The European history of New Zealand is very short when measured in terms of time, but it has been a momentous period in the history of the human race. It encompassed the “industrial revolution” which changed completely the social pattern from a rural to an urban one, and it witnessed the birth of the scientific age which has revolutionised transportation and the manner of living. In this short span of 120 years New Zeland has developed from a primitive distant colony into a nation in its own right. It is, in fact, the product of this revolutionary period, and the record of its progress in terms of historic buildings assumes an importance quite disproportionate to their age. Fortunately public interest has grown rapidly in recent years, stimulated, no doubt, by the late Lord Bledisloe's gift to the nation of the Waitangi estate and by the centennial celebrations of many districts. The State has established a National Historic Places Trust which is actively recording, marking, or preserving sites and buildings of national importance. Many local authorities, aided by private societies, are preserving the visual record of their own districts, and some private owners of historic buildings are preserving them with or without national or local body aid.

Many people are fascinated by old buildings, and all old buildings have a history: but to be of historic interest to a community they must have been associated with events or persons of historic importance, or have architectural significance either as an example of a particular period or as a work of art.

In the first case, the building is an illustration or visual setting of the historic event or person, such as, the Treaty House at Waitangi or Bishop Selwyn's home at Waimate North. In the second case, it illustrates a way of life at a particular time and place, depicting not only a mode of living or working but also notions of art and knowledge of technology. For example, an inspection of a Maori pa at Rotorua or elsewhere gives a vivid picture of the life of the Maoris before the European settlement, their methods of building, and their artistic expression in carving, painting, and weaving.

There are few examples of great works of art, as masterpieces of design are not common, but it is a fact that notwithstanding the mannerisms of design prevalent at different times, rare examples stand out as great works of architecture, seemingly achieving the fundamental content of beauty, irrespective of their stylistic character, which gives them an intrinsic value to man in all ages. Some of the lovely European cathedrals of the Middle Ages may be cited, and in our own country, Dunedin's “First Church” is a building which is revered for its beauty irrespective of its age.

This analysis of the “content” of “historic interest” gives a basis of study; but actual examples are more complex because they usually combine in some measure the respective considerations. For example, the Treaty House at Waitangi, already mentioned, is important not only because it is part of the visual setting for a momentous event in New Zealand's history, but also as an illustration of an official residence of the very early period of the European settlement: a function it had performed for some seven years before the signing of the famous treaty. It is, in fact, one of the best examples in the country of colonial Georgian architecture.

The population of New Zealand has increased by nearly three-quarters of a million people since the end of the Second World War. Existing towns and cities have expanded and new communities been developed, thus creating a need for many new churches. Scientific research in building has produced many new materials and methods of construction. A democratic society has in great measure levelled class incomes, and the resulting increase in building costs has focused attention on the maximum use of space and the elimination of all unnecessary decoration. Over the years aesthetic research has developed a better understanding of contemporary artistic expression and evolved principles of design based upon structure, function, and economy.

The age of indecision has passed and for a time there is unanimity in the methods of architectural expression. In consequence, the new churches being built throughout the Dominion are very different from the older ones. There is greater uniformity in pattern, but with distinctive individuality; they are free from traditional design and offer the opportunity of expressing artistically the contemporary age in which we live. Some will be rated good and some poor design, but all of them should have a common approach so noticeably lacking in the indecisive age through which we have passed. There is hope, too, that the emphasis now given to site and environment may encourage an indigenous character in New Zealand church architecture.

In conclusion, it can be said that all discussion or argument about church design revolves about the common purpose of building and equipping it to serve best its purpose and to express in its treatment the ideals of truth and beauty. The church is thus recognised as the pivot of human society. Its message remains constant and in this respect it stands apart from the dissensions of mankind, but submits with good grace to the changing pattern of human expression.

by Cyril Roy Knight, M.A., B.ARCH. (LIVERPOOL), F.R.I.B.A., F.R.S.A., F.N.Z.I.A., Professor Emeritus, University of Auckland.

• History of the English Church in New Zealand, Purchas, H. T. (1914)
• Making New Zealand, Vol. 2, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (1940)
• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• The Story of Canterbury–Last Wakefield Settlement, Reed, A. H. (1949).

