CITY TALKS: Roger Walker — NZIA Gold Medal Talk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2 MAY 2017

CITY TALKS: Roger Walker — New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal Talk

“I just thought what I was doing was a more natural way to build things.”

City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square
Monday 15 May, 6pm
Free entry, no reservations

Few figures in history of New Zealand Architecture are as synonymous with a place and time as is Roger Walker with Wellington in the 1960s and ‘70s. Roger’s buildings helped to define an era in New Zealand architecture and he is one of the few architects, along with Ian Athfield, to have received recognition in the wider culture.

Roger, a director of Wellington practice Walker Architecture & Design, has been awarded the 2016 Gold Medal — the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ premier individual honour — in recognition of an outstanding body of work.

Toward the end of the 1960s, and not long out of architecture school, Roger designed the Wellington Club, undertaken when he was a new recruit with Calder Fowler and Styles. With this confident and bold small building under his wing he launched his own practice. Over the next decade Roger designed a series of small epoch defining buildings, which we now closely associate with Wellington’s architectural identity. These include a pair of small amenity structures on the waterfront, Park Mews on the drive in from the airport, and the Britten House, one very many of his residential houses that sit so well in the vertiginous topography of Wellington. Rogers’s buildings were fun, they were witty, expressive and engaging, and they were much imitated.

Rogers work challenges what people think buildings should look like. In his Whakatane airport building his design was nearly rejected because it didn’t follow Ministry of Works policy that all regional airports should look the same in order not to confuse people. In Park Mews, Roger championed communitarian togetherness with a building that expressed individuality, rejecting the uniformity and anonymity typical of many multi residential buildings.

In awarding the Gold Medal the NZIA noted his skilful planning, his drive and resolve in his work, and his commitment never to be bored.

“Roger keeps going, and keeps looking forward. He works as hard as he ever did, his curiosity as strong as it ever was, and his determination to respond in a meaningful way to the building challenges of our cities and suburbs remains undiminished. He is a worthy recipient of the 2016 New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal.”

City Talks is an ongoing series initiated by the New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington Branch and presented in partnership with City Gallery Wellington. Its purpose is to foster discussion about architecture for a broader audience in a city that cares to openly discuss ideas relevant to our future.

Roger Walker is an architect and director of Walker Architecture & Design. Born and raised in Hamilton, Roger studied architecture at the University of Auckland before moving to Wellington where he was employed at the architectural practice of Calder Fowler and Styles. He made an almost immediate impact on the city and in rapid succession designed a series of buildings in Wellington and around the country that were not like anything New Zealand had seen before. These include The Wellington Club, Park Mews, and the Britten House in Wellington, Sandcastle motel on Kapiti Coast, Whakatane Airport, Rainbow Springs in Rotorua and Centre Point in Masterton.

In the 1980s Roger started his own housing company, Vintage Homes, which was to be a sustained attempt to marry bespoke design and standardised production in residential homes, something many are trying to achieve today. Latterly his interest has shifted from individual residences to multi-residential projects and he has increasingly applied his planning skills and experience to the design of medium density housing in New Zealand and Australia.

Roger Walker’s Gold Medal Talk is sponsored by AON and we acknowledge their generous support in touring the talk around New Zealand.

The talk will be followed by refreshments.

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