We don’t really have an equivalent of Gavin Stamp in New Zealand, at least not as far as architecture goes. Gavin Stamp is a chap from Scotland / England / Britain that writes, and thinks, very well about architecture: we could do well with someone like him here. He came to my attention first when we were both in the UK, where he was a key…
Fish
A short and sweet post this morning with an up-beat theme – praising the Dutch postal system. I love the way the Netherlands have got such a strong record of public art and supporting design – especially with the bold graphic design the Dutch are known for. And here, in a way that only the Dutch really do, is the latest set of stamps from Holland…
Words of the Specials echoing in my head, it’s time to ask the difficult question that no one else seems to be broaching: Is it time to admit that Christchurch’s time is up, and that the whole city should be abandoned? While they might not like us even raising the subject, should we not at least debate the question? With apologies to our ChCh readers, let’s…
While I’m steadily more and more amazed at the sycophantic press coverage afforded to the nuptials of a certain couple this week, not just from the gutter press of No Idea and Women’s Weakly etc, but also from TV1 and TV3, I swore a solemn oath on the fin of my father’s flipper that I wouldn’t cover the wedding, and hence won’t say another word about…
Speaking bluntly: there’s no cure for congestion. No, we’re not talking one of those bad, hacking coughs, that goes with the congested lungs of your wizened and blackened ex-smoker’s body here, we are talking the lungs of a much more important organism than you. We’re talking about the life of a city here. And with congestion in a city, there’s no cure at all. The Stephen…
Not wanting to put too fine a point on it, but this town needs more public WCs. Come the Rugby World Cup, we’re going to be rivaling Christchurch for numbers of Portaloos deployed in the streets I suspect, for the simple reason that we don’t have enough places dedicated for number 1s and number 2s. We’ve written about this before, in a post (still one of…
Really. I’m staggered at how bad this government is. Take this pitiful offering for example. How did she ever get to be elected? Or the amount of legislation that is passed under urgency – a quite staggering amount, deliberately chosen to stifle debate and circumvent the processes specifically set up to avoid bad law. Seventeen separate Acts where the vitally crucial Select Committee stage has been…
Christchurch – there’s just so many things I want to write about down there, and sadly, not really that much going on up here. The Government announced yesterday that three suppliers of temporary portable housing have been named: “Three kiwi-based companies were selected to provide the temporary accommodation. A consortium of Hawkins/Spanbild/Fulton Hogan; Jennian Homes; and New Zealand Transportable Units were the chosen providers out of…
I’ve not got much time to note anything much about this building at present – am still wading my way through the comprehensive Assessment of Environmental Effects – but so I thought I would post it up here in the mean time in case any of you lot have any comments you wish to make. It is, as noted in the DomPost the other day, proposed…
Moving into winter on this cold, wet Monday evening, with the date of 1st April now behind us, and Phil Goff on the radio loudly proclaiming that he is not an April Fool, I thought it would be nice to celebrate the intellectuals amongst us, by having a look at the musings of those that muse upon the city. Sometimes we muse, sometimes we amuse, but…