southcombe research

on Housing, Housing Ecologies, Collective Urban Housing,

Design & Pedagogy, Prefabrication, Sacred Space,

Whanganui and NZ Architectural Histories.

RESEARCH. The Spaces Between. Research context.

Mark's background is as a lead design architect in practice from where he both taught and practiced for many years before taking on a full time research and teaching role in 2012. His research and teaching praxis observe and think about human relationships to the natural and built environment, and records and reflects on the significance of these relationships for design practices, projects, people and environments in the present and future. He is an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design where he teaches architecture studio design and design-led research in the School of Architecture. His research typically shifts between academic and practice worlds and has written, visual and often built outcomes. Written papers are included below. Visual outputs are included in the design section. Mark is one of the three staff in the VUW |Design Lab_ research unit with Peter Connolly and Victoria Willocks. His research and teaching includes work in Design and Pedagogy, Prefabrication, Sacred Space, Whanganui, and New Zealand Architectural Histories, Ecologies Design, and Housing and Collective Urban Housing.

“It is the spaces between idea and thing where perfect correspondence is never quite found, demanding a realm of endless negotiation and interpretation that we see as productive”

— Ross Jenner in "The Spaces Between" Introduction to Intersticies 1 1989

““My continual hope is that repeated failures and puzzlement will be punctuated by occasional luminous moments”

”

— Paul Callaghan "Luminous Moments" 2014

Housing and Collective Housing Ecologies

Re-socialising Aotearoa New Zealand Housing

MARK SOUTHCOMBE. A vision for a 21st-century cooperative-housing model for Aotearoa New Zealand. Cooperative housing as a third way between ownership and renting. Link to book Chapter

Sustainable Cities Public Lecture, Creating Collective Urban Housing. 18 April Wellington City Gallery 2018. Link to Sustainable Cities public lecture on Collective Urban Housing.

Settlement, Mark Southcombe. Presented at the ASA conference VUW November 2017.

Established in the 1976 the Quaker Settlement in Whanganui is New Zealand's original cohousing community that is a model of social and ecological sustainability. This paper documents its architectural history, its connections to the original Danish Cohousing communities, and the role of its architect, a client, mentor, and friend Michael Payne. Link to paper.

Translating Habitat; Revisiting Pitarua Court &Thorndon Mews. Mark Southcombe. Presented at the SAHANZ conference, Auckland July 2014.

Peter Beaven and Burwell Hunts Habitat Townhouses at Pitarua Street in Wellington are an important built exemplar and legacy that remains highly relevant today. Medium Density Housing is once again a focus in New Zealand, however architects are struggling to achieve medium density living environments that even approach the quality of Habitat Townhouses. This paper revisits the project to determine the contexts of its production, document the project key characteristics for reference, and to distill its enduring contemporary relevance. Link to the Paper.

Following the Whenua: 2021 Mark Southcombe visits Parsonson Architects’ Long House in Wellington’s Churton Park and finds a home designed with both landform and landscape in mind. Link to article in Architecture New Zealand.

The City of Privilege Mark Southcombe.

As urban house prices in New Zealand soar, are we in danger of building socially stratified, exclusive cities of privilege? Research into collective urban housing by Mark Southcombe, senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Architecture, suggests that there are proven international solutions which can help address the housing affordability crisis we are currently facing in this country. Link to Journal article

Plischke Gray House. Photograph Ann Noble.

The same but different; the Plischke Gray House and
Studio

This paper documents the last house designed in New Zealand by émigré architect Ernst Plischke before his return to Austria in 1963, and additions and alterations to the house by Wellington Architect John Gray from 2004 – 2008. Plischke and Gray’s drawings, interviews with Gray, and the evidence provided by the original house are measured against the altered and extended house and principles of the ICOMOS NZ Charter. Additional knowledge of an important lesser known house with positive and negative qualities augments Plischke’s
carefully edited oeuvre. The house is also discussed as an exemplar of issues associated with the restoration and redesign of major scale contemporary adaptations to modest historic fabric. Gray’s critical design based research and his negotiation between original and new work emerge as key tactics available to architects in the difficult position of major adaptation to the work of a master. Link to paper.

