Back in 2008, when the forerunners of this current series of itineraries were published in Block: The Broadsheet of the Auckland Branch of the NZIA, Andrew Barrie and I wrote two such guides on out-of-print New Zealand architecture books. Together, they capture the publication of about half-a-dozen such books per decade, across each of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, followed by an expansion in numbers this century, particularly from 2004, when the New Zealand Architectural Publications Trust started supporting the publication of monographs on practices.

Now, we are witness to a new phenomenon: the publication of enough titles within one calendar year to fill a whole itinerary — even as print publication is supposed to be in the doldrums, increasingly replaced by digital and online resources. There were a lot in 2021, too. The swathe may yet prove to be a Covid anomaly, with three years of lockdowns having encouraged atypical pursuits.

Several observations can be made about the 2022 books collectively. First, Massey University Press is currently New Zealand’s most prolific publisher of architecture books, thanks to the leadership of Nicola Legat and her demonstrated commitment to the field.

Second, pairings of writers and photographers have become an established kind of authoring unit, particularly when it comes to books on architect-designed houses.

More generally, houses continue to hold a privileged place in New Zealand architecture publishing. There is a market beyond the profession for books on houses, making them a more viable publishing proposition than are books on other building types. That said, it is encouraging to see, in the 2022 offerings, increased attention to more diverse types of housing, as distinct from a mono-focus on the detached house.

The wave of post-earthquake books on Christchurch architecture and urbanism continues. Freerange Press was a key player in this field in the years immediately after the quakes. It has broadened its scope across a range of social and political issues, and released Shifting Foundations: Post-quake Architecture of Ōtautahi Christchurch in February 2023, but the dominant post-quake architecture book is now the monograph dedicated to an individual building. Past examples have included Andrew Barrie’s Shigeru Ban: Cardboard Cathedral (Auckland University Press, 2014), the Ian Lochhead-edited The Christchurch Town Hall 1965–2019: A Dream Renewed (Canterbury University Press, 2019) and Alexander McKinnon’s Come Back to Mona Vale: Life and Death in a Christchurch Mansion (Otago University Press, 2021). In 2022, this continued with Sally Blundell’s Ravenscar House and Edmund Bohan’s Heart of the City.

Architecture is starting to see a stream of books written through Te Ao Māori and decolonising lenses, with recent titles including Rebecca Kiddle, Luugigyoo Patrick Stewart and Kevin O’Brien’s Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture (ORO Editions, 2018), Jade Kake’s Rebuilding the Kāinga: Lessons from Te Ao Hurihuri (Bridget Williams Books, 2019) and, on cultural landscapes, the Carolyn Hill-edited Kia Whakanuia te Whenua: People, Place, Landscape (Mary Egan, 2021). These lines of enquiry continued in 2022 with the Ellen Andersen-edited Matangireia and the Fiona Cram, Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith-edited Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua.

Finally, in 2022, we saw a turn to fiction, with novels from design historian Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and architect Alistair Luke.

Of the various New Zealand architecture books published in 2022, Debra Miller’s Architecture at Home made the New Zealand Listener’s annual list of top 100 books, published in the 26 November–2 December issue. The previous issue, dated 19–25 November, had included lists of the year’s best coffee-table books and best art and nature books. Architecture at Home and Rooms, by Jane Ussher and John Walsh, were included among the best coffee-table books, while Simon Devitt, Luke Scott and Andrea Stevens’ Cape to Bluff and Elizabeth Cox’s Making Space were included among the best art and nature books. Across these four lauded tomes, it was a case of houses, houses, houses… oh, and indeed, yay, something other than houses, with Cox’s survey of women architects. Happy reading, everyone.

THE ITINERARY

1. Matangireia: A Space for Māori at Parliament

Ellen Andersen (ed.)
(Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga)

Matangireia is the former Māori Affairs Committee Room at Parliament, opened in 1922. One hundred years later, this edited collection explains the creation of the space and its carvings, tukutuku panels and kōwhaiwhai, as well as the use of the room over time. It also discusses its more recent conservation, in which the book’s editor, Ellen Andersen, was involved, as Director Tautiaki Taonga me Kaupapa Māori at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. Paul Diamond reviewed it for Nine To Noon on RNZ National on 15 December 2022.

2. Ravenscar House: A Biography

Sally Blundell
(Canterbury University Press)

Ravenscar House in Christchurch is described as “a purpose-built house museum”, designed by Patterson Associates for a couple, Jim and Susan Wakefield, with an impressive art collection, and then gifted to a charitable trust for opening as a museum. This book tells the stories of the couple, the building, the art and the gifting. It is extensively illustrated but without plans and sections. Perhaps the plan was excluded on the grounds of security, or to make you want to go there to see the place for yourself.

