Tony Watkins

Tourism is a trap. You end up seeing what someone else thinks you ought to see. Tourists tick boxes when they might instead discover new worlds which they never imagined could exist. When people ask about places or people I have begun sharing my thoughts through my web page. There is no logic. If you are going to Edmonton then I suggest a side trip to the Icefield Parkway. If you are going to Italy it is well worth looking up some of the work of Carlo Scarpa. If you are in the Alpes Maritime region then make a quick side trip to Colletta del Castelbianco. When in Vienna do not miss MAK. In Berlin the 100 bus is ideal for exploring and orientation. It would be easy to miss Gehry’s bank.

2008 saw the passing of Barry Barclay, Walter Pollard, Hone Tuwhare, Ed Hillary and Joe Polaischer. We will not see the likes of them again.

“Beyond the Landing”, published in 2008 to celebrate a hundred years since the founding of the Morrinsville Town Board, included an autobiography of Frank Marshall.

Check it out at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/347/390/

There is always something to learn at Pasifika, the largest Polynesian Festival in the South Pacific.

In 2008 one of the Umus was put down on top of corrugated iron and it was highly successful.

You unfortunately cannot enjoy the food, but a photograph is at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/342/291/

A selection of Karaka Bay photographs can be found at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/365/226/

A selection of Sunday Star Times photographs can be found at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/366/226/

There was a slightly terrifying moment when I thought we might have ended up with 150 party-goers stranded on Motukorea. Richard stayed on for an extra hour and shuttled everyone back to the food and wine.

Photographs of Decade-dent Adventures 2008 can be found at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/335/109/

A selection of Auckland City Library photographs from the thirties, when Riddell Road ran through farmland, can be found at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/399/179/

The Herald ran an article on the Undeclared Interest of two of the three members of the ACC panel appointed to revise the dog bylaw.

You will find it at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/396/276/

The sculpture of Lindsay Evans exhibited at Village Arts in March 2008 were very architectural.

If you have some empty architecture check them out at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/354/129/

The 2008 Coromandel Group exhibition at Hauraki House offered a feast of wonderful pottery.

There are a few images at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/346/129/  

The beauty of classic yachts has never been equalled. Sailing on the Rona takes any crew back to 1892.

Catch a glimpse at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/307/117/

One alternative to the Rehab Ward after my stroke was to set out on a 6000km adventure driving around the South Island.

You will find lots of photographs from “Call it Southern Rehab” at  www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/331/92/

Just ignore the text.

With the Planning Department having been destroyed just before its Golden Jubilee there is poignancy in old photographs of the Silver Jubilee. Some are at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/391/83/

It is hard now to imagine that “restructuring” was a new idea for architects at the 1967 NZIA Conference in Queenstown. If you want to know who some of those architects were in that innocent age look at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/383/74/

Nostagia too in memories of the Leyland O’Brien timber mill at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/378/74/

Leyland O’Brien was famous for its scows. A photograph at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/379/84/ 

It is always interesting to discover what threatens people.

A very innocent posting on the Arch-Peace web site on “slow architecture” brought a vitriolic response. I retaliated and regretted not having better photographs of some of my own “slow architecture”, which was of course very fast. The story is at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/

I will slowly write up the history of Arc-Peace. A couple of photographs from meetings long ago, in Istanbul 1996 can now be found at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/389/73/

Recent events have brought back into the highlight the secret testing of nuclear weapons on human subjects in Turkestan by the Chinese, You will find a glimpse into the courageous people who dared to speak out at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/395/194/

Telling it the way it is may not be a pathway to success.

However, as I observed thirty years ago - “If you only say the things people want to hear, you will not say the things which need to be said.”

Judge for yourself the market potential of the ideas at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/244/72/

Now that the term “green” has lost traction we might do better to talk about “Environmentally Responsible Architecture”.

I failed to make any submissions to the Select Committee on the Emissions Trading Act. That was a bad mistake. It seemed to me that there would be enough intelligent green people to shake out all the issues. With alarm I have watched discussion driven by selfishness going nowhere. Real self-interest would suggest that we ought to set up the global carbon market in New Zealand. The market will make the money, and before long taxation could be a thing of the past for our country. That would be smart business. We would have more money than we could work out how to spend. Letting someone else run our game is simply selling our soul.

You will find an introduction to the Carbon Con Trick at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/385/71/

Chris Barfoot has written a superb book on Tahuna Torea. I hope the short quotation at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/312/71/
might tempt you to buy the book.

The Royal Commission on Auckland Governance seems doomed to failure. Two of the three members managed to produce a report on rates which failed to address almost everything of relevance and came up with a non-conclusion.

I know they will be dismissive of the submission you will find at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/364/71/
but how could anyone have nothing to say?

On a cheerful note the story at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/390/71/
of how a Curitiba bus brought action on the Link bus offers hope.

Stroke victims might be interested in my thoughts at www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/367/71/
about making your stroke a positive experience.

Despots, great and small, are notable for the excesses of their architecture, and ego-architects love them. Architectural magazines thrive on images of despotic architecture just because the buildings are so photogenic. The public gets the message that real architecture comes with a multi-million dollar price tag. In contrast idealistic visionaries are notable for the simplicity and purity of their architecture. It can easily be overlooked.

At www.tony-watkins.com/content/view/388/84/
you will find a glimpse of the simplicity of Ben Gurion’s house at Sede Boker.

The publicity from the RIBA said their September 2008 Conference “will propose that increasing environmental concerns might lead to a return to the vernacular”. The line up of speakers did not look hopeful, but at last my contention of the last forty years has begun bearing fruit. It will also “question whether globalised architecture can be truly sustainable”. The answer to that should be obvious. The Conference will also “look at how architecture can take away identity from places”, “at worst suppressing the local vernacular in favour of a global style”. It seemed when John Hunt and Errol Haarhoff destroyed my Vernacular Architecture course, probably because the students assessed it to be the most popular course in the School, that I had lost the battle, but eventually the globalisation pendulum swung back to indicate that they were wrong and I was right.