Urbanism, Heritage and Interior

[Re]Cuba Renegotiating seismic resilience in Cuba Street Wellington. Mark Southcombe and Andrew Charleson.

Cover of [Re]Cuba book published by WCC 2014.

The [Re]Cuba project was a rare opportunity to focus attention on the poor performance of existing inner city building stock, and particularly, the silent collective danger of earthquake-prone buildings. Architects don’t just design new buildings. Buildings are expensive and have a long life. A major part of almost all architectural practices includes upgrading, altering and extending existing buildings. The project also critiqued the too often half-hearted, half informed approach taken to a great many New Zealand seismic retrofitting projects. Link to book

Waitohi Johnsonville Library and Community Hub, Architecture New Zealand 03/2020.

Western Entrance and Courtyard. Photograph Jason Mann.

Waitohi Johnsonville Library and Community Hub by Athfield Architects’ is a building that prioritises placemaking and connections to the urban context. Link to file

K – P o i n t S t u d i o

K a i w h a r a w h a r a K ū r a e

The Masters Level collective studio was to create a contextually embedded utopian project for an extraordinary place; Kaiwharawhara Kūrae.

…utopianism is a collective phenomenon; it concerns social dreaming, embedded in particular time and place that it wants to change…[Utopias] desire something better, and they are creative, gesturing toward an alternative way of living and being, showing us that a better tomorrow is at least conceivable.

–– Lucy Sargisson, “Second-Wave Cohousing: A Modern Utopia?” Utopian Studies. Vol. 23, No. 1 (2012), pp. 31, 30.

It was a making studio/design-led research investigation with a defined brief shifting between micro and macro scales as a methodological tactic. It utilised a shared office type environment with diverse media and influences, sharing research and resources to agreed formats. It reimagined, tested, and through a series of projects modelled separately and exhibited together, created a fresh exemplar vision; a glimpse how we might live in a future ‘almost island’ Kaiwharawhara Kūrae, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Key goals were to reimagine a live work utopian housing and urban sector, and for each student participant to develop their extraordinary creative and architectural potentials, and the value and synergies of a critical collaborative practice. Link to project brief

Kaiwharawhara Kūrae utopian housing vision from the north

Roger Walker guest critic in final reviews.

Overview of collective studio model reimagining Kaiwharawhara Kūrae. Significant was the embracing various implications of climate change including ecological integration, introverted typologies and living with and on the water.

Cuba Precinct Redevelopment, Architecture New Zealand 04/2021.

While missing some of the grunge and graffiti patina, the essential character of Wellington’s Cuba Street remains through a sensitive bridging of time and a weaving of new and old architectural layers within Athfield Architects’ remaking of the Farmers Building and Cuba Street adjoining buildings. Link to file

Breakout, social collaboration and eating space. Photography by Jason Mann.

Design-Led Research, and Prefabrication

Kiwi Prefab; From Cottage to Cutting Edge.

Prefabricated architecture has been a part of the New Zealand landscape almost as long as people have built here. Particularly suited to our lightweight buildings, prefabrication is as much about collective, efficient, improved building processes as it is about a quality prefab built result. Its enduring legacy is the innovation that continues to result from people from different fields talking to each other and working together...This publication of original research by masters student Pamela Bell, augmented by research undertaken with Mark Southcombe to develop the material for the Kiwi Prefab Exhibition and includes essays on prefabrication by international authors. ISBN : 9780987659514 Publisher : Balasoglou Books. November 2012. Link to book

See also Talking Prefab: Conversations with the Designer. Film made for the Kiwi Prefab exhibition by Keith Finnerty of Cat and Mouse Productions New Plymouth.

This documentary film presents a series of conversations exploring prefabrication and Kiwi homes. Visit www.kiwiprefab.co.nz for more information about the exhibition. The camera goes close up with industry experts as they discuss the advantages and challenges of the prefabrication process. Iconic prefab companies Lockwood Homes and Keith Hay homes tell their stories.

