Te hoahoa me te hanga whare o Te Whanganui-a-Tara - Wellington's architecture and building heritage
The architecture of our city is a reflection of our history over the past 150 years. From simple wooden houses, to streamlined Art Deco housing blocks.
Our city is in a state of continual transition and transformation with different architectural styles coming into and falling out of fashion. Sometimes buildings which were at the cutting edge of design when they were constructed, look tired and dated only two or three decades later. Yet occasionally the same buildings become celebrated as a new generation begins to recognise them for their innovative architecture and heritage values.
Sometimes this recognition comes too late and it has resulted in our city losing many architectural treasures in the name of "progress". A cry of protest may arise as a developer's plans are revealed, but many buildings have been demolished without being publicly mourned. Some exist only as tantalising images in period photographs - leaving the viewer to wonder how different our city might have looked had they survived.
Some of our buildings may at first glance seem ordinary but on digging a little deeper, layers of social history gradually reveal themselves. Some can only be fully appreciated if they are viewed in context of the era in which they were built - what may seem normal to the point of banality today could have been a revolutionary shift in building design at the time.
At its best, architecture can be seen as public art - always on display for us to enjoy. Like other forms of art, changes in architectural styles can mirror how we have developed as a nation. Early Wellington architecture simply replicated what was happening in Britain and America. Slowly European and 'International' styles were added to the mix and gradually these different forms were adapted to our physical and social environment until a true 'vernacular' style of New Zealand architecture emerged.
Wellington City Libraries has a large and popular collection of material about Wellington's built heritage and architecture.
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Though this work is not specifically about Wellington, many of Wellington's great buildings are included. This book (now into its 3rd edition) is an excellent guide to how our architecture has developed and is a useful in assisting you to recognise the different styles and periods which surround us. |
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Published for High School students by the Department of Education in 1976, this book offers an excellent introduction to the development of New Zealand architecture. The emergence of a distinctive NZ style of architecture (termed "the new look") around the time this book was published means that this particular period is well examined. |
Victorian & Edwardian era
Most of us think of this period when we hear the term "heritage building". As there was little quality building stone available in Wellington, almost all early-mid Victorian structures were built of wood. As such, relatively few of these buildings have survived in Wellington - unlike in Canterbury and Otago where stone was widely used. The bulk of our surviving buildings from this period were built after 1890 when concrete emerged as a 'new' permanent building material which could emulate the structural and aesthetic qualities of stone. The arrival of concrete also coincided with the end of the 1880's depression and a period of economic and population growth which was to continue through the Edwardian period until World War I.
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Wellington through a Victorian lens, 1972. By William Main. |
This is a wonderfully evocative book with many stunning photographs. It gives a very good impression of how inner-city Wellington looked until the turn of last century. |
Contained within a book of collected essays on the history of early Wellington, this academic 'paper' describes in fascinating detail the period when timber was the primary material used for inner-city buildings until its replacement by masonry in the late 19th century. |
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Wellington's old buildings : a photographic guide to old buildings in central Wellington, 1994. By David Kernohan. |
Written by a former lecturer in architecture at Victoria University, this 'pocket' guide is a great introduction to many of the older buildings in the central city. It would be an ideal tool to assist you in a self-guided walking tour. Many of the buildings in the guide have been restored since it was published in 1994 - a reflection of our changing attitude to heritage buildings. |
Early Wellington churches, 1977. By Charles Fearnley. |
Charles Fearnley (1915 - 198?) was a Wellington based architect, photographer, and writer. He was also a pioneer in recognising the importance of Wellington's architectural heritage long before it was fashionable to do so. This book is a fascinating and well researched study into some of Wellington's most loved churches including Old St Paul's, St John's and St Peter's on Willis Street and the Crematorium Chapel at Kaori Cemetery. |
Vintage Wellington; photographs of the earlier buildings of Wellington, 1970. By Charles Fearnley. |
Published in 1970, this book is based around a collection of photographs taken by the author over a decade. Unlike many other photographers, Fearnley made the effort to go beyond the usual familiar 'picture postcard' scenes and to photograph the old working-class and industrial areas of Wellington. It is a remarkable document which shows just how much of old Wellington survived until relatively recent times - but also how much we have lost since then. |
Cityscapes, 1977. By David McGill. |
A series of 22 'vignettes' of elderly buildings which were originally published in the Evening Post in the mid 1970s. Rather than offering a simple architectural analysis, David McGill gives a potted social history of the buildings. If buildings could talk - these are the sort of stories they would tell. Accompanying the text is a series of beautifully executed 'pen and ink' drawings by the renowned actor, Grant Tilly. Sadly many of these buildings have now been demolished. |
Old St. Paul's
Old St Paul's has become one of Wellington's most loved and studied buildings. The centre of Anglican worship in Wellington for 98 years, it is no longer used as a parish church, but is still in regular use for weddings, funerals, and concerts. Though it may seem extraordinary today, the wooden building came very close to being demolished in the early 1960s to make way for an office block. The building was finally offered to the Government in 1966 and restored. It is now recognised as a landmark in the history of heritage conservation in New Zealand.
