Most N.Z. architecture ‘mediocre mush’

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 17

Most N.Z. architecture ‘mediocre mush’

An expatriate architect, Dr Mark Wigley, believes architecture is the most public of the arts. We see it on the way to work. We see it from the kitchen window. We see it all round us. But we do not talk about it much, so most of our architecture is “mediocre mush.” Dr Wigley presents a provocative look at New Zealand architecture on "Kaleidoscope” at 9.15 tonight on One. “Most New Zealanders have extremely strong feelings about architecture,” says Wigley, "but they are never encouraged to reveal them. And without any debate, without any informed criticism, architects do not bother to put much effort into their buildings.”

“At its most basic, the aim of our programme is to generate debate." Dr Wigley, currently teaching architecture in the United 'States at Princeton University, is no stranger to debate. His appearance on “Kaleidoscope” last year — in a look at recent commercial and domestic architecture in Auckland — provoked much heated discussion about the merits or otherwise of mirrored glass and two very visible luxury apartment blocks. Wigley defended both, as crude but energetic

steps in the right direction. In tonight’s programme he switches his attention to two of New Zealand’s resort areas, the Bay of Islands and Queenstown. “Most people assume that architectural ideas emerge from the big cities,” says Wigley. “But it is actually in places like

the Bay of Islands and Queenstown that New Zealand’s architectural identity has been, and is being forged. "These are the places where we have constructed a view of our past which determines the way we build today. They are also tourist resorts ... the places where New Zealand meets the outside

world — its frontiers if you like. “It is at a country’s frontiers that its architectural identity emerges." So what does Dr Wigley think of architecture in the Bay of Islands and Queenstown?

Not much, in some cases. A number of buildings are labelled with tags like “tacky,” “clumsy,” and “banal.” Others win praise. He singles out buildings which “exude an authentic sense of colonial history,” which “sparkle,” which "ramble up hills like complex pieces of apparatus.” In short he makes it quite plain what he thinks. It was this frankness that encouraged the programme’s director, Roger Price, to use Dr Wigley as the presenter. “A number of people in the architectural world have misgivings about the quality of work produced here,” says Price, "but will not say so publicly.” “Dr Wigley is not afraid to do so. On top of that he is a good communicator and has all the qualifications to speak with authority.”

Those qualifications include a rare doctorate in architectural theory from Auckland University, and experience in the office of one of America’s top architects, Peter Eisenman.