Urban Designer - Vernacular Architect - Maritime Planner - Owner-Builder - Servant of Piglet - Educator - Author - Revolutionary - Peacenik - Tour Guide 

Tony Watkins

 ~ Vernacular Design 

Ivan Mercep Print E-mail
Image“Ivan Mercep, who died on 8 April, has, more than any other person, given the University of Auckland a human face.” writes Tony Watkins, a former senior lecturer in what is now the School of Architecture and Planning.

“International House in Whitaker Place, completed in 1971 in the days of the Colombo Plan, was notable for its intimate touchability and friendliness. The Collingwood student accommodation in 1976 gave students a home in the city. The Recreation Centre in 1977 hunkered down to respect the passers by. Arts Commerce followed in 1984, reflecting the original domestic scale of its Symonds Street corner site. The Waipapa marae and associated buildings in 1988, and the Fale Pasifika in 2004, gave a strong and unique identity to the University.


“Ivan graduated in architecture from the University of Auckland and was then a founding partner of JASMaD, which later became Jasmax. Ivan’s legacy has made generations of students feel that they belong, and are at home. His buildings will live on as his memorial. A family of buildings for a family of scholars.”


Published in Ingenio, the University of Auckland Alumni Magazine, Autumn 2014

 
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