28 September 2018

Festival of Architecture 2018: it’s a wrap

The Festival of Architecture 2018 was a celebration of architecture and design in centres all throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Organised by the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the festival’s mission is to explore the role of architecture in improving New Zealanders’ quality of life within our towns and cities. The festival comprised tours, talks, debates and exhibitions. Architectus studios in Auckland and Christchurch participated in five events.

Speed Mentoring Night

Organised by Joy Partridge and Lauren Speer, Architectus Auckland studio hosted a Speed Mentoring Night in association with Architecture + Women NZ. Being the opposite of a formal mentor/mentee type of function, the event format was fast and loose, with an organic and casual approach to forming mentor relationships. The night also marked the launch of A+W NZ’s Mentoring Page on their website.

Speed Mentoring – image courtesy of Joe Hockley

Green Architecture Walking Tour

The NZIA Auckland Branch and the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) ran a joint walking tour which visited recently completed sustainable developments in Wynyard Quarter. Architectus presented Wynyard Central Insert link to project page (which achieves Homestar 7/8 rating), 58 Gaunt Street (5* Green Star rating – NZ Excellence) and 155 Fanshawe Street which targets a 6* Green Star Design and Built rating (World Leadership).

Severin Soder guiding the Green Architecture Walking Tour

‘Back of House’ guided tour 

Patrick Clifford and Severin Soder from our Auckland studio took a group on a tour through the recently completed Wynyard Central residential development. The group visited a variety of different apartment typologies which foster diverse city living.

Guided tour of Wynyard Central

‘OpenSource’ 

This event enabled the public to go behind the scenes of architecture studios and find out how architects do what they do. Our Auckland and Christchurch studios opened their doors under the guise of ‘coffee with an architect’ – inviting visitors to have a cup of coffee, chat with the architects and learn about what goes on in the every day world of an architectural practice.

‘OpenSource’: Architectus studios open doors to the public. Image courtesy Joe Hockley

World Park(ing) Day

The New Zealand Institute of Architects Auckland Branch participated in world PARK(ing) Day on Friday 21st September. PARK(ing) Day is an annual open-source global event aimed at raising awareness of the important role that public open space plays in improving the quality of our lives. The day is an annual global event that started in 2005 when a San Francisco art and design studio converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco.

Since then it has evolved into a global movement, with organisations and individuals creating new forms of temporary public spaces in urban settings throughout the world.

There were about 50 temporary parklets this year across Auckland. The Auckland studio occupied a car just meters from their front door on High Street. The installation played with the symbol of the yellow line (no parking) and transformed it into a three-dimensional object constructed from yellow painted card board boxes, which acted as a canvas for passers-by to leave thoughts on the improvement of the public realm.