Henry Kulka’s Waikato buildings | Architecture Now

The Innes Manufacturing unit was designed by Henry Kulka (1900–1971) a Czech-New Zealand architect who started his research of structure on the Technical College of Vienna. Discovering the teachings uninspiring, he deferred finishing his diploma and in 1919 attended the Vienna-based ‘Bauschule’2 run by the pioneering trendy architect Adolf Loos. There he was awarded first prize within the spatial design competitors which Loos set his college students. Quickly afterwards Kulka grew to become a full-time assistant to Loos, and by 1927 Kulka was heading Loos’ apply in Paris. Whereas there he labored on the unrealised but iconic ‘Maison Baker’ for the legendary Folies Bergère cabaret star Josephine Baker3.

Kulka fashioned a proper architectural partnership with Loos in Vienna from 1927 till 1932. Adolf Loos described Kulka as “the guardian of my concepts”4 and, when Loos died in 1933, Kulka continued their architectural apply between workplaces in Vienna, Austria, and Hradec Kralove in Czechoslovakia. Upon the Nazi’s occupation (Anschluss) of Austria in 1938, Kulka fled to Czechoslovakia, and from there to England in 1939, earlier than emigrating completely to New Zealand in 1940. He arrived in Wellington after his spouse and two youngsters who joined him having escaped individually from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Kulka had obtained New Zealand immigration visas by the intervention of his pal Jan Masaryk, the Czechoslovakian International Minister in exile primarily based in London, who was in flip a pal of the London-based New Zealand Excessive Commissioner Sir William Jordan.

As soon as in New Zealand, Kulka settled in Auckland changing into chief architect with the Fletcher Building Firm (FCC). Kulka would stay with FCC till 1960 whereupon he commenced a full-time personal apply specializing in picket residences and furnishings from his house workplace in St. Heliers.

Kulka realised round thirty personal residences all through the North Island. Sadly, many haven’t survived, and quite a few others have been considerably altered. The remaining few intact homes are treasured examples of his craftsmanship in wooden and house. It’s estimated that round 5 effective picket homes stay on the Northern slopes of Auckland’s Japanese suburbs. A handful are unfold throughout the stability of the Auckland isthmus together with Titirangi, and a pair stay in good situation within the Waikato. Three exist in good to affordable situation in Wellington5.

Kulka’s output at FCC from 1940 to 1960 was prodigious, and lots of industrial buildings had been constructed within the Waikato. Not all FCC buildings had been designed by Kulka, nonetheless. The five-storey Nationwide Insurance coverage Constructing (1955)6 on the nook of Caro and Alexander Streets just isn’t, neither is the Mutual Life Constructing (1957)7 on the nook of Backyard Place and Alexander Road. Nonetheless, as just lately as ten years in the past three Kulka-designed industrial buildings had been nonetheless standing in Hamilton. At present only one stays.

As soon as such industrial constructing was designed for Dalgety and Co Ltd, which opened in December 1955. It was a big single-story constructing on the nook Victoria and Rostrevor Streets, the place Fastlane Health is as we speak. Constructed of bolstered tilt-up concrete partitions and with a pre-stressed concrete roof, the constructing had no inner columns. The inside, freed from pillars, supplied an unobstructed view of many of the primary workplace space which was completed in a ‘pleasing vary of colors’8. The color results would have come from the intensive use of plywood finishes of which Kulka was identified for; as soon as evident within the now demolished Fletcher Plywood constructing (1941), in addition to a lot of his residential interiors such because the Strauss Home (1959) in Auckland9. The Dalgety constructing was progressive for being a really early instance of each tilt-up building and pre-stressed concrete building in New Zealand.

Kulka additionally designed a two-story bolstered concrete constructing for the Auckland Herd Enchancment Affiliation in London Road. Formally opened in June 1956, this constructing had an unadorned flat façade with a full-width financial institution of glass home windows on the primary ground, with projecting concrete hood above. The primary-floor fenestration (window openings) was organized symmetrically, however on the bottom ground, the fenestrations are bigger and organized asymmetrically. The primary entrance was to the left of two bigger banks of home windows. The play between symmetry and asymmetry is a function of Kulka’s work the place home windows can be positioned solely the place mild was wanted. Like Loos, Kulka prevented ornamental structuralism and façadism. Sadly, this constructing was demolished someday between 2021–2022.