All the examples quoted were adaptations of the prevailing English stylistic fashions of church architecture. Considering that New Zealand was at its formative stage, beset with all the problems of colonisation, many of its church designs were meritorious, but few possess the outstanding qualities of their English predecessors. The modern critic seeks something indigenous–an expression of distinctive New Zealand qualities either geographical or structural. In this respect there is sincerity in the very simple chapels of the very earliest period, but few of these now remain. The two timber churches already mentioned, St. Paul's in Wellington and St. Mary's in Auckland, both have an indigenous quality–a feeling of rightness for their environment and an honest use of their building materials. An interesting early example is the Maori church at Otaki, near Wellington, designed about 1850 in the form of a Maori meeting house. It provides a spacious auditorium, supported by tall central columns, lighted by lancet windows at the chancel end and decorated with painted Maori rafter patterns. A more recent example on the same theme is All Saints Church, Ponsonby, designed by Dr Toy, which received a merit award from the Institute of Architects. Another example of individuality is a recently built church at Waiho, South Westland, where architects Turnbull and Rule placed plate glass behind the altar, thereby giving a view of the magnificent alpine environment.

The most successful group of early churches possessing these indigenous qualities was the so-called Selwyn churches, constructed by the famous Bishop, throughout the Auckland Province in the fifties and sixties of last century. Mostly built of timber as the logical building material, notwithstanding the Bishop's love of stone architecture, they were designed for the most part by the Rev. Frederick Thatcher, a cleric with architectural design training. They express the timber structure in a manner reminiscent of English “half timber” work, have shingle roofs and an interior of distinctive local character. There are many examples; the most successful are probably All Saints, Howick, and St. John's College Chapel, both at Auckland.

Cumulatively, the picture presents a series of exercises in architectural history rather than the work of a distinctive phase of human endeavour. Yet it is characteristic of its period because, for the greater part of New Zealand's development, architectural expression throughout the world was in a state of indecision. Medieval Gothic which produced some of the finest stone buildings of all time, and the succeeding Renaissance, had outlived their structural significance. The industrial revolution was creating a new social order and science evolving new structural materials and methods without acceptable new forms of expression. In consequence, old dresses were applied to the new structures. Some designers used a Classical treatment based upon Renaissance, or Greek, Roman, or Byzantine; others tried various phases of Gothic or Romanesque, most of them cloaking a structure of timber, concrete, or steel. It was known as the “Age of Revivals” but could be better termed “A period of indecision”. This was New Zealand's architectural heritage, and in consequence every town and city has examples of church architecture designed in a variety of styles which, while presenting a picture of architectural confusion, is as much a concise period of history as any one originally conceived style.

Accepting this pattern of design as characteristic of its period, it is possible to assess the quality of the extant examples from 1870 to the outbreak of the First World War. Gothic was the most favoured style for church architecture. There are examples in nearly every town and city, some good, but many of indifferent quality. The Presbyterian First Church in Dunedin is, probably, the finest example in the Dominion. It has the vitality and richness of detail so characteristic of the style. The exterior is dominated by its lovely spire and the interior has a splendid timber vault patterned in the manner of the larger English parish churches. Designed by R. A. Lawson, it may be considered the masterpiece of this gifted architect. Christchurch Cathedral was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, a famous English architect of the Gothic Revival period. It, too, has merit but would have greater serenity if its setting gave some relief from the turmoil of modern traffic. Other examples are St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral and St. Matthew's Anglican Church in Auckland, Nelson Cathedral, and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Wellington. The latter is built of timber and is one of the few larger timber churches which uses this material in a logical and convincing manner. Another timber church equally satisfying is St. Mary's Cathedral Church in Auckland.