3. Heart of the City: The Story of Christchurch’s Controversial Cathedral

Edmund Bohan
(Quentin Wilson)

Christchurch’s highly significant Anglican Cathedral was seriously damaged in the Canterbury quakes. Contentious post-quake debates played out in the media on whether to leave it as a ruin, restore/rebuild, adapt or demolish and replace. Bohan, who is both an historian and a singer attuned to acoustics, concentrates on the longer history of the place, from the 1840s to the present, including the planning of the restoration/reconstruction. See Vanessa Coxhead’s review in Architecture NZ, Sept/Oct 2022.

4. Making Space: A History of New Zealand Women in Architecture

Elizabeth Cox (ed.)
(Massey University Press)

If you failed to notice the arrival of Making Space in October 2022, you must have had your head in the sand. It was everywhere, with three launches and multiple press releases, interviews and reviews. It builds on the efforts of Architecture+Women.NZ to name and record the achievements of women in New Zealand architecture, and benefits from extensive new research by Cox and a large number of contributing authors. Kathy Waghorn reviewed it in Architecture NZ, Nov/Dec 2022.

5. Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: Māori Housing Realities and Aspirations

Fiona Cram, Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith (eds)
(Bridget Williams Books)

This is a ‘by Māori, for Māori’ book, presenting research funded through MBIE’s National Science Challenge, Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities, and giving voice to the diversity of Māori aspirations for housing. It comprises a series of essays ranging from history, colonisation and whenua, to Māori experiences of housing and home, goals for the future and the roles that Māori can play in addressing the current problems of substandard housing and homelessness. Contributors include Rau Hoskins and Jade Kake.

6. Cape to Bluff: A Survey of Residential Architecture from Aotearoa New Zealand

Simon Devitt, Luke Scott and Andrea Stevens
 (s.p.)

Much has been made of the weight of this book – 3.6 kilograms. That equates to 368 pages in large format, with a hard cover. It presents 30 architect-designed dwellings in New Zealand landscapes. From mansions to baches, the landscape looms large in all — the mountains, the coasts, the bush and the expanses between. The photographs are by Devitt, the words by Stevens and the design/layout by Scott. Pre-orders were advertised before Christmas, for delivery in February 2023.

7. Small Holiday Houses: Designer Hideaways Across New Zealand

Catherine Foster
 (Penguin)

Foster has an enduring interest in small houses, with earlier books including Small House Living (2015) and Small House Living Australia (2017). The new one presents 20 small — but professionally designed — holiday houses in scenic spots around New Zealand. They are pitched as the stuff of dreams. But there’s an elephant in the room: the design challenges and strategies for small houses and small holiday houses might be equally interesting, but the green credentials of the two are quite different.

8. Henry Kulka

Mary Gaudin and Giles Reid
 (s.p.)

Czech émigré architect Henry Kulka (1900–1971) worked in Adolf Loos’ Vienna office from 1919. He escaped Nazism in 1938 and arrived in New Zealand in 1940. Here, he worked for Fletchers and, also, designed a number of private houses. As Reid notes, Kulka’s name is well known but his work is not. This 400-page book, with photographs by Gaudin and text by Reid, profiles buildings in Europe and in New Zealand. It includes plans and some archival photographs. Graeme Burgess will review it in the next issue of Architecture NZ.

9. Hundertwasser in New Zealand: The Art of Creating Paradise

Andreas J. Hirsch
 (Oratia)

Hirsch is an Austrian writer, photographer and curator who published a book on the Viennese artist and architectural designer Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 2011. His turn to Aotearoa New Zealand coincided with 2022’s opening of the Hundertwasser Art Centre and Wairau Māori Art Gallery in Whangārei. Bill McKay reviewed the book in Architecture NZ, Sept/Oct 2022. He found it to be beautiful and a useful addition to our shelves, if “a bit wobbly” on local culture and inhabitation of the whenua.

10. Medium: A Technical Design Guide for Creating Better Medium Density Housing in Aotearoa New Zealand

Guy Marriage
 (EBOSS)

Available as a book and a website (mediumdensity.nz), Medium is a practical resource on how to plan, design and build medium-density housing in New Zealand, with four case studies of medium density done well in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Each section is colour coded for ease of use. All of this is exactly what our bigger cities need more of right now. Stuart Niven reviewed it for Architecture NZ, Jan/Feb 2023, and Marriage and EBOSS are pursuing a sequel.

11. Modern Apartment Design

Guy Marriage (ed.)
 (Routledge)

Marriage has been busy, with his edited collection, Modern Apartment Design, also released in 2022. The focus is again on design and construction. It is a more international affair than is Medium, and the six case studies include Clearwater Quays in Christchurch, by Pacific Environments, and Wynyard Central East 2 in Auckland, by Architectus, along with European and North American examples. Christina van Bohemen reviewed it in Architecture NZ, March/Apr 2022. Routledge published Marriage’s earlier book, Tall, in 2020.

