Eye of the Fish

Supercilious City: Pods cast

Maximus — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:05:53 +0000

It’s times like this that I feel quite sorry for Aucklanders. Not only are they having the mutha of all political conglomerations shoved down their necks without so much as a by-your-leave, and not only are they being stung with governance by 7 quangos over which they will have no control, and not only do they have an incoherent waterfront and no sign of fixing it, and not only do they have the prospect of John Banks lording it over them yet again, but they also have the prospect of Pods invading their space.

Yes, I know that we’re all in…

Projecting

Philip — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:19:52 +0000

Here at the Fish, we’re all for intersections between architecture and the digital — especially when these take place outside of the blogosphere. Luckily, a few of these intersections have cropped up recently, complete with video footage:

The finale to New Zealand’s web-industry Onya awards: an epic sequence that was projected onto the interior of the Town Hall.
Visuals by Bruce Ferguson, Mike Boyce, Chris MacMillan and Shaun Madgwick. Sound by Module.

Although McCall’s work is much slower-paced than the previous piece, it is definitely worth a look. Check out the video, and be sure to drop by the Adam Art Gallery sometime before…

Polychromatic cutie

Maximus — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:04:50 +0000

Since the one day symposium last year on the architecture of the 1980s, I’ve been paying more attention to buildings from the 1980s. At first I was somewhat incredulous that we should be looking to celebrate the architecture of that decade so soon after it occurred, but then I realised that as the birth decade of full blown PoMo in NewZild, there are going to be a few classics thrown up, as well as a fair bit of Rheineck. There are of course many tall buildings around the city, with obligatory classical references, and pointy tops, and all manner of…

Variation 11

Maximus — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:55:07 +0000

The Wellington City Council must have known it was going to be picking a hard road to go down when it proposed Variation 11, and sure enough, the District Plan change is due to go to appeal at the Environment Court. Most of our readers will know about it: it’s a variation to permit buildings of a certain size to be constructed on the waterfront, without having to go through the publicly-notified Resource Consent stage. At present, of course, there’s a much more public-friendly situation in place: that every building higher than ground level will require to be notified –…

Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Maximus — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:04:16 +0000

One side of the Pacific plate: horrificly large earthquake. Hundreds dead, thousands homeless, yet again buildings destroyed. We’re lucky it wasn’t us.

On the other side of the plate sits New Zealand. And, let’s be honest, a pitifully small tsunami – yes, we’re extremely happy not to have been swept away by the waves, but really, truthfully and honestly: Civil Defense grossly over-reacted, didn’t it?

While on the one hand it’s a great opportunity for the people in yellow hi-vis jackets to fly around in a helicopter, telling people to stay off the beaches and putting tourist cruise liners out to sea,…

Carnivals and Festivals

Maximus — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:16:12 +0000

Every year, around this time, Wellington comes alive with festivals and carnivals. Last year it was the Cuba Carnival, when we blossom briefly into a Latin lovers paradise for one brief weekend, complete with dancing girls, massive gaudy floats, and the almighty Batucada band. We blogged about that somewhere – maybe here. Note to self: must start planning for massive Fish float for next year.

Perhaps combined with the Film Archive, sitting on one of their new Aeron chairs, and being pulled along by a school of massed sardines. Something like that, anyway.

This year of course we have the Festival, which…

Stark reminder

Maximus — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:39:04 +0000

Like most patrons of the fantastic facility that is the Film Archive, I bear scars on my legs from the constant attack around the calves of the world’s most badly designed chairs (the un-finished ends of the angle-iron cross bars scratch stockings, rip jeans, and pierce bare skin). As I sit here with my leg quietly bleeding onto the carpet at Eye of the Fish world Headquarters, I still have to say that despite that, the Film Archive is doing a fantastic job in Wellington.

Not only do they show an endless variety of really good, little known New Zealand films…

Liberating Everyday Life

Philip — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:40:00 +0000

Despite the small space in which it is situated, the retrospective of Bill Toomath’s work is an expansive exhibition. Beyond the vintage photographs and precise drawings located within the Hirschfeld Gallery are a series of interviews and articles that reveal the the full range of Toomath’s work as architect, advocate and educator. My visit barely scratched the surface of these records, but I wanted to draw out a few finds that may be of interest.

“the visitor is guided by the overall form of the Gallery”

Reference in the exhibited drawings, and in the supplementary interviews, is Bill’s final undergraduate project: a national museum. Although this project and our current national museum are similar in location and programme, Toomath’s design is stunning…

i

Philip — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:56:54 +0000

Last week, was of course, the unveiling of the iPad, Apple’s biennale Next Big Thing.

However, on a more local note, last week also featured another product launch: the iLoft, or 85 Waterloo Quay. Normally a property development isn’t pitched as a ‘product’, but in this case the cue comes straight from the developers themselves. Their promotional effort is certainly prolific, boasting not one, but two websites, a twitter account, and a (now defunct) webinar.

For all its enthusiasm, the general voice of their marketing appears ill-considered. As with Apple, their choice of name suggests either naive ignorance, or an arrogant attempt to generate buzz. Given…

Basins

Maximus — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:30:59 +0000

In other news, keep an eye out on this website from NZTA regarding the long-awaited ‘options’ for the flyover in the Basin Reserve. There’s nothing much there at present, as they have yet to load on the different ‘options’ their design team has come up with, but they promise to undertake some ‘consultation’ with the public, in 2 phases:

“The first will be in February 2010 when the project team will have a number of options ready for public consultation.
The second will be in the latter part of 2010 after a preferred option has been selected.”

They’ve got a helpful Questions and…