The surviving industrial constructing Kulka designed whereas at FCC is understood as we speak at The Meteor Theatre. Regardless of some unsympathetic interventions, the Innes Manufacturing unit, which turns 70 subsequent 12 months, is in remarkably good situation. The constructing is sorted by a staff of devoted and succesful custodians.

A search by the constructing’s Property Title reveals a snapshot of early Hamilton Metropolis. An 1864 survey map of Hamilton West allotted the nook website to ‘The District of Waikato Hospital and Charitable Support Board’. The primary Certificates of Title was registered to the identical organisation in 1894, and from 1825 to the Nineteen Thirties the land was leased dozens of instances, suggesting some doable horse-trading amongst Hamilton businessmen. Ultimately, in 1947, the land was leased to CL Innes and Co. Ltd for 21 years. Subsequent got here a lease to Innes Tartan Ltd in 1969, later altering to Innes Schweppes Ltd in 1973. After that, the constructing was owned by a number of personal people and corporations.

One of many stronger connections the constructing has needed to the neighborhood of Hamilton is from its life as a roller-skating rink. For many of the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties the constructing was identified merely as Skateworld which Kulka’s personal grandchildren attended often as youngsters. An present coated and massive concrete manufacturing unit ground discovered new life as a floor for curler skates. It was the constructing’s success as a vigorous, music-filled enviornment which doubtless ensured its survival by two very robust many years for heritage buildings throughout New Zealand. Regardless of some industrial success, the constructing’s future was not assured.

Hamilton Metropolis Council (HCC) bought the property in 1996 however by 2012 the constructing’s capacity to generate earnings (and adjust to present constructing code necessities) was missing. The constructing was quickly recognized as a possible ‘asset sale’. To avoid wasting the constructing from potential demolition, and keep its perform as a working theatre, One Victoria Belief was established to take possession and administration of the constructing. HCC gifted the constructing in 2014 to the Belief below sure situations, the first one being to hold out seismic strengthening. This was accomplished in 2016.

An inventory of design workplace jobs report that Kulka had labored on this mission way back to 194410. Domestically, the constructing has been mistakenly attributed to Hamilton architects White, Leigh, and de Lisle, as some architectural documentation bear the agency’s names. Most probably the Hamilton agency carried out working drawings primarily based on Kulka’s design and will probably have made some modifications at both Kulka’s or the consumer’s request. Early Kulka drawings within the Kulka Property Archives show that the façade, fenestration, and entrance don’t differ drastically (if in any respect) from Kulka’s authentic pencil drawings. Different idea drawings from Kulka Household Archives show {that a} vary of daring choices had been conceived by Kulka for the Innes Manufacturing unit and that the mission prolonged over some years. The extent of applied inside modifications by White et al could also be confirmed in future when extra archival information turn into accessible.

Two facets of Adolf Loos’ strategy to constructing design that we see in Kulka’s work are evident within the Innes Manufacturing unit. Loos was usually against pointless ornamentation in architecture11. Like Loos, Kulka’s designs are characterised by flat façades, with an economic system of materiality and an emphasis on performance. Ornamentation, whether or not structural or ornamental, is absent. As a substitute, the emphasis is on the harmonious proportions of home windows and entrances that puncture the façade relative to the general envelope. The Innes constructing’s easy façade additionally aligns with the post-war temper of civic modesty and utility.

Kulka helped assemble and edit Loos’ first ebook Spoken into the Void12 (1921), wherein the well-known Decoration and Crime13 essay grew to become extensively learn. Within the introduction to his ebook Loos acknowledges Kulka as a “loyal pupil”, and credit him as having helped with the meeting of the primary version in 192014. The essay continues to affect designers as we speak, by its criticism of fabric waste, facile architectural ornamentation, and the pretence of ornamental façadism.

Typical of Kulka’s considerate placement of home windows, the Innes Manufacturing unit has symmetrical fenestrations on the entrance and public house, however asymmetrical fenestrations to the personal, purposeful areas alongside Anzac Parade. The home windows alongside Victoria Road are the identical distance aside however flanked on both sides by giant, outsized windows15 (one altered to accommodate a second entrance). The Anzac Parade aspect of the constructing has a single row of fenestration per stage, all rationally and virtually positioned alongside a powerful horizontal line, however in seemingly random teams of assorted widths. The Loosian design pedigree right here is apparent, and echoes Loos’ Villas Rufer in Vienna (1922), Villa Moller in Vienna (1927), Maison Baker (1927) in Paris and within the Villa Müller in Prague (1929). Kulka assisted Loos on all these initiatives.

