AW16 CHCH: Housing & Ideas

Home Magazine and the Canterbury Branch of Architecture+Women•NZ present a panel discussion about housing - including completed projects, issues and ideas for the future, and what developments in housing types may mean for Christchurch and New Zealand.

A panel of experts from Christchurch and the rest of the South Island will introduce themselves by presenting a housing project they have been involved with, before an informal discussion led by our Christchurch A+W•NZ convenor Jane Rooney.

Panel members include;

• Anne Salmond (Salmond Architecture Ltd)

• Ekin Sakin (architect, ChCh City Council)

• Fiona Short (architectural graduate, WaM)

• Anna-Marie Chin (Anna-Marie Chin Architects, Queenstown)

Panel Chair: Jane Rooney

When: Tuesday 20th September, 6pm
Where: WaM Christchurch studio foyer
Cost: Free, no booking necessary

15 CPD Points

Supported by Home Magazine and NZIA Canterbury Branch

Organising Team;

Jane Rooney

Chloe Coles

Image: Anna-Marie Chin Architects

Housing The Future A+W•NZ Panel Discussion by Chloe Coles

As part of Architecture Week 2016, Architecture+Women•NZ, Home Magazine and the NZIA Canterbury Branch presented a public panel discussion with the theme Housing the Future. An audience of around 70 people were in attendance in the Warren and Mahoney Christchurch studio foyer. After a short time mingling and enjoying refreshments kindly provided by Warren and Mahoney, audience members took their seat on the stairs, with panel members seated in a semi-circle in front of them.

After a quick introduction from chairperson Jane Rooney (convenor of A+W•NZ Canterbury), the four speakers each presented some slides to outline their areas of experience and expertise and stimulate conversation topics for the informal discussion to follow. Anna-Marie Chin (Anna-Marie Chin Architects, based in Queenstown) began and talked through a selection of her projects, touching on the different requirements of her various clients and how their wishes were motivated often by changing family demographics and the ability to add value for their family group; not necessarily re-sell values.

Anne Salmond (Salmond Architecture, based in Wanaka) spoke second with a presentation focused mainly on the high-performance housing she has developed and implemented in both Christchurch and further south. This subject matter seemed to spark a lot of interest with the crowd and was the focus of most of some audience questions after the discussion.

Fiona Short (Warren and Mahoney Christchurch studio) spoke next presenting the Little House of Mary housing project in Christchurch city. It was interesting to see the motivation behind this beautiful and simple urban development that I’ve often admired from the street. Fiona and the rest of the design team have successfully provided ample community spaces and a certain level of affordability for their unique client.

Ekin Sakin, architect with Christchurch City Council, rounded off the speakers with some Council housing projects. The examples of these, straight after the more bespoke projects, was an interesting juxtaposition, particularly when compared to the Little House of Mary project which was similar in scale and typology to many of the Council projects. The combination of Ekin and Fiona’s projects sparked good debate during the discussion after about the real cost of the Council housing, and whether it can’t feasibly be to a high architectural standard similar to the Mary Potter housing.

The panel discussion that followed was brief, after the drinks and the comprehensive slide shows took up a lot of the evening, but Jane was able to squeeze in some lines of questioning that encouraged conversation between all the panellists and made connections between their respective areas of expertise. In early planning the discussion was intended to explore the practice of four women in architecture at various stages of their career with a wide variety of housing expertise, but on the night it the conversation focused more on that so topical and relevant subject of affordable and accessible housing. This is clearly what a lot of people within both the industry and the public are passionate about at the moment!

The A+W•NZ Canterbury group hosted the speakers and a few extra A+W•NZ members for a post-event dinner at Bamboozle in the new Deloitte building on Cambridge Terrace (recently completed by Jasmax). It was a great ending to the night with stimulating discussion continuing over wine and dumplings. For me personally it was a joy to be seated next to panellist Anne and be able to pick her brains about being a successful architect, parent and her own boss.

Many thanks to Architecture+Women•NZ, Warren and Mahoney and the NZIA.