The Nineteen Seventies noticed a cadre of main New Zealand designers – Roger Walker, Ian Athfield and Claude Megson, in addition to the older figures corresponding to Miles Warren and Peter Beaven — competing within the creation of extremely authentic work. Within the early Nineteen Eighties, nevertheless, many architects’ eyes turned once more to the horizon, adapting concepts from overseas reasonably than creating distinctive private languages. Probably the most intriguing new instructions, significantly for many who nonetheless held some religion with modernist values, was indicated by Piano and Rogers’ Centre Pompidou in Paris, accomplished in 1977.

The machine had lengthy been a defining picture of modernism. Le Corbusier’s “engineers’ aesthetic” favoured the streamlined types of the aeroplane and the ocean liner. The Centre Pompidou crystallised a brand new picture of the machine during which the weather of the mechanism had been expressed and even celebrated: uncovered construction and exaggerated joints, plug-in companies and versatile plans. The consequence: an structure of ‘components’. The method lent itself to giant spans and tall towers. Each internationally and domestically, the icons of Excessive Tech had been, for essentially the most half, industrial and civic structure — workplace buildings, high-end laboratories and factories, airports and sports activities halls.

Excessive Tech structure, although, developed some native nuances. In Europe, the progenitors of Excessive Tech had been younger radicals; Renzo Piano was simply 39 years previous when the Pompidou was accomplished. Whereas the method drew extra from industrial expertise than from architectural custom, it retained modernism’s elevation of purposeful and structural logic as a major driver for design. Right here in New Zealand, this appeared to make it extra palatable to the older designers who led our established industrial companies. However there have been different points of interest for the institution. Complexity and innovation are normally costly and, globally, the model has held specific attraction for rich shoppers, corresponding to insurance coverage corporations and banks.

(Norman Foster’s Hong Kong and Shanghai Financial institution, 1985, was, on the time, the most costly constructing on the earth.) Unsurprisingly, that has additionally been the case in Aotearoa. After all, company buildings listed here are created for regional reasonably than world entities, and the step down in fiscal firepower implies that Kiwi Excessive Tech is characterised by extra modest means — off-the-shelf components combined in with the extremely bespoke building methods that characterise abroad work.

If the Excessive Tech innovators — Piano, Rogers and Foster — up to date Corbusier’s Nineteen Twenties’ “engineers’ aesthetic” to a extra explicitly mechanistic imagery aligned to the expertise of the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, by the brand new millennium, architects had been following the cues of the period’s a lot much less expressive technological objects. Our technological icons grew to become the 3D printer and, launched in 2007, the iPhone — a seamless rectangle of satin metal, plastic and black glass. Now, twenty years additional on once more, the rise of the digital world implies that technological advances have additional receded from the bodily realm. Synthetic intelligence is unlikely to assist — its bodily expression is a couple of blinking pixels and a shorter ‘to do’ record. As architectural inspiration, Cybertrucks and supply drones are of restricted utility, and the zeitgeist is probably going pushing us away from such explicitly consumerist reference factors.

In any occasion, the mandatory substitution of concrete and metal with mass timber means our technologically superior buildings now resemble large machines lower than they do huge cabinetry. Regardless of this materials shift, we could ultimately perceive the stream of Kiwi Excessive Tech to have flowed by way of to Irving Smith Architects and RTA Studio’s outrageously slender timber diagrid at Scion (2020) or to the inexperienced methods and jaunty photo voltaic panels of Tennent Brown’s new Ngā Mokopuna. Corbusier’s century-old phrases are nonetheless related: “Our personal epoch is figuring out, daily, its personal model. Our eyes, unhappily, are unable but to discern it.”

THE ITINERARY

1. 1979 – Cell Plant Workshop

Quay Road, Auckland KRTA

After rising within the Nineteen Fifties with a genteel modernism, by way of the Sixties and ’70s, Kingston, Reynolds, Thom and Allardice championed progressively bolder approaches, with Excessive Tech getting into the combo within the late Nineteen Seventies. David Mitchell wrote of this constructing that its architect had “made a mechanism from the workshop for straddle cranes that raise containers on the wharf. He designed an industrial jewel field that shows its insides to the waterfront drivers. In some ways it’s a easy wharf shed, however this architect too is aware of the poetry of engineering. The straddle crane constructing is excessive drama handed off as easy practicality.”

