Kōrero: Inner-city living

In the 1940s the government built a number of high-rise blocks of rental flats for inner-city residents. They were designed in the austere Modernist architectural style, which had become popular in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. An Auckland example is the Symonds St Flats, pictured here in 1947. The building was used for state housing in 2009, and still appeared strikingly modern.