Ephemera: The Elusive Canon of New Zealand Architecture

Abstract

Architecture might appear to be the most concrete of disciplines, but its canons are generally understood as both created through, and underwritten by, published texts, photographs and drawings. In New Zealand, however, the situation seems rather more complicated. New Zealand architectural discourse and history has few major texts. Indeed, aside from a small handful of books, most of the country’s published accounts of architecture might be categorised as ephemera— pamphlets, exhibition catalogues, and the odd short-lived journal. Little-read and hard to find, they are known to most architects by reputation rather than through actual perusal.