WCBK Atelier Street Frontage and Childrens Entry.

Between Children and the City. Project review by Philippe Campays, the critic, and Mark Southcombe, the designer. Submitted for Idea Journal special issue on the Interior and the City 2013.

A reconceptualised interior architecture and urban interface. A series of early childhood centres is grafted onto the public realm via a new public entrance, administration and studio art space that renegotiates relationships between the centres and the public realm, adults and children, and pedagogy and a wider cultural context. Link to Journal Submission

Futuna Chapel Pews. Image by Gavin Woodward.

Silent Voices;

This paper reflects on overlaps, gaps and conflicts that may occur between written, visual and built discourses in architecture. It explores co-incidences and differences in the critical intentions evident within different modes of architectural representation. A rereading of the built architecture and discourse around Futuna Chapel compared with historic and contemporary representations and writing on the chapel particularly the book ‘Voices of Silence’ by Russell Walden form a case study through which to explore architectures ability to carry idea through building. Shifts between written, visual and built media bring into focus critical intentions, where ideas have emerged and developed, and gaps where ideas have withered or been lost in translation. Reflecting upon implications of built architecture considered as the outcome of critical spatial practice an argument is promoted for the consideration of built work as having an independent critical presence equivalent in value to that of a published text.
Link to Paper.

“Prefabricated architecture has been a part of the New Zealand landscape almost as long as people have built here. Particularly suited to our lightweight buildings, prefabrication is as much about collective, efficient, improved building processes as it is about a quality prefab built result. Its enduring legacy is the innovation that continues to result from people from different fields talking to each other and working together...”

— Mark Southcombe 2012

Whanganui and New Zealand Architectural History

Rangahaua: Architecture and Cultural Interface. Mark Southcombe and Tupuna Te Awa. Presented at SAHANZ Conference Wellington, July 2018.

A story of Te Rangakura, an important by Maori for Maori, Teacher training programme, and Rangahaua, an exemplar Marae as part of a tertiary education campus. The paper was created in an interactive process with contributors from Whanganui Iwi and the former Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic (WRCP). Link to the paper Link to 2020 Atrium Talk

Don Wilson House, Great North Road Whanganui.

An International Exchange Mark Southcombe. Presented at the NZ Architecture in the 1950s symposium VUW, 4 Dec 2015.

Don Wilson was a provincial New Zealand Modernist who travelled to Chicago in 1958 to study under Mies van der Rohe. The paper examines Wilson’s architectural education and travel, and two of his most significant projects completed in Wanganui New Zealand immediately after he returned from his scholarship. The projects are his own house designed during the period of his research and travel and the Government Life Insurance office building. Link to paper

European fruit; “Tikitiki”: A Treaty signatory’s house. Mark Southcombe and Wendy Pettigrew. Presented at the SAHANZ conference Napier 2005.

This paper begins to document Wanganui’s architectural history by cross-reference to available historical documents, local Maori oral histories, and the architecture that remains. Through this process a new record is being created that identifies the significance of some important, almost forgotten architecture. The house “Tikitiki” was built in 1867 for Hori Kerei and became the last residence of his father Kawana Paipai whose life spanned the period of early European settlement from 1799-1884. He was a Putikiwharanui ‘friendly native’, a loyal chief and one of a small group who were critical allies of European settlement in Wanganui. Paipai was present at several historic events including the Treaty of Waitangi signing and fought at important battles as a distinguished ‘irregular’ soldier. Paipai’s son Hori Kerei was also an irregular soldier and served for a period as aide-de-camp to Governor George Grey. “Tikitiki” the house is examined as it was built, as it changed and as it exists today. The historic and contemporary significance of the house to Wanganui and New Zealand architectural history is considered. Link to the paper.