2. 1983 –Auckland Harbour Board Constructing

139 Quay Road, Auckland Dodd Paterson Newman Pearce Architects Collaborative

This constructing is the closest New Zealand got here to Japanese Metabolism — a delayed arrival of concepts, typical earlier than the arrival of the web. It had all the weather of a Sixties’ ‘metropolis within the air’: a daring megastructure that means extend-ability, a central service core and public area beneath the elevated constructing. The constructing now incorporates industrial workplace area, and the undercroft has been crammed in with outlets and bars, demonstrating simply the form of flexibility that was the objective of Metabolism however, sarcastically, making the constructing much less fascinating and obscuring the explicitly Excessive Tech components. See House & Constructing Aug/Sept 1983 and Aug/Sept 1986.

3. 1983 – Physics and Engineering Laboratory

69 Gracefield Street, Decrease Hutt Structon Group

Initially designed for the Division of Scientific and Industrial Analysis, then the federal government’s major technique of supporting technological innovation, this complicated of workshops and laboratories was one of many nation’s most thoroughgoing expressions of the Excessive Tech method. The laboratory’s key want was for flexibility, which was offered by a moon-base-like association of ‘free match’ constructions, nodes and courtyards. The composition was accomplished by a community of externally uncovered companies, initially shiny pink. The mission has obtained quite a few NZIA awards, together with an Enduring Structure Award in 2008. Refer NZIA Journal June 1977 and NZ Architect 1, 1983.

4. 1984 – Union Constructing

2 Commerce Road, Auckland Warren and Mahoney

Between the brutalism of the Nineteen Seventies and the postmodern classicism of the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Warren and Mahoney briefly explored a Excessive Tech-inflected method, characterised by structural expression and angular geometries. This tower’s distinguished location means it’s the perfect recognized however the interval produced many gems; hunt down the previous Waitematā Metropolis Council Workplaces (6 Waipareira Avenue, Henderson; 1981–84). The Union Constructing’s exterior pre-cast concrete bracing to soak up earthquake hundreds was a primary for high-rise buildings in New Zealand, and a crafty piles-in-tubes base-isolation system was a world first. See House & Constructing Dec/Jan 1984/85 and NZ Concrete Development Could 1984.

5. 1987 – Ōtara City Centre Canopies

East Tāmaki Street, Ōtara Rewi Thompson

The reception of this mission tends to concentrate on its cultural and contextual qualities: the symbolism of its fish imagery, and its location at a key centre for Auckland’s Māori and Pasifika communities. But it surely’s value remembering that Thompson emerged within the early Nineteen Eighties from Structon Group’s hothouse of modernism, and this mission is undergirded by bravura structural design — the glazed canopies are supported by three several types of metal body, elevated on elegant concrete portals. Unbuilt tasks by Thompson not too long ago dropped at mild present extravagant constructions had been, at the least for a time, a key strand of his considering. See Structure NZ Sept/Oct 1993.

6. 1987 – Anchor Home

70 London Road, Hamilton Stephenson & Turner

Unusually for an workplace constructing, this tower was developed and owned by its occupier — the large dairy firm that advanced into what’s now Fonterra. The outside of the constructing (which absorbed two present constructions on the location) is a sculptural composition within the excessive modernism for which its designers had been extensively celebrated, however stepping inside reveals a five-storey atrium animated by all the weather typical of Excessive Tech: expressed lattice construction, glass pores and skin, free-standing lifts, and uncovered and brightly colored air ducts. This grand area was described by a reviewer as “a visible and spatial delight”. See Structure NZ Nov/Dec 1987.

7. 1987 – Chase Stadium

203 Kohimārama Street, Kohimārama Dodd Paterson Architects

Sharing an architect with the Auckland Harbour Board Constructing (itemizing 02) and now named Barfoot & Thompson Stadium, this mission was constructed on the grounds of Selwyn School. It was initially meant to be a comparatively modest faculty gymnasium, increasing to turn out to be the venue for gymnastics through the 1990 Commonwealth Video games. For critic Paul Walker, this underlying modesty undermined its credibility: “Although it isn’t a high-tech constructing insofar as this is able to indicate overly valuable technique of building and an intensely serviced inside setting, the smooth, vibrant finishes of Chase Stadium do give it a high-tech look.” See Structure NZ Mar/Apr 1988.