During the ensuing century and a quarter, New Zealand has grown to nationhood and in the process has had its periods of prosperity and recession. If we sought carefully enough, all these events could be traced in our church building history; yet there is a distinction from economic progress, in that the church is always dissociated from materialism by the nature of its message; hence in each epoch it receives the offerings of mankind in forms he values highly, especially in matters of craftsmanship and artistic skill. Consequently, the structure of the church building and its treatment change in periods of time. For example, the marked changes in form and decoration between medieval Gothic and Classical Renaissance are due to the social organisation and artistic outlook of the respective periods. This does not imply any change in the function of the church which unlike buildings for material usage remains constant and steadfast. It is merely a different dress, and this dress is always the most fashionable of its day. Nor does it restrain the critic in his reasoned approval or condemnation of a particular architectural phase; it merely establishes the social significance of the church in human society and recognises the spirit behind the offerings made by man, be they rated good or bad artistic expression.

Viewed as a whole, New Zealand church architecture does not, at first glance, seem to fit into any precise social pattern. Compare for a moment the monumental classical treatment of the Baptist Tabernacle in Auckland with St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in the same city, or with All Saints, Palmerston North, or St. John's, Invercargill; all of which follow the verticality of Gothic. Again, compare Auckland's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church with its Greek Doric portico and Wren-like tower with Dunedin's First Church, of the same denomination, with its lovely tapering spire designed in the Gothic manner. This is not the whole story. The published design for Wellington's Anglican Cathedral now in course of construction has a Romanesque influence, and the interior of St. John's Cathedral in Napier is reminiscent of Byzantine.

At Te Puna in the Bay of Islands there is a monument known as “The Marsden Cross”. It commemorates the site of the first mission settlement and the first Christian service conducted in New Zealand by the Rev. Samuel Marsden. The service was held on Christmas Day, 1814, in an open space by the beach and attended by Maoris and Europeans. Rough planks and an upturned boat served for seats, and a temporary altar and reading desk were draped with black native cloth and European white duck. Some three weeks later, on the second Sunday in 1815, another service was held, this time in a building sufficiently advanced in construction at the Mission Station to be used as a church. This was probably the first church building in New Zealand.

At other centres the same urgency was given to a place of worship. At Waimate North, where the first inland settlement was established in 1831, a temporary church measuring 20 by 40 ft was erected in six weeks. At Kaitaia the earliest raupo church was built in 1833. By 1840–the commencement of official colonisation–these and other settlements had replaced the primitive structures with properly designed churches built of timber, in some cases seating from 300 to 400 people. The designs were somewhat crude examples of colonial Georgian architecture with truncated towers or belfries. Later still, somewhere between 1870 and 1880, these were again replaced by churches with steep roofs, tall spires, and larger windows designed in the manner of the Gothic revival which was then the prevailing fashion in church architecture.

The oldest surviving church is at Russell in the Bay of Islands, then known as Kororareka. It was built about 1834 but, it too, was remodelled in 1871 and given a steep pitched roof and larger windows, but it retained the original fabric, hence its claim for seniority. This church was closely associated with important political events of the early colonisation period and has therefore been classed as a “National historic place”. These examples merely demonstrate that the church is an essential part of organised European settlement. It shares the vicissitudes of human existence. In primitive conditions a humble structure meets the common need, but when life is affluent in material things, the church is built in noble proportions and resplendent in craftsmanship of the finest quality.

It was now possible for the younger architects to weld their new technical knowledge of space and planning concepts on to a deeper sympathy with nature and a truer understanding of the past. With renewed delight in special sensation, in form and proportion, and in alliance with nature, they have designed and built experimental houses in which planning and construction are inseparable and governed by an economy of means; they have also sought to achieve a genuine New Zealand habitat and in doing so have expressed the dominant characteristic of modern architecture–the new freedom of free-flowing space in buildings that are one with nature. Something close to the ideal home for the average New Zealand family is built empirically by unselfconscious builders; with some of the freedom won by the pioneer architects, some understanding of fashions, prejudices, and the urge to beautify, the tradition of homebuilding could evolve in response to new, less formal. living habits.

