The last design Justin did before he was taken to hospital with a brain tumour was a mud brick shed. The other students decided that instead of sending a get-well card they would build his shed for him.
It was going to be too difficult, and take too long, to build it all in mud brick. Laurie Eckers of Stevensons came to the rescue and they sposored us by providing several thousand dollars worth of brick.
Stevensons were wonderful. They spirited the bricks from Whangarei to Albany and then from there to the yard of the School of Architecture. With a truckie's trolley the students furtively moved then from there up to the level six roof deck, stacking them carefully to distribute the load over a beam.
Dry laying bricks is really fast, and being good students the planners decided to ignore planning and get on with the fun of building. With no lectures to get in the way they quickly discovered how to bond for strength and how to create as many corners as possible to stabilise the structure. They were proud of their first attempt and brought Justin down from the hospital to inspect their efforts. Celebrations and laughter are great medicines. Justin made a few suggestions about improvements.
The real problem was that the shed looked rather like the typical built environment which results from planning. It was dull, boring and lifeless. Rules and regulations and hearings and even mission statements never lift the world above mediocrity. Mediocrity was not the right medicine for Justin, in the same way that planning mediocrity is never going to heal a broken world.
The students began having fun. They punched holes in the walls. They began taking risks, exploring the limits of structure and materials. Now they were starting to challenge not only Justin, but also the conventional wisdom. Authorities are quick to react when they feel their power is being threatened, and nothing makes people feel threatened quite like something they do not understand. The University began demanding that the bricks should be removed.
Attracted by a growing sense of solidarity and community the architecture students became involved. When their visiting board had finished their deliberations they found the door to their room would not open. Several tonne of brick had been stacked on the other side. Now everyone was learning all kinds of new skills and that felt very dangerous for the authorities.
A brick was thrown from the roof, but at a time when only staff with security cards had access to the roof. The security went very quiet. They knew, but would not reveal, which staff member had thrown the brick. It seemed that battle lines were drawn. On the one hand a student fighting for his life, with the full support of a community fighting to support him. On the other hand power and authority willing to sacrifice a life, in the way that it has always done.
With bamboo and flags and colour the students fought back from their brick barricades. Getting the roof on now seemed irrelevant. Passion had become part of the project and passion always produces great art. Each time the shed was rebuilt it became more beautiful. The students were learning all those things which can never be taught in lectures. Even the engineering students became involved as they came across to share in the structure. They found brick being used in ways they could never have envisaged.
The result was a triumph. Justin recovered, and finally was released from hospital. He went on to graduate, and became the front person for CanTeen, the support group for teenagers with cancer. He also went off with Habitat for Humanity to help build houses for the disadvantaged of East Cape.
The University authorities became increasingly bitter. This kind of brilliant performance did not fit the boxes of their "performance based research funding" strategies. Building a better world was not part of their agenda. Building community is a threat to the new corporate model of a university. They wanted every trace and every memory of the shed to be erased so that their approach to planning would not be challenged. The objective of the shed had been achieved. Perhaps it was time to go. This was after all a spiritual building, not something made from bricks and mortar.
When Laurie had provided the bricks we envisaged the opposition which would result, and had presumed that they might be moved to Purakau to be built into another student project. Stevensons very generously offered to provide more bricks for there, and while Justin was coming back to life Peter Vujcich had died. Another place needed to be found, and it seemed good that it should be close to Arakainga, the student house. The Maori concept of being close to a friend.
Those who set out to destroy the shed were finally only destroying themselves. When the Planning Department was abolished they did not raise so much as a flag of protest. They did not throw a single brick. They had exhausted themselves attacking goodness. They had understood nothing.
Who is the victim and who is the slayer?