8. 1988 – Chase Plaza

72 Albert Road, Auckland Walker Co-Partnership

Property builders Chase Company had been behind lots of the Nineteen Eighties’ most high-profile — and most closely critiqued — industrial tasks. Topic to a string of modifications, this mission’s most memorable authentic characteristic was its space-framed roof cover, assembled from vaulted Plexiglass specifically imported from Germany. Following the Inventory Market Crash of 1987, the identify was modified to Finance Plaza after Chase Company went into decline on the finish of the last decade. The Plaza, which occupies a rooftop that fashioned a podium to a number of workplace towers, is now being regularly occupied by sports activities amenities. See Structure NZ July/Aug 1988.

9. 1991 – Auckland Trotting Membership Stables Complicated

400 Manukau Street, Auckland Adams Langley Architects

As with lots of the companies on this itinerary, Adams Langley Architects had an organization lineage that had produced among the nation’s most adventurous modernist buildings. This elegant mission is, in some ways, quite simple and unassuming: two open-ended sheds that comply with the curve of the instantly adjoining racetrack. Seeming to effortlessly mix expressive cantilevered construction, crisp detailing and swish geometry, the mission received an NZIA Resene Nationwide Award in 1991, the jury noting how the “strong and purposeful complicated has used cheap and unadorned constructing supplies to create a light-weight and ethereal setting”. See Structure NZ Mar/Apr and Could/June 1991.

10. 1998 – Taupō Occasions Centre

26 AC Baths Avenue, Taupō Artistic Areas

Fusing Excessive Tech and PoMo components, this well-used sports activities and recreation centre is organised round an enormous sports activities corridor. The corridor’s roof construction was designed by Ove Arup & Companions, the worldwide engineering agency behind Excessive Tech icons such because the Centre Pompidou (1977), Rogers’ Lloyd’s of London (1984) and Foster’s Hong Kong and Shanghai Financial institution (1985). The roof is a skinny arc that mixes metal trusses and laminated timber beams, all supported by rigidity cables and rows of slender masts that run down the constructing’s lengthy façades.Refer Structure NZ Could/June 1998 and Sept/Oct 1999.

11. 2003 – Peregrine Vineyard

2127 Gibbston Freeway, Gibbston Structure Workshop

Christopher Kelly introduced severe Excessive Tech bona fides, honed on high-profile tasks at Renzo Piano Constructing Workshop, together with the Kansai Worldwide Airport close to Osaka (1994) and the Aurora Place Tower in Sydney (2000). This wildly photogenic mission is keyed to the size and drama of its alpine setting. An enormous translucent cover twists gently over enclosures for the making, storage and promoting of wine which might be embedded within the floor under. The lined area generated between the 2 is for internet hosting occasions. The development is technologically expressive however economically savvy, skilfully combining custom-made components with off-the-shelf methods. See Monument 68 (Aug/Sept) 2005

12. 2008 – Waitomo Caves Customer Centre

21 Waitomo Village Street, Waitomo Structure Workshop

This groundbreaking mission follows an identical parti to that of Peregrine — a light-weight roof floating over embedded purposeful areas — however dissimilar geometries, supplies and context conjure a distinctly totally different consequence. It presents a model of Excessive Tech that feels extra domestically grounded, with many of the constructing, together with the spectacular light-weight grid-shell body for the cover, being comprised of timber and incorporating refined references to quite a lot of native constructed and crafted types. It received the NZIA Structure Medal in 2011: see Structure NZ Jan/Feb 2011. Structure Workshop’s The Lindis (1490 Birchwood Street, Ahuriri Valley; 2014) accomplished a trilogy of outstanding canopy-ground tasks.