“New Pioneer” Homes–Indigenous Buildings

The sophisticated urban style of the “new puritans”, the “international stylists”, had a revivifying effect on modern architecture but few local followers. Ernest A. Plischke, a virtually unique New Zealand exponent of this style, has had a wide influence on local architects but few imitators (Sutch house, Wellington, 1960). This austere style presents the real and basic problem of modern architecture; laymen object to the formal a-human quality of perfectionist buildings which are remote from historic experience–planting, warm-coloured textures, and “exotic” furnishings relieve the effect but do not eliminate it. The philosophy of the machine for living was briefly accepted by “progressive people” of the thirties, but houses must take into account and grow out of specifically human values, spiritual, emotional, intellectual–they must express “tradition”. Every historical style that has been a valid cultural expression has had its roots in local tradition–“folk architecture” expressed the community life of its age. The local statement of this problem and the development of indigenous buildings can be traced in the following architect- and student- designed houses and seen in later builders'adaptions:

1. The houses of Paul Pascoe, Canterbury, and Cedric Firth, Wellington, of the early forties, translated the international style of the thirties into a timber vernacular. The detailing was simple but heavy, with large areas of glass; as there were no verandahs, or only slight links with their surroundings, the houses stood apart from nature.

2. The next step was taken in Robin Simpson's own house, Remuera, Auckland (1939). The traditional vertical boards and batten wall sheathing were continued in a parapet to enclose visually the terrace of the combined living/dining room, the “most uncompromisingly contemporary house of 1942” (Firth).

3. The continuity of old and new is obvious in Vernon A. Brown's Roper house, Mission Bay, Auckland (1938); c/f. Anderson homestead, Omatua, Hawke's Bay, c. 1862–Here there are similar rusticated weatherboards on light timber frame, with rooms at either end of the verandah with 12-pane windows, two intermediate posts, and French doors. In the Kidd House, St. Heliers; Lemon House, St. Stephens Avenue, Parnell, Auckland (1945), Hoffman house, Bell Road, Remuera, Auckland (1946)–the tradition which persisted for a hundred years is traced, and developed.

4. R. A. Toy's house in Epsom, Auckland (1948), marks the maturity of the local expression of the modern architectural idiom welded to early elegant “Regency” tradition. Subtle use is made of zoning for family activities. The living area upstairs is open, with extensive views, and imaginative use is made of light and space. The separate sleeping rooms set below have the warmth of the site and building shelter provide the privacy of cosy, individual cells. There is an organic relationship between the house and the section, and an expression of the twin principles of man's controlling Nature, by his architectural control over materials and techniques and of his being one with Nature.

   In Wellington the “demonstration house” (1948) of the Architectural Centre group of enthusiasts, developed the enclosed patio on a difficult “ridge” section.

5. The decade after the Second World War saw the evolution of the “Ecole des Beaux-Arts”, the English “arts and crafts”, American “shingle style”, and international “functional” traditions of architectural design. The essential characteristics which emerged represent a change in emphasis from the substantial pre-war architect-designed houses. From the “early pioneering” lightness and simplicity developed the heavier post and beam “stick style”, and a later search for robust solidity and elegant decoration which reflect a Mediterranean or Japanese image of the house.

   The pioneering work of V. A. Brown and R. H. Toy was followed by a students' group, later Group Architects. The trend can be traced in the work of these individuals (perhaps typical of many of the younger architects), particularly their two experimental speculative houses in Northboro' Road, Takapuna (1949); houses for Bruce Rotherham, Devonport (1950), Miss Maisie Smith (1951); Bruce Catley, Milford North (1952); W. C. Rotherham, Glendowie (1952); R. B. Thompson, Castor Bay (1953); Skelton “studio” house, Belmont (1953); J. F. Mallitte, Takapuna (1953); Miss Zena Abbot, Blockhouse Bay (1955); Dr Kemble-Welch, Whangarei (1955); and the prefabricated house, Western Springs Carnival (1953).

6. As the Auckland-qualified architects returned to their home towns to carry on their profession, small houses that showed a radical development of the traditional plans began to appear throughout the country, and by 1960 “modern” characteristics were appearing in builders' “parades of homes”. The architects' idiom was passing into the builders' vernacular.

7. Still one of the best contemporary expressions of this trend was the house designed by R. A. Toy for his family, in which the continuity of inherited tastes and attitudes can be seen without forcing the evidence (cf. the “Regency” St. Paul's Vicarage, Eden Crescent, Auckland, c. 1865). This is a traditional building in the true sense of the word, not in form but in spirit; no less modern, but more–a genuine New Zealand expression of homebuilding.

