As a student I worked for JASMaD in a sweet little six floor building in 2 Whitaker Place Auckland. It was a beautiful, well sited, modest, human scaled, resourceful, naturally ventilated building designed by the architects who occupied part of it. The windows opened and the flared red spandrels gave shade and sun protection. The floor plates were not too deep so everyone got natural light and outlook. The upper floor had gently sloping sarked timber ceilings, and a tiny upper attic level above that was a great place to gather and meet, crafted around an understanding of retreat. It was located on the edge of a hill with glimpses of the harbour up Grafton valley. Entry was over a small bridge with gardens each side. It was of its place and time, its character based on its specific relationship to place and climate and the values and needs of the people who designed and constructed it. It belonged to place and actively contributed to and crafted the environment.
The importance of this reciprocal relationship between place and people has become more urgent over time as the increasingly short term approach to building, and the realities of climate change and our effects on the planet begin to bite. No 2 Whitaker Place is now crowded in by developer buildings prioritising individual profit over the quality of architecture, landscape and place that they collectively create. Most of our environment is now built this mean spirited, exploitative way, as a temporary means for people with no real connection to place to extract short term economic value.
I recently spent some time in another of Ivan Mercep and JASMAXs buildings, Te Kura Whare, Living Building created in association with Te Uru Taumatua Tūhoe, at Te Uruwera in Tāneatua, Bay of Plenty. This regenerative building is actively restoring the land and people. It is giving more than it takes. Its significance is in its integrity and integration of process and outcome. There has been a reciprocal interaction between building, people and place as the building was made, and this continues. As significant as the place are the people, Tūhoe with their embedded interconnection with place. This results in a deep respect and understanding of the natural environment, its needs, its timeless presence, its patterns of movement and change, and its reciprocal interrelationship with its people. This is beautifully expressed in Te Kawa document te-kawa-o-te-urewera
The challenge that Tūhoe set themselves as integral parts of the Te Uruwera ecology is to walk the talk, to let their actions speak. They see a timelessness, a longer timeframe, and are making sure but steady changes to how they live and work over time, making the big difference needed through the integrity of many small everyday actions. The architecture of Te Kura Whare, the way it was conceived and made, the way it operates for its people and guests, its value as a Living Building exemplar, and its wider long term effects over time challenge us all. Our architecture affects its environment in it's making, over its lifespan, and after then. We all need to regularly reconnect with our places, and work together to actively regenerate them through our work.