Pavilion at Mt Albert Grammar School, the War Memorial Gates for Otahuhu College and a number of Auckland churches, including All Saints Church in Ponsonby Road, for which he won the NZIA Building of the Year award in 1957.
From 1977 he worked with Gillespie, Newman and Pearce on the development of his design for the Holy Trinity Cathedral nave, tower and site development. He was awarded an OBE in 1981 and received an Award of Honour from the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 1988. Dick Toy died on July 2, 1995, aged 84, a few months before the opening of the nave he designed for the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Dick Toy was a passionate supporter about how Auckland had the potential to become the “water city” of the Pacific and how its architecture should be designed to suit its topography. Forty years ago he was dismayed at the rate of Auckland’s sprawl and how we were putting up “little boxes . . on the beautiful Auckland topography without responding to that topography.”

Said Dick Toy: “You need to understand the bays (such as St Heliers). They are natural focuses of community. It is the form of the bay that generates the architecture, containing the suburb like an amphitheatre.”

Toy was upset at the rate of destruction of Auckland’s historic buildings and the “loss of our built heritage.”

During AWA07, NZIA committee member and conservation architect, Adam Wild, will pay tribute to the work of Dick Toy by delivering a “sermon” at Auckland’s All Saints Church.

Says Adam Wild: “Have we gone anywhere since he taught us what to do? I would say not.”

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