My
story is rooted in the remnants of an Anglo American colonial New Zealand:
white clapperboard facades, thresholds gleaming in their Cardinal Red
polish and wide open front doors. All well-mannered and staged beyond
green lawns. But these were also the post war decades and everything was
changing. Lead by academics and modernists, the call was for "Urban
Renewal". It was hard edged and ruled without compromise. Comfort,
detailing and beauty in our architecture seemed to have no place alongside
the plywood, plastic paints and glassy shine that was everything new.
At the time my feelings had no form of expression, but I knew even then
we had been duped and were losing a valuable part of our heritage and
identity.
Feeling robbed and empty and needing to rediscover, I travelled. I saw
America, Italy and France, but it was in England that for the first time
in my life I was halted in my tracks. I had discovered Lutyens in the
Home Counties, Lorimer in Fife and Lothian, and Macintosh in Glasgow.
This was a revelation; I walked, I cycled, I read and I sketched my way
through a country that, by comparison to my own, appeared to have escaped
the ravages of the Modernists. I was enthralled, I felt at home and wonderfully
connected.
Although I was unable to distinguish myself at school, I was offered places
at three Scottish universities. Contrary to what I stood for at the time,
I felt most challenged and most welcomed by the overtly modernist concrete
and glass outpost that was the School of Architecture at the Unversity
of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
After graduating with my degree in architecture I was offered a three
year training place in the London office of Donald W Insall and Ascossiates,
leading conservation architects and at the time lead architects for the
restoration of Windsor Castle following the great fire. ‘Insall’s’ was
then a small but highly skilled team dedicated to safeguarding the country's
most beloved historic buildings. I was privileged to work at a detailed
survey level on buildings that most people only look upon from afar as
tourists. This was my time to formally study the essence and character
of great architecture in all its forms and expressions. It was from this
experience that I learnt to understand and articulate architectural form
for myself and my drawings were hung over three successive years at the
Royal Academy of Art, Summer Exhibitions.
I emerged capable and confident in my expression of architectural form.
I no longer saw modernism as the enemy of our architectural heritage -
that was and still is a consequence of our consumer driven age. In sole
practice I set about aggressively breaking down the barriers that had
arisen between the 'professional' architect and the trades; I rose with
the tradesmen and craftsmen of the job and together we achieved solutions
that were alive and passionate in their celebration of form, function
and decoration, and strong in their character and identity.
Now, in New Zealand, we find ourselves working alongside a wonderful
team of people of diverse skill and dedication, designing and building
extraordinary homes to an exceptionally high standard which we hope will
endure the ages to come. I couldn't be more proud.