   Today, therefore, the architectural, unobtrusive feeling for materials and unpretentious means, which marks the work of the “new pioneer” architects represents a hopeful step in the development of a truly New Zealand style of domestic architecture.

by James Garrett, A.N.Z.I.A., Architect, Auckland.

• Early New Zealand Ecclesiastical Architecture, (MSS) Crookes, P. C. I. (School of Architecture Library, Auckland University
• Measured Drawings (MSS), School of Architecture Library, Auckland University
• Maori Houses and Food Stores, Phillipps, W. J. (1952)
• Carved Maori Houses of New Zealand, Phillips, W. J. (1955)
• The Waimate Mission Station, Standish, M. W. (1962)
• Pompallier–House and Mission, Cole, J. R. (1957)
• Old Homes of Lyttelton Harbour, Cresswell, F. (1955)
• Australian Architecture, Haddon, R. V. (1903)
• New Zealand Homes and Bungalows, Phillipps, G. W. (1913)
• New Zealand Homes, Property and Finance Co., Inc. (1914)
• New Zealand Homes–60 Practical Designs, Christie, J. (1916)
• Selected Bungalows–30 Plans and Elevations, Radcliffe, H. (1912)
• Modern Homes of New Zealand, “Architects of Standing” (1917)
• Commonsense Homes for New Zealanders, H. Tombs Ltd. (1920)
• State Housing in New Zealand, Firth, C. (1949)
• The New Zealand House, Rosenfield, M. (1960)
• Farms and Stations of New Zealand, Cranwell Publishing Co. (1958)
• Design and Living, Plishke, E. A. (1947)
• New Zealand Modern Homes and Gardens (Annual), Breckell and Nicholl Ltd.
• New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Oct 1945, “The New Zealand Farmhouse”, Metson, N.
• lbid, Nov 1951, “Farmhouse Kitchen in New Zealand”, Moore, E. E.;Making New Zealand, Department of Internal Affairs (1940)
• Australia's Home, Boyd, R. (1952)
• The Australian Ugliness, Boyd, R. (1960).

As a result of the Second World War, New Zealanders slowly became aware of the Pacific setting and its responsibilities. Moreover, the stimulus provided by new migrants, easy travel, and the mass media–radio, television, and long-playing records have brought new styles and standards into the New Zealand home. Most potent has been the impact of the American imagination, with its variety, vigour, vulgarity, and creativity, as expressed in the technical and material proficiency of the products of the Hollywood “dream factory” and in the flood of glossy magazines. These influences may be discerned dimly in the local carbon copies of “ranch houses”, “Split levels”, and “West Coast Pacifica”. Standards of construction and sanitation, materials and techniques, mechanical equipment, and domestic comfort have steadily improved. With the trend towards self-sufficiency in local manufacturing, a wide range of materials and finishes have become available–veneered plywoods. wood and composite sheets, patterned concrete blocks and bricks, metal doors, windows, and screens, trough section roofing and wall cladding, insulation and plastics, floor coverings, furniture, and furnishings. Minimum building by-laws and town planning regulations, together with the resale requirements of valuers and appraisers, materialised in the house of the man in the street and the prefabricated low-cost house which now featured bigger windows, fully glazed doors, metal sun awnings and venetian blinds, wall-to-wall carpets, and carports to house. Nevertheless, there are signs of the emergence of something that can be classified as basically “New Zealand”. Cultural life in this country over the last 15 years has shown a “slow advance of civilisation”. A national feeling of separate identity is growing which has found expression in the arts–in a deepening appreciation of those aspects of life from which a national culture emerges.

Between the wars, seven basic styles appeared. Details from each became interwoven and, from the amalgam, mainly by “austerity Queen Anne” out of “arts and crafts”, evolved the “State house minimum”. This has been the dominant style of the last 30 years, in which social and architectural planners expressed in a builders' vernacular the achievements of “the practical man” and the Welfare State. The basic styles were: 1. The architect's “arts and crafts” cottage; 2. “L” shape; 3. Speculative builders “Californian bungalow”; 4. “Spanish Mission”; 5. Housing Departments “State house minimum”; 6. “Moderne”; and 7. “Waterfall front”.