Whanganui Collegiate School with New Administration Building, and H.G. Carver Memorial Library Remodel by RTA Studio

Whanganui Collegiate School Architecture critique in the context of New Zealand Education Architecture and the recent generation of projects by RTA Studio. Published in ArchitectureNZ, Sept/Oct05, 2019, p56-64. Link to the article

Whanganui Community Arts Centre NZ Home and Building Dec 1992

Abstraction and Artifice; The Wanganui Community Arts Centre. Mark Southcombe. Presented at the NZ Architecture in the 1980s symposium VUW, Dec 2009.

This paper reflects on the architecture of the Wanganui Community Arts Centre 1989, and local, national and international contexts of its design and realisation. It documents and records the project and its history. It advances a reading of the project and its critical aspirations based on personal experience, documentation and the characteristics of the architecture. Finally, with reference to Jan Turnovskys “The Poetics of a wall projection” implications of an architect writing history of architecture are reflected on. Link to the paper.

The Wanganui Post Office designed by Robert Talboys.

The End of the Golden Weather; Whanganui Architecture in the 1930s. Mark Southcombe and Wendy Pettigrew. Paper presented at the NZ Architecture in the 1980s symposium VUW, Nov 2006.

“I invite you to join me in a voyage into the past, to that territory of the heart we call childhood” begins The End of the Golden Weather – the Bruce Mason play set in 1930s New Zealand…and so it is at the beginning of this paper when we consider Whanganui Architecture of the 1930s period. The 1930s was the beginning of the end of Wanganui City’s unbridled adolescent optimism and innocence – a beginning of the end of the time when anything had seemed possible. Link to Paper.

“It is remarkable that such a rare historically and culturally significant yet unrecognised work of architecture still exists. It is long overdue for listing as a Heritage NZ Category 1 Historic place. ”

— Mark Southcombe 2005

Design Pedagogy

Critical Thresholds; Traversing architectural pedagogy,
research and practice. Journal of Public Space V2 No3 special issue. Editors Daniel K. Brown, Manfredo Manfredini, Peter McPherson, Annabel Pretty, Uwe Rieger, Mark Southcombe
Guest Editor, Colin Fournier.

Includes Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION Interdisciplinary and collaborative design at the core of inquiry and scholarly research. Daniel K. Brown & Mark Southcombe, and University praxis; On exchange between professional and academic practices in architectural education. Mark Southcombe, Andrew Charleson. Link to Journal issue

Depth of Shadow; research and design. Mark Southcombe. Presented at the ANZAScA conference Auckland Nov 2010.

The Depth of Shadow project is a case study demonstrating research through design in action. Characteristics, strengths and problems associated with research undertaken through design as methodology are identified and considered. Advantages and limitations of design understood as research medium are identified and documented. Clear definition of how design may be applied as research method occurs. Criteria for assessment of design as research method are identified to avoid confusing operative design research and findings from procedural design processes and outcomes. A design research matrix is proposed as an academic tool to aid assessment of research through the medium of design and the quality of design research outcomes. Link to Paper.

Ecologies Design. Transforming Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism.

The notion of ecology has become central to contemporary design discourse. This reflects contemporary concerns for our planet and a new understanding of the primary entanglement of the human species with the rest of the world.

The use of the term ‘ecology’ with design tends to refer to how to integrate ecologies into design and cities and be understood in a biologically scientific and technical sense. In practice, this scientific-technical knowledge tends to be only loosely employed. The notion of ecology is also often used metaphorically in relation to the social use of space and cities. This book argues that what it calls the ‘biological’ and ‘social’ senses of ecology are both important and require distinctly different types of knowledge and practice. It proposes that science needs to be taken much more seriously in ‘biological ecologies’, and that ‘social ecologies’ can now be understood non-metaphorically as assemblages. Furthermore, this book argues that design practice itself can be understood much more rigorously, productively, and relevantly if understood ecologically. The plural term ‘ecologies design’ refers to these three types of ecological design. This book is unique in bringing these three perspectives on ecological design together in one place. It is significant in proposing that a strong sense of ecologies design practice will only follow from the interconnection of these three types of practice.

Existing drawing documentation as a basis for understanding existing contexts for redevelopment.

