Leviathan
4 Min Read

Wellington has long had a good sense of social justice in its housing portfolio – but has also been lagging behind with the upgrades, until recently. Over the last 10 years many of the social housing blocks in Wellington have been substantially refurbed – and now comes the turn of Arlington. This block, a large central city Mt Cook / Te Aro / Edge of Aro…

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Leviathan
1 Min Read

Newsflash – the RIBA have just awarded the Gold Medal to Zaha Hadid. Fantastic news – she’s one of my heroes. Totally brilliant, totally mad, totally British, totally uncompromising, totally scary. Fantastic woman, fantastic architect – and fantastic also that this is the first time ever that the RIBA, traditionally a collection of crusty boring old men, has crowned a woman with the Gold Medal. I…

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Leviathan
1 Min Read

It’s Wellington Architecture Week, apparently, and it has been going on all week long – apparently. Sorry – I’ve nearly missed the whole thing. Been busy. So, without more ado, here is the info on what’s going down. There are a couple of pages with info on, writing is a bit small to read, so not sure if this will work: and then there is this,…

Leviathan
2 Min Read

Wellington is in an interesting place right now. We are not growing as fast as they are in Auckland, but I don’t hear anyone complaining over that. Auckland’s growth figures in housing cost are frightening in both the short term and the long term, with a property bubble seeming ready to pop. It is a volatile situation, on the verge of being totally out of control,…

Leviathan
1 Min Read

Leaving the smokescreen that is the Flag debate behind, to concentrate on more important things: how would we house refugees? Yes, I think everyone except for John Key gets it that there is a massive problem with floods of people moving countries, and that New Zealand needs to play its part. 750 people per year is pathetic. Even Labour and the Greens proposals for 1000, or…

Leviathan
2 Min Read

I’ve not yet heard a single person say that they think any of the 4 selected flags are the right one – so, fairly predictably, the whole flag / rebranding exercise has failed. Which is not surprising when you get people as design-unsavvy as an aged ex-AllBlack and a reality TV show creator on the panel. A horse/flag designed by a committee is a camel –…