One other facet of Loos’ architectural spirit we see in Kulka’s work is the three dimensional strategy to planning referred to as ‘raumplan’ (coined by Kulka himself)16. Raumplan employs the modulation of volumes in particular person and adjoining rooms and the connecting areas between them. The perform and significance of areas are advised by elevations in ground top, lowered ceilings, generally cut up partitions, and built-in furnishings programs. In Loos and Kulka’s work, inter-related areas are linked with consideration in direction of ‘harmonious proportions’, a sensitivity for perspective within the inside, and the sensation of anticipation when getting into and leaving areas.’

With the Innes Manufacturing unit, Kulka has taken benefit of the change in stage on the nook of the location by positioning the doorway there. Initially, guests entered the constructing beneath floor stage by tall double doorways and right into a double-height vestibule. Guests then ascended seven curved stairs, adjoining a curved glass wall (the underside mullion at ground stage above) and entered the Public House, furnished with a built-in curved seat. The unique vestibule on the entrance to the Innes Manufacturing unit suggests Kulka’s use of raumplan-like strategy to create areas linked vertically the place one house flows into one other (house flowing into house). Sadly, the place of an accessible ramp has impaired this as soon as spectacular road entrance.

In an effort to create a level-entry threshold from the road to the bottom ground, the entire of the decrease stage on the public entrance has been crammed in. The unique door has been raised by a full window-mullion top, which implies the unique etched-glass Innes signal above the door has needed to be eliminated and changed with a smaller pane of glass. The underside third of the unique concave fluted columns both aspect of the now squat door are submerged in concrete. Like Loos, Kulka was very deliberate about using columns and positioned them to entrances the place actions past had been critical in nature. This road entrance led straight to the primary workplaces and assembly rooms. By decreasing the scale of the columns, the constructing’s sense of ceremony is lowered; a pity given the constructing’s present incarnation as a centre for efficiency. Additionally gone are the curved stairs (hopefully not completely), although a part of the unique metal handrail stays.

A extra sympathetic place for a brand new and accessible entrance for all may have been by the full-height fenestration, positioned between the unique entrance and financial institution of glass-brick home windows on Victoria Road. This could have allowed the doorway to stay untouched. It’s not inconceivable to think about that someday the doorway might be restored to its authentic vigour. At present the inside of the constructing stays largely authentic, together with the mezzanine. This consists of components of the sloping concrete manufacturing unit ground designed to include spills, and the sawtooth roof which permits considerable pure mild. Modernised bogs and floor ground rooms don’t match the footprint of the unique format, however there’s greater than sufficient of this constructing that has survived for it to be considered a major and helpful heritage constructing. Its design by worldwide modernist architect Henry Kulka, and thru him, his mentor Adolf Loos, offers it architectural significance past the Waikato and New Zealand.

As a former roller-skating rink, the Innes Manufacturing unit has supplied younger (and never so younger) individuals monumental social worth by many years value of shared tales. As a working theatre since 1996, the constructing has supplied a wealthy and considerable tapestry of experiences to patrons of all ages. The reference to Fletcher Building Firm can also be necessary, as this constructing acknowledges an organization that has had a major influence on the Metropolis’s panorama. It is a true icon of a constructing, which in quite a few methods has sewn itself into the historical past of Hamilton Metropolis and its individuals in constructive methods for generations.

However the constructing’s prominence, its heritage standing has largely flown below the radar. The Innes Manufacturing unit just isn’t listed with Heritage New Zealand, and solely just lately scheduled within the Hamilton Metropolis Council District Plan (the submission sadly failing to establish each the architect and builder). Internationally, recognition of Kulka’s work as a contemporary grasp of structure is clearly cemented and rising.