Negotiating spaces between; [Re]Cuba collaborative studios, Mark Southcombe and Andrew Charleson. Presented at AASA Applied Collaborations conference, Christchurch October 2015.

This paper describes two collaborative design studios in 2012 and 2013 motivated by the need to educate building owners and the local public about the need to demolish or seismically-upgrade
historic building stock in the Cuba Street precinct of Wellington. The studios operated as an experimental partnership with Wellington City Council and Heritage New Zealand. They addressed issues and opportunities arising from the need for structural upgrading, heritage retention and adaptation, and from new building interventions in the Cuba Street historic precinct. The design studios also integrated teaching collaborations across parallel technology courses.

Studio Project for a school analysis by Sam Martin referenced in the paper.

Playing at Architecture; Bringing unpredictability and urgency of practice to design studio. Mark Southcombe. Paper presented at the AASA Conference, Brisbane, September 2005.

This paper explores how a design studio prepares senior students for a future as architects through an experiment in design practice simulation. As a teaching methodoloy what happens if some of the unpredictability and urgency of a practice environment are simulated in a studio environment? Link to paper

“...the Library...a living thing...a treasure of secrets emanated from many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or been their conveyors”

— Umberto Eco, The name of the Rose, Vintage, 2004, p286

Masters of Architecture Supervision

There are a great many wonderful Masters Student Research Theses and Final Year Architecture Design-led research projects I have had the pleasure of working with over the years. Many of these have been critical and speculative Place and Site focused or in the collective urban housing ecologies and related Urban Design project fields. A selection of introductions to these follows. All MArch Theses are available for reference through the VUW Library.

2023 |design LaB_ with collaboration from Peter Connolly & VICTORIA WILLOCKS

Henry Craw, Rural Renaissance.

Zoe Heswall, Shifting Architectures: A Response to Severe Weather on the Tutukaka Coast

Jack Monk, Billet-Doux: A love letter to the coast

Monique Rees, When we Retreat

2021 |design LaB_ with collaboration from Peter Connolly & REBECCA KIDDLE

Vincent Chu, The Windows: Improving the quality of public space within urban apartments as a means to improve resident communication.

Aidan Colin, TUHINGA WHAKARAPOPOTO: Decolonising Home Ownership in Aotearoa to allow for Te Ao Māori DECOLONISING HOME OWNERSHIP IN AOTEAROA TO ALLOW FOR TE AO MĀORI HOUSING SOLUTIONS.

Ashleigh Cook, Desirable Density: how can collective housing models improve the desirability of high density urban housing?

Emma Loughnan, Homework: How can home design accommodate changing living and working needs following the Covid19 pandemic?

Erika Kondo, Living Together: Multigenerational Housing in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Keeley Warnock Cooperation is key: Integrating Urban Universal State Housing.

2019 Ecologies design LaB. with collaboration from Maibritt Pedersen-ZarI, Peter Connolly & Hannah hopewell

Hettie Bull, A Room with a View: Investigating the Tower House and plot as an alternative New Zealand housing density model.

Terian Le Compte, Next Generation Architect: How can an Architect actively control costs within Design and Construction?

Sarah Webb, Learning to live with a new Minimum.

Olivia Whyte, It takes a Village; A Collective approach to New Zealand Housing.

Corey Wilson Milieu: Democratising Quality Urban Housing.

2017 Ecologies design LaB. withcollaboration from Maibritt Pedersen-Zari & Peter Connolly

Matt Ashworth, Where the heck do I put the BBQ; Highrise living for New Zealanders.

Danae Bloxham, Live Large in Small Spaces.

Eunice Sison, Ambiguous Spaces; Rethinking and Intensifying social space.

Genevieve Walshe, I want to share; Balancing collective and individual needs in New Zealand Urban Housing Architecture.

Benjamin Webber, The architecture of co-living: Transitional housing for communities and very low income people.

2014 Refab; Refabricating Parametrics with collaboration from Tane Moleta

Nicholas Ayres, Dwelling in the City: Towards an Integrated Medium-Density Housing Environment.