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Old St. Paul's, Wellington : a pictorial record, 1968. By Margaret H. Alington. |
Old St. Paul's : an illustrated essay, 1981. By Deric N. Bircham. |
Old St Paul's, The First Hundred Years, 1970. By Dallas James Moore. |
Restoring Old St Paul's,1970. By Peter L. Sheppard |
Frederick Thatcher and St. Paul's : an ecclesiological study, 1965. By Margaret H. Alington. |
Art Deco and Interwar period
World War I was to dramatically alter the social, political, and cultural order of the world. In turn this influenced what was happening in the fields of art and design and was to have an important effect on the development of new architectural styles in New Zealand. Following the 1930s depression the Government began to emerge as a major instigator of new large-scale building projects. Innovative Art Deco design concepts started to arrive from the United States (the most famous local example being the buildings designed for the 1939-40 Centennial Exhibition held at Rongotai) though these were primarily concerned with appearance and aesthetics rather than structure or engineering.
| Title & Author | Summary |
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Heritage trail : art deco : Wellington's 1930s buildings, 2004. By Michael Kelly. |
Though primarily written to assist you in a self-guided tour of Wellington Art Deco heritage, it offers a good general history to the rise of this distinctive architectural style in the capital. An updated edition was published in 2004. |
Thirteen essays about modernism in Wellington which focus on architecture of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. |
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Wellington Railway Station, New Zealand, 1938. By New Zealand Railways. |
Published in 1938 to commemorate the completion of one of the largest buildings constructed in New Zealand during the 1930s, this guide shows just how little of this landmark structure has changed over the years. |
Two papers from a fascinating collection of essays looking at the history of the 1939-1940 Centennial Exhibition. The first essay examines the stunning architectural forms created by one of New Zealand's greatest Art Deco architects, Edmund Anscombe. The second examines the development of the buildings and carvings that made up the "Māori Court" at the exhibition and how they were viewed by Pākehā and Māori. |
Postwar period, Modernism and the rise of the Vernacular -
As we develop as a nation, we have started to recognise our heritage buildings 'young'. Some may be confused when the term "heritage building" is applied to what many might perceive to be a relatively new structure. However by recognising of some of our new landmark buildings earlier, we can be better assured that future generations will be able to enjoy them as we do today.
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Voices of silence : New Zealand's Chapel of Futuna, 1987. By Russell Walden. |
This book celebrates one of the great landmark buildings in New Zealand's architectural history - the chapel designed by John Scott located in the former Catholic retreat of Futuna in Karori. Largely unrecognised for many years, it is now seen as an important step in the emergence of New Zealand's bi-cultural identity in architecture - where the Gothic tradition of Catholic design blended with European Modernism and Māori forms and concepts. |
Looking for the local : architecture and the New Zealand modern, 2000. By Justine Clarke. |
Published by Victoria University Press, this book is based around a box of old photographs discovered in the Alexander Turnbull Library. Taken in the 1950s, these photographs had originally been collected for a book on new New Zealand architecture which never eventuated. Though not Wellington specific, many of the Capital's early-modern commercial building and houses are featured. |
The architecture of E.A. Plischke in New Zealand, 1939-1962 : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilme, 1986. By Linda Tyler. |
Ernst Plischke was instrumental in introducing the Modern Movement to New Zealand architecture. |
Wellington's new buildings : a photographic guide to new buildings in central Wellington, 1989. By David Kernohan. |
A companion volume to David Kernohan's Wellington's Old Buildings, this critical guide looks at some of the buildings constructed in Wellington during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. |
Positively architecture! : New Zealand's Roger Walker, 1985. By Gerald Melling. |
Roger Walker has been responsible for some of Wellington's most distinctive residential buildings. With their zany peaks, turrets, and round windows, his buildings were a deliberate move away from the clean formal lines of the International Style promoted by earlier Modernists such as Plischke. |
A special issue of World architecture review, v. 93, 4. |
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The mid-city crisis and other stories, 1989. By Gerald Melling. |
This collection of essays from Wellington based architect Gerald Melling was published in 1989 at the tail end of a decade long construction-boom which had seen Wellington change dramatically (and not always for the better). |