Basic Style 1. “Arts and Crafts” Cottage, and “Garden City” Landscaping

The early New Zealand pioneers naturally did their best to preserve close cultural ties with the Homeland, and English influences continued to be reflected in local building styles. After the turn of the century the influence of William Morris (through his teaching against all machine-made materials) and the work of his architect followers are apparent in architect-designed houses throughout the colony. This return to the traditional English rural dwellings for inspiration is marked by a simple composition and contrasts of texture, the craftsman's approach to materials and workmanship, and the use of “cottage style” to create an “Olde World” atmosphere and picturesque, informal homes. In the three-bedroom cottage at Days Bay, Wellington, which cost £1,000 (c. 1913), designed by F. E. Greenish, the “arts and crafts” style is assimilated and expressed in local terms. The exterior shape is simple–steep, double-pitched, burnt-clay tile roof with the verandah tucked under the eaves, single and grouped casement windows in white plaster walls, and natural timber balustrading and baseboards. The entrance is off the verandah through a “conservatory” into a wide hall; folding doors open into an exposed rafter living room with built-in window seat, cosy inglenook, and simple brick fireplace. The direct use of natural materials, wood, plaster, and clay, and the economical planning of structure and function all denote a major step in house design and the achievement of certain domestic qualities that form a link in the development of a national building tradition.

This period, after the First World War, saw the evolution of the second highlight in our short history–the suburban development of “picturesque romanticism” and “Garden City” landscaping. In Remuera and Epsom, Auckland, and in Fendalton and Riccarton, Christchurch, are traces of a genuine vernacular expression of family life and an integration of house and garden. By developing the whole section to gain individual privacy, full use was made of the land. With fences, hedges, and trees at the boundaries, winding drives and paths, landscaping that unfolded and blended into ivy-covered walls and rustic building materials, porches and conservatories, these homebuilders created a suburban style which had universal charm and appeal. In these suburbs fantasy was functional, the style instinctively applied, not consciously contrived. The result is the achievement of qualities that are common to all good architecture.

Basic Style 2. “L” Shape

An early example of this style is the house in Karori, Wellington (c.1914), designed by J. W. Chapman Taylor, in which the simple “white wall, casement window, tiled roof” form is stated directly without complication or pretension. But the “craftsman” simplicity was lost when the “L” shape later became popular. Superficial “featurism” was expressed in awkwardly proportioned corner and “picture” windows, corbelled gable ends in brick and timber, and heavy boxed eaves. These white-painted houses with red or grey tiled roofs sit self consciously in “seed catalogue” gardens. The front garden as “living space” had thus become an exhibition piece.

Basic Style 3. “Californian Bungalow”

The innovators in house design that now began to influence the local scene are American. On the west coast of the United States the Green brothers were pioneering a Californian “craftsman” style which evolved out of the traditional Spanish patio house (Cuthbertson House, 1897). There was an intricate vocabulary of wood details–low-pitched roofs with projecting rafters at gable ends, plank ceilings with exposed rafters and framing, interlocking timber joints, and built-in fittings. By 1913 the Los Angeles Investment Co. were publishing “inexpensive” and “practical bungalow” booklets which made an impact in New Zealand. The result was a sharp design conflict between the architect-designed cottages of the discerning client and the speculative builders' low-cost bungalows, which were readily accepted by the public. In the hands of practical builders the bungalow lost its original strength and robustness and degenerated into and “austerity Queen Anne” villa. The Morris influence had retarded the use of machine-made materials; now the economical and practical advantages of sheet materials became obvious and were used in low-cost housing, with corrugated iron for roofing, flat asbestos-cement sheets for exterior sheathing, and plaster board for internal lining. The latter was imported from North America until 1927 when local manufacturers produced an economical plaster board with pumice core.

The burnt-clay “Marseilles” tiles, favoured in architect-designed houses, were imported until 1924 when they were made locally. After 1910 concrete-masonry blocks were used for houses, and the quality and quantity improved with the new industrial mass-production techniques available in 1952. Bricks had been made in Benhar, South Otago, as early as 1876 and floor and malt-kiln tiles were produced in 1885 by McSkimming and Co., who had been established in the structural clay products industry in the 1860s.