Lu Cheng, Minimum ++; Improving the quality of life in medium or higher density student housing in Wellington.

Lauren Hickling, A Table made of Watercress: an understanding of atmosphere and gastronomy.

Matej Katic, Towards a Dadaist Interior; A critique of the contemporary interior through the study of Marcel Duchamp.

Angela Pennington, DWELLING NARROW: Affordable Home Ownership in the City.

Henry Read, SUB-URBAN DREAM; Reinterpreting the suburban dream in Auckland’s Medium density housing.

James Ting, People's Supermarket.

Karyn Walker, Occupying Paekakariki’s Coastal Edge.

Emma Zee, Towards Specific Adaptable Housing.

2022 |design LaB_ with collaboration from Peter Connolly & VICTORIA WILLOCKS

Nicolas Greenslade, An Urban Papakāinga: Towards Inclusive Aotearoa Housing.

Hannah Mangin, Super Dense: Housing Density and Urban Regeneration in Richmond.

Grace McLean, Co-fill: Collective Infill Housing.

Ella McKay, This Must be the Place: A New Heart for Hastings.

Sophie Sangster, The Shift: A Home for the Architectural Nomad.

Chris Schooler, Neither Here or There: Social Stigma in Urban Space Design.

Emily Old, A Space to Flourish: Design for children and the family within multi-unit public housing.

2020 Ecologies design LaB. with collaboration from Maibritt Pedersen-ZarI, Peter Connolly,Rebecca Kiddle & victoria chanse

Matt Buttimore, The Aesthetics of Making.

Ben Carpenter, Wish you were(n’t) here, building of Aotearoa’s sacred land in the age of decolonisation and over-tourism.

Karl Hoffman, The Task of the Translator.

Yuri Takemoto, One’s Home: A balance between community and individuality.

2018 Ecologies design LaB. withcollaboration from Peter Connolly & Hannah hopewell

Abigail Barclay, Aesthetics of Home; Continuity and Variation in New Zealand Medium Density Housing.

Bridget Buxton, A Rivers Cry; An Architectural response, in the spirit of Te Awa Tupuna.

Kieran Ibell, The Waters Edge, Reimagining New Zealand Coastal Housing.

Christopher Sufflott, Attached; A New Methodology for Medium Density Volume Housing in Auckland.

Isabella Woolley, Bring Back the Bach; How can coastal housing have less impact on the environment?

2015 Ecologies design LaB. withcollaboration from Maibritt Pedersen-Zari & Peter Connolly

Nicholas Denton, A Place to Navigate With / In; Negotiation of Architecture and Urban Environments in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Vincent Liw, No Aircon; Contemporary Malaysian Urban Housing that Breathes.

Liam McGarry, Framing the Locale; in search of Common Ground.

Solange Thorp, Tangible remains, tangible reminders.

Breanna Urquhart, OPUS OPPIDUM; RESEARCH FOR ARCHITECTURE, RESEARCH BEYOND THE CITY.

Jackie Williams, Social Suburban Fields.

2013 Refab; Refabricating ParametricS with collaboration from Tane Moleta

Hamish Byrne, Roomness.

Chloe Coles, The Humane CoHouse.

Steven Jaycock, Toward healthier, sustainable, medium density housing, through a return to natural materials.

Joseph Sturm, PLAN IMPLEMENTATION AND MEDIUM DENSITY HOUSING OUTCOMES: MEASURING THE EFFECT OF WELLINGTON CITY DISTRICT PLAN CHANGE 56.

Brett Wines, The New Eastside: Re-populating East Christchurch Through Diverse, Contextualised, Medium Density Housing.

Duan Zhao, Urban Village: A Critique of Personal Space in Medium Density Housing.

2011 MArch research thesis

Pamela Bell, Kiwi Prefab: Prefabricated Housing in New Zealand a historical overview with recommendations for the future.

Generation Series of Publications Documenting all Year 5 Thesis level Design Led Research outcomes for 2006 - 2009.