Maximus

549 Articles

A Wellingtonian, interested in architecture and design. But enough about me, what about you?

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Maximus
2 Min Read

Hooray for us! Wellington was indeed blessed last night, as the first evening of the Lux festival took off. The weather behaved itself (dark, no wind, and nearly completely rain free), the crowds of people roaming the waterfront and lane way enjoyed themselves, and the luminous artworks were superb. As they should be – Wellingtonians are used to festivals and know when to go out and…

Maximus
3 Min Read

Ancient Wellington property developer Mark Dunajtschik’s dilemma over the Harcourts building is in its final stages of legal action. I’d maintain that, while this is a tedious re-examination of all the evidence that has gone before, it is also one of the most important (in an architectural sense) cases that New Zealand faces, and will have important ramifications for the future of NZ’s past. And with…

Maximus
4 Min Read

When I was a young fish, helping my Dad stack the timber in the woodshed, there always used to be shiny silver slaters running for cover as we shifted the timber. I remember that on occasions, when loading the wood into the fire, a slater would still be marooned on a log as we placed it into the burning grate, and there would be a satisfying…

Maximus
5 Min Read

Buying the latest copy of Monocle the other day, as one of the few quality, intelligent, and witty magazines out there, I could not help but notice, once again, that Wellington does not feature at all in their list of the World’s Top 25 Cities for Quality of Life. Nor does it feature in the Economist magazine’s similarly titled list. Yet we know that Lonely Planet…

Maximus
2 Min Read

The Convention Centre proposal comments are due by the 8th August ie Friday. 14th August at 5.00pm. Here is my submission to Wellington City Council. The proposal to build a combined Convention Centre and Hilton Hotel is a good proposal for Wellington, and it should be encouraged to go ahead, with some strong urban design amendments. The good points about the proposals are that it is…

Maximus
2 Min Read

A slight digression from buildings in New Zealand – while I’m watching one of those house-building programs about self-build housing in the UK. This one, on Tuesday nights on TV3, is called “The House that £100,000 Built“. Ruth and Tony’s “cash-strapped” project in Shropshire was the feature house this week, with a timber-clad couple of boxes that look similar, but not as sophisticated, to an architecturally-designed…

Maximus
4 Min Read

Its not just residents living near the Establishment that thinks living in the city can be a noisy affair. I’m overjoyed to hear that residents in Seville have also had enough of noisy visitors milling and shouting in the streets below. They’ve just passed a law about it in Seville, according to the Guardian, and hooray for them. “It’s a balance between the right of residents…

Maximus
7 Min Read

“It’s a tragedy that the actions of a tiny minority of people have succeeded in holding back Wellington for years to come. Their opposition to the Basin Reserve bridge project will cost countless jobs and has other significant ramifications. Wellington could miss out on around $465million of investment.” So says the current head of the Wellington Employers Chamber of Commerce, according to Scoop. John Milford, who…

Maximus
1 Min Read

Well, my abilities at prediction are evidently way off the mark – as noted in the previous post, the Board of Inquiry have returned their verdict, and the result is an (almost) resounding defeat for the proponents of the Flyover – the Resource Consent is declined. I’m delighted to have been shown to be so stupidly wrong in that the Board would rubber-stamp the Flyover application…