In Czechoslovakia, the Plzen Metropolis bought Kulka’s Villa Semler raumplan (1933) for the aim of restoring it to its authentic situation by a considerable funding. This construction has now been absolutely restored and made a vacationer hotspot as a visitable architectural museum the place the exhibit is the construction itself (tickets could be bought for guided excursions). A second Kulka designed raumplan home, lined in effective ebook matched wooden veneers17 and showcasing Kulka’s furnishings designs is now within the means of being restored by one other Czech metropolis council. The plan is for this construction to be a visitable expertise in raumplan structure. This momentum indicators Kulka’s growing worldwide standing as a major determine in twentieth century architectural modernism. It appears inevitable that worldwide deal with Kulka’s European architectural legacy will lengthen to his remaining greatest New Zealand works.

References

1 Though a constructing allow was issued in November 1954, the constructing was not completed till early 1956. Fletcher Building Firm’s journal Arrowhead reveals the constructing below building in its November 1955 difficulty, and just lately accomplished within the Could 1956 difficulty. Hamilton Metropolis Council Historic Constructing Data (microfiche): Constructing Allow # 7817. Date issued: 23.11.1954. Handle: Victoria Bridge. Description: Aerated Water Manufacturing unit. Worth £44,000. Proprietor: CL Innes Co Ltd. Builder: Fletcher Building Firm Ltd.2 Translated from German to ‘Building College’. The varsity was run as a sequence of dynamic transferring seminars held between varied places. These included lecture venues, cafes, locations of great structure and the craft homes of glass, brick and furnishings makers and different grasp craftsman.3 Kulka Basis, Kulka Skilled Biography Useful resource, Auckland, 2024.4 Henry Kulka, Adolf Loos: The work of the Architect. Anton Schroll Verlag, Wien, 1930.5 Kulka Basis information as of 2024.6 On the time of its building, this was the tallest constructing in Hamilton, Smith, Jack. No Job Too Laborious, A Historical past of Fletcher Building, Quantity 2: 1940-1965. (Steele Roberts Publishers, Wellington, 2014), p 144.7 Designed by Messrs Mitchell and Mitchell and Companions, Wellington.8 Fletcher Holdings Restricted. Arrowhead. Vol 2 No 4, Could 1956. (FHL, Auckland), p13.9 Shaw, Peter. A Historical past of New Zealand Structure. (Hodder Moa Beckett, Auckland. 1997), pp 149-50.10 Shaw, Peter. Satisfaction of Place, A Historical past of the Fletcher Building Firm. (Fletcher Building Firm Ltd, Auckland. 2009), p101.11 Loos was no absolutist and conceded to laws he encountered sometimes. On one event, when designing reverse a palace, he added window flower bins to the other façade. Clever, Michael (4 December 2013). ‘Reassessing an Uproar in Structure’. New York Occasions. New York. Retrieved 27 July 2016.12 Loos, Adolf. In leere Gesproken 1897–1900, Editions Georges Cres et Spoken into the Void (1921).13 Within the essay, Loos hyperlinks ornamentation to crime, arguing that it’s a type of theft. Loos explored the concept that the progress of tradition is related to the deletion of decoration from on a regular basis objects, and that it was due to this fact against the law to drive craftsmen or builders to waste their time on ornamentation.14 Loos, Adolf. Spoken into the Void, Collected Essays 1897–1900. Web page 2. MIT Press, New York. 1982. Kulka additionally ready the second 1930 Version of ‘Spoken into the Void’ alongside a brand new Loos ebook titled Troztdem in collaboration with Kulka’s pal the writer Ludwig Von Ficker of Brenner Verlag.15 Kulka was extra beneficiant with the scale of home windows in comparison with Loos. Examine for instance the scale of fenestration in Loos’ Rufer Home (1922), Vienna with Kulka’s Villa Kantor, Czech Republic (1934). Notice additionally that Kulka was an early proponent, maybe the earliest in New Zealand of the manufacturing unit saw-tooth roof, evident within the Innes Manufacturing unit.16 Henry Kulka, Adolf Loos: The work of the Architect. Anton Schroll Verlag, Wien, 1930.17 Kulka was recognised for pioneering the trendy use of finely mitred plywood linings to partitions, and for meticulously joined built-in furnishings from New Zealand native timbers. Refer Richard Goldie’s unpublished thesis (Henry Kulka, Thesis (BArch)—College of Auckland, 1986) and the three Kulka homes profiled in Julia Gatley’s Lengthy Reside the Fashionable. Gatley, Julia (ed). Lengthy Reside the Fashionable, New Zealand’s New Structure 1904–1984. (Auckland College Press, 2008).