Basic Style 4. “Spanish Mission”

In 1927 the Auckland architect R. K. Binney was lamenting “the collection of pretty Californian bungalows, Spanish mission houses and American Gothic buildings, all looking foreign, selfconscious and uncomfortable in a setting that is as English as any country out of England could be”. But it was too late for lament. “Spanish Mission” style, pioneered by Professor Wilkinson in Australia (1922) and the incredible Mizner brothers in America (mid 1920s) left its mark on even the smallest New Zealand country town. Everywhere was seen the stock builders' clichés–the simple house shape wore a red tiled or corrugated-iron roof and a “Spanish” veneer. Characteristic features were the yellow-smeared pisé stucco wall finish; the deep-tiled front porch, with triple arches and twisted Baroque columns; arcaded side verandah porches and verandahs with false parapets capped with red “Cordova” tiles, which also crowned the dovecot chimneys and front room windows; fixed window shutters, black wrought-iron grilles and balustrading; and ornate gable ends and lanterns. “Spanish mission” style was used in such public buildings as the Auckland Grammar School, Mount Eden, and the Rotorua Town Hall/Theatre.

Basic Style 5. “The State House”

The growing regimentation of life, with its decline of “personality” and “individuality”, was reflected in the extensive building programme of the State Housing Department. In planned suburbs the detached houses were–and are–finished with a variety of materials. At the present time most contractors use precut framing and sheathing, some partly prefabricated; all use standard joinery for windows, doors, and kitchen fittings as a means of economising in skilled labour and time. Some progress has been made towards repetitive production, but in the main it is still a craft industry. With the advent of the Second World War, and the shortage of building materials, economy ruled every house plan, construction and detail; minimum standards and the “illusion that equates cheapness with low first costs” became established. The Department experimented with “panel houses” (1942), prefabricated workers' dwellings, multistorey units, and flats, but visual planning remained embryonic. The departmental planners achieved a uniform suburban style based on minimum standards and on social, not personal, qualities; but it lacked individual or regional variations; simplicity, or homogeneity. Ignoring the progress towards the production on a reasoned basis of varied. satisfying, and rational housing by many countries, New Zealand remained isolated and unaware that national standards were outmoded.

Basic Styles 6 and 7. “Moderne” and “Waterfall Front”

The common denominator of all styles is the revolt against conformity. Growing out of the past, struggling to break with the past, the new forms strive to find an expression of time and place. The formative phase of modern design was confined to Europe up to the Depression, which marks the end of Victorian style as a valid cultural expression. With the “pioneers of modern design” the driving motive was an anti-Victorian revulsion expressed in a mirror image of their style. The machine-made materials and industrial techniques developed during the Victorian age were now used to communicate a new kind of visual experience. For with the collapse of the Victorian world, its rebels and social misfits became the leaders of the “modern” movement and architecture was free to develop into a genuine expression based on the use of new materials and techniques, the ideas of the pioneers, and mass revulsion against Victorianism. The impact of such overseas innovators as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Jeanneret can be traced in a number of architect-designed New Zealand houses. In builders' houses the superficial details were borrowed, but the spirit of the movement was seldom appreciated. The first development was the modification of the “L” shape to produce the “waterfall front”; this echoed the streamlined curved steps of the skyscrapers of the late twenties. The form of the house was “austerity Queen Anne”–hipped tiled roof with smaller hips over the rooms projected to the front and side. In plan all the corners were rounded steps, with steel windows, curved glass, and strong horizontal emphasis in the glazing bars and plaster bands at base and eaves. Flush panel doors with obscure glazed portholes, “Saturn shaped” light fittings, and, often, glass bricks became features of the front entrance hall. A typical “moderne” house externally was a negative expression–a leanto corrugated-iron or flat fabric roof was concealed by blank stucco walls that were carried above the roof to form a parapet and returned round the sides, stepping down to the gutter at the rear. Openings were “punched” through the walls and filled with sand-blasted doors or standard joinery. Narrow casements on either side of a fixed landscape window were common–the “Chicago” window of the nineties. Inside, the influence of the pioneer cubist painters, industrial designers, and interior decorators was more obvious in the jazzed up, cubo-eclectic furniture and decoration.