12. Korowai of Life and Love

Harold Marshall
 (s.p.)

Sir Harold Marshall is one of many who used the lockdowns to write a memoir. It is a life worth recording. Originally trained in architecture, he soon focused on acoustics, producing internationally significant research on lateral reflections and designing much-lauded acoustic environments, starting with those inside the Christchurch Town Hall (1966–1972). He later worked with starchitects internationally, including Jean Nouvel on the Philharmonie de Paris and Zaha Hadid on the Guangzhou Opera House. The book is available on eBay.

13. Architecture at Home: Houses for New Zealanders to Live, Work and Play

Debra Millar
(Point Publishing)

Millar owns Point Publishing and, through it, produces her own books and titles by others. Of this one, the Listener’s best 100 books list for 2022 simply said, “Twenty-two houses, in suburbs and city, on coast and tussock, some grand, others boutique, designed by our top architects”. This doesn’t really tell us why they picked this one but it certainly has a nice clean design, accessible writing and a good number of plans and sections. The photographs have been taken by a range of photographers.

14. Rooms: Portraits of Remarkable New Zealand Interiors

Jane Ussher and John Walsh
(Massey University Press)

With large format, hard cover and 352 pages, Rooms must rival Cape to Bluff’s 3.6 kilograms. Walsh provides an essay about Ussher up front but the bulk of the book belongs to Ussher. She has worked as a photographer since the 1970s and, for this volume of “portraits”, she spent two years photographing interiors. Some are clearly in mansions, while others are character spaces in everyday houses; many are full of stuff. The captions provide minimal information but more is included at the back of the book. Marian Macken reviewed Rooms in Architecture NZ, Nov/Dec 2022

15. Wellington Architecture: A Walking Guide

John Walsh and Patrick Reynolds
(Massey University Press)

This is the third in a series by Walsh and Reynolds, following on from similar books on Christchurch (2020) and Auckland (2021). All are intentionally small enough to fit in your handbag or pocket, to be carried around when seeing the sights. A lot has changed since Victoria University Press published David Kernohan’s two volumes, Wellington’s New Buildings (1989) and Wellington’s Old Buildings (1994), making this a timely addition. Daniel Brown reviewed it in Architecture NZ, May/June 2022. He loved it.

16. HomeGround: The Story of a Building that Changes Lives

Simon Wilson
(Massey University Press)

HomeGround is the premises of the Auckland City Mission, Te Tāpui Atawhai, and a visionary social service complex designed by Stevens Lawson Architects to house and change the lives of Central Auckland’s homeless. The book records the inspirational journey of the project, from Diane Robertson’s pipe dream to a living reality, and is complete with drawings, photographs by Mark Smith, and an essay by Deidre Brown and Karamia Müller. Wilson spoke to Nine To Noon on RNZ National on 1 December 2022.

Other books…

‘DISTANCE LOOKS OUR WAY’

Artificial Islands: Adventures in the Dominions

Owen Hatherley (Repeater, London)

Hatherley is an astute British writer and journalist. Here, he critiques the notion that, post-Brexit, Britain’s closest relations lie with Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The book includes chapters on Auckland and Wellington. He is not very kind to Auckland.

ANNUAL OFFERING

Julie Stout: Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal 2021

Sally Conor (ed.) (NZIA)

This is the NZIA’s regular publication on the life and career of its Gold Medal recipient. Stout was the 2021 Gold Medallist, and the book carries that date, but the announcement was made and materials released in February 2022. The 2022 Gold Medallists are Nicholas Stevens and Gary Lawson of Stevens Lawson Architects.

NEW EDITION

Planning Practice in New Zealand

Caroline Miller and Lee Beattie
(eds) (LexisNexis)

This updated and revised second edition features essays by both academics and practising planners and consultants. It is pitched at planners but also presents valuable information for architects.

THE TURN TO FICTION

Shelter

Douglas Lloyd Jenkins
(Bateman Books)

In this gay love story, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s architecture and heritage also star. Greg Fleming reviewed it for Kete and found it to be “great entertainment and as much a love letter to a city as it is the story of Leo and Joe; the wonder is that it succeeds on both counts”.

One Heart, One Spade

Alistair Luke (s.p.)

Luke’s crime novel is set in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington in the 1970s. Karen McMillan reviewed it for NZ Booklovers and concluded: “One Heart, One Spade is an intelligent crime novel that is also partly a historical novel… [T]he streets of Wellington in the day come to life.” A sequel is under way.

The itinerary series is supported by Dulux Colours of New Zealand. Dulux Colour Specialist Davina Harper has selected a Colours of New Zealand palette based on this itinerary. See the full range and order colour samples here.