Here and There: House and Nature in New Zealand Architecture

Abstract

New Zealand does not make its own canons. Rather, they are constructed within discourses that traffic between the local situation and the international. This, at least, is the case in architecture. To consider this proposition, it will be productive to examine some recent representations of New Zealand architecture in the mainstream European design media: an article on Auckland architect Rewi Thompson in the Italian journal Lotus; another in the English publication Blueprint about a house on Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty; and several pieces from the English journals The Architectural Review and Architectural Design (AD). All of these have appeared since 1996. Pieces in other journals will be subjects for short asides.