13. 2009 – NZI Centre

1 Fanshawe Road, Auckland Jasmax

This constructing’s diagrid glazing made it one in every of Auckland’s most hanging new industrial buildings however, as with different tasks of the period, the technological expression is, in some ways, subsumed inside easy types. In plan, the stack of workplace flooring plates peels again from the diagrid façade to create a dramatic five-storey atrium, a relaxed materials palette animated by floating flooring slabs, flying stairs and projecting assembly rooms. On the rear, a clean airplane of solar louvres masks service ducts, which snake, Pompidou-like, over the outside. The constructing obtained an NZIA Nationwide Structure Award in 2010. See Structure NZ Sept/Oct 2009.

14. 2010 – Deloitte Centre

80 Queen Road, Auckland Warren and Mahoney with Woods Bagot

As famous earlier, the arrival of objects such because the iPhone generated a brand new picture of the methods during which our more and more digital technological setting was expressed in bodily kind. Our most superior machines now didn’t specific their components and controls however had been seamless and inscrutable. This aesthetic calming was absorbed by architects, and, in a evaluate of this constructing, Invoice McKay picked out the connection: “There’s an actual iPhone stylish to the Queen Road entrance, with the sheen of black glass in two huge planes that hover like a few actually, actually large flat display TVs.” See Structure NZ Jan/Feb 2010.

OTHER ADDRESSES

Given the affiliation of Excessive Tech with industrial buildings, and the dangers created by exposing companies and construction to the climate, many tasks have been demolished or altered past recognition, together with Mason & Wales’ Harbour Board Constructing (1980) at Port Chalmers and John Blair’s O’Connell’s Pavilion in Queenstown (1988). A lot was additionally misplaced within the Canterbury earthquakes.

Colonial Mutual Life Constructing (1980, 1984) 117 Customhouse Quay, Wellington Structon Group

Mid Metropolis (1981) 239 Queen Road, Auckland Sinclair Group

The Oaks (1981) 73 Cuba Mall, Wellington Warren and Mahoney

Gasoline Home (1982) 426 Palmerston Street, Gisborne Roger Walker

McLean Park Grandstand (1984) Latham Road, Napier Hoogerbrug, Magdalinos and Williams

Nationwide Financial institution Centre (1987) Queen Road, Auckland Glossop Chan Partnership

Montgomery Home (1990) 190 Trafalgar Road, Nelson Ian Jack & Associates T

The Pinnacle (1991) 406 Remuera Street, Auckland Dr Robert Donald

21 Queen Road (2009) 21 Queen Road, AucklandPeddle Thorp Architects An award-winning renovation and enlargement of an present workplace tower.

William James Constructing (2010) 275 Leith Stroll, Dunedin Architectural Ecology

Eden Park South Stand (2011) Reimers Avenue, Auckland Jasmax and Populous

SOURCES

A wonderful, if Eurocentric, normal useful resource on this second in world architectural historical past is Colin Davies’ Excessive Tech Structure (London: Thames & Hudson, 1991). Extra domestically — and launched within the mid-Nineteen Eighties when a lot of this native work was rising – David Mitchell and Gillian Chaplin’s The Elegant Shed: New Zealand Structure since 1945 (Auckland: Oxford College Press, 1984) feedback on a number of of the buildings on this itinerary; intriguingly, its fascinating remaining chapter on the brand new concepts then rising doesn’t level to expertise as a key driver of change. Two of our landmark normal architectural histories contact on among the key Excessive Tech buildings: Peter Shaw’s New Zealand Structure (Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991) and Terence Hodgson’s Wanting on the Structure of New Zealand (Wellington: Grantham Home Publishing, 1990). Rewi Thompson followers ought to hunt down Jeremy Hansen and Jade Kake’s Rewi: Āta haere, kia tere (Auckland: Massey College Press, 2023). Additionally helpful is John Balasoglou’s Stephenson & Turner (Auckland: Balasoglou Books, 2006). Gerald Melling’s The Mid-Metropolis Disaster and Different Tales (Wellington: Thumbprint Press, 1989) presents a stinging critique of each the forces at work within the Nineteen Eighties and the outcomes they produced.

The Itinerary sequence is supported by Dulux Colors of New Zealand. Dulux Color Specialist Davina Harper has chosen a Colors of New Zealand palette based mostly on this itinerary. See the complete vary and order color samples right here.