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The Wharenui: Maori architecture

Impact of immigrant cultures is nowhere more prominent than in the architecture of New Zealand. Immigrants from Polynesia and Europe have left the imprint of their presence in the buildings and on the landscape. The earliest known native building of New Zealand was the Maori meeting house known as Wharenui.

These buildings were constructed for community meetings. It is a gable ended structure with an open porch at one end. It integrates with the landscape to give an impression of grace and beauty. The nineteenth century meeting houses are highly carved. The churches that later emerged such as the Futana Chapel and the Authur’s Pass Chapel blend the form and spirit of the Maori meeting house with the traditions of the European churches.

Architecture in the 19th and 20th Century buildings:

European architecture impacted on the New Zealander during the Victorian period. Books and magazines and New Zealand’s architect’s membership of the British architectural community led to the copying of European architectural styles in New Zealand.

However, they preferred to be seen as adopting not copying the style and the architecture that emerged is an exquisite blend of European and native styles. Moreover, the abundance of wood as a building material impacted the kind of buildings that were erected and the early buildings in the country are wooden rather than brick and stone.

The “true” architecture of New Zealand can be seen in the vernacular cottages and farm buildings of the pioneering days; the Gothic churches, Italianate commercial buildings and Edwardian Baroque public buildings. Though these buildings are often dismissed as mere weak imitations of their European counterparts, they have their own intrinsic grace and beauty that is truly native Maori and Polynesian.

The influence of American architecture is evident in the early twentieth century buildings of New Zealand.

The Post war buildings are modern and post modern. They tell the story of New Zealand as a country that is abreast of the latest developments in architecture in Europe and America.

Housing Architecture Styles

The housing styles in New Zealand range form Austerity Queen Anne house to the evolved State house minimum. They are classified into seven types:

Arts and crafts cottage
L shape
Speculative Builders Californian bungalow
Spanish Mission
Housing Departments ‘State house minimum’
Moderne and
Waterfall front

The pioneers need to preserve close cultural ties with their homeland is reflected in the traditional English rural dwellings. The composition is simple and contrasts of texture and materials reflect the need to create the “Olde World” in the new world.

The arts and crafts cottages are simple. They have a steep, double pitched burnt clay tile roof with a veranda tucked under the eaves, single or grouped casement windows with white plaster walls and natural timber balustrading and baseboards. The entrance is from a conservatory. The first room is a hall with folding doors that open into an exposed rafter living room with built in window stead, cosy inglenook and simple brick fireplace. Wood, plaster and clay have been used and the structure is economical.

The romanticism of the post first world war is reflected in the fences, hedges, trees on the boundaries, ivy on the cottages.

The L Shape house has a white wall casement window, tiled roof without complications or pretensions. The L shape is a reflection of the ‘featurism’. It is awkward in proportion. The windows are picturesque, the corbelled roofs have gabled ends in brick and timber and heavy boxed eaves. The houses are painted white or red and have grey tiled roofs which sit self-consciously in “seed catalogue” gardens. The front garden is treated as the “living space”.

The Californian Bungalow reflects the American influence. It has intricate wood details, low pitched roofs with projecting rafters and gable ends. The planked ceilings have exposed rafters and framing with interlocking joints and built in fittings. The practicality of the New Zealander and the demands on the purse, has modified these buildings and these bungalows lost their original strength and robustness and degenerated in Austerity Queen Anne homes. The Morris use of machine made materials further led to the use of asbestos sheets for exterior sheathing and plaster board for internal lining. The economical plaster board with pumice core came to be used when this was imported from North America in 1927. Burnt clay Marseilles tiles were favoured in the Architect designed houses of this style. Later, concrete masonry blocks, bricks and malt kiln tiles were used.

The Spanish Mission houses with yellow smeared pise stucco wall finish, deep tiled front porches with triple arches and twisted Baroque columns are a reflection of the Australian style. The arcaded side veranda porches and verandas with false porches capped with “Cordova” tiles is characteristic of this type of building. The houses had dovecot chimneys and front room windows with fixed window shutters, black wrought iron grilles and balustrading. The gable ends and lanterns completed th picture of the Spanish mission home.

The State house is a reflection of the growing regimentation of life. The houses are finished with a variety of material—precut, prefabricated or partly prefabricated. Standard joinery windows, doors and materials speak of austerity and the World war II brought with it further stringency in the use of building materials which is reflected in the style and shape of these houses. The panel houses and multi-storied units are examples of these houses.

The Moderne and Waterfall Front houses is a revolt against conformity. The exterior of the house is an expression of negativity. The leanto corrugated iron or flat fabric roof is concealed by blank stucco walls that form a parapet on the roof. Openings punched into the walls are filled with sand blasted doors or standard joinery. The casements are narrow with fixed landscape windows on either side. The influence of cubist painters, industrial designers and interior decorators is visible indoors.