Russell Withers was a very talented Auckland architect whose work is occasionally recognised, but whose overall body of work remains under-examined.
The Withers House is his first built work and dates from 1969.
The house featured in David Mitchell and Gillian Chaplin's The Elegant Shed, 1984.
The book (and TV series) imprinted on the New Zealand cultural landscape the reputations of almost all the architects and buildings that appeared in its pages. However strangely, almost uniquely, it somehow failed to do the same for the Withers House and it has not been published in the intervening forty years.
Many assumed it no longer existed. Yet it still exists, almost completely intact, at the end of a suburban cul-de-sac. It still fits the description Mitchell memorably gave it as 'the kind of optimistic tour-de-force that only a young and gifted architect could have produced.'
Softcover off-set book
157w x 210h mm • 44 pages
Designed & published by Giles Reid & Mary Gaudin
Edition of 200
20€ + 12€25 tracked worldwide shipping
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Enquiries • mail@marygaudin.com
Order from : marygaudin.com/projects/henry-kulka
Henry Kulka
This is the first ever book devoted to the work of architect Henry Kulka (1900–1971).
Born in Moravia, modern day Czechia, Kulka studied and then worked alongside Adolf Loos, one of the undisputed masters of modern architecture—together creating some of the key architectural works of the twentieth century.
Kulka’s own career in Europe was cut short by World War Two. As a Jewish architect, he was forced to flee persecution and start again, arriving in New Zealand in 1940. Here, he worked for the next thirty years, creating a unique body of work, much of which is now in a fragile state.
Henry Kulka is often cited, but his work is little known. This book is an attempt to rediscover the architect, through new photography and writing, helping to reveal the beauty and depth of what remains.
Giles Reid & Mary Gaudin
Hardcover • 400 pages • 157mm x 210mm
254 photographes • 8 texts • scaled plans & archival material
Edition of 350
ISBN 978-1-3999-3389-6
Order from : https://davidstraight.net/books/duncraft-house
For sale in Europe and US - contact studio.gilesreidarchitects@gmail.com
A book made with photographer David Straight.
The Duncraft House (1974-1986) Christchurch, New Zealand, is the result of a collaboration between two architects, Nicholas Kennedy and Ian Bisman, taking place over more than a decade.
John and Wendy Duncraft purchased the property in the late 1960s and commissioned a large extension from Nicholas Kennedy. Kennedy was a young architect who, after starting at Warren and Mahoney, had gone out on his own in the early 1970s.
Kennedy, however, became too ill to continue. He died in 1977, aged just 33. He produced only a few buildings under his own name — enough however to create the widely held view that he would have gone on to greater things. Ian Bisman took over the project. Bisman adopted Kennedy’s initial concept, subtly improved aspects of the plan, drew up the construction set and oversaw each stage of the build.
It is a building that has, for whatever reason, stayed below the radar.
Softcover, 158x x 210h mm, 38 pages, edition of 200, ISBN 978-1-3999-0271-7, designed and published Giles Reid and David Straight.
Order from : https://marygaudin.com/projects/worrall-house
A book made with photographer Mary Gaudin on the Worrall House (1964-66), Stanley Point, Auckland by Ivan Juriss of Wilson and Juriss.
In the 1950’s and 60’s, Ivan developed a grammar of timber and joinery construction details, recognisable to this day. Ivan's details have been passed down through generations of Auckland architects.
This book sets out to capture the many atmospheres of the house and garden, to give a sense of its spaces and niches, light and colour as we found it.
Order from : https://davidstraight.net/books/st-james-church-len-hoogerbrug
A book made with photographer David Straight on St James Church, 1963, Hastings, New Zealand by Len Hoogerbrug.
St James, Mahora Hastings was designed by Len Hoogerbrug in 1958-59 and completed 1963. When first opened, the building received national praise. However, over the years it was largely forgotten from the main accounts of New Zealand architecture.
The church's congregation fell away and it decided to close its doors in 2017. We started work on a project to gain access and photograph it in 2018. Hoogerbrug sadly died in 2019 and in October, the church was put up for sale. Its future is currently uncertain.
In some ways this book could be seen as a natural extension of photographer David Straight’s monograph on Hawkes Bay architect John Scott, with whom Hoogerbrug worked in the 1960s. The building is a rare example in New Zealand of a type of monumental Modern architecture that is so spare as to be almost minimal. We hope these photos act as a timely reminder of the building's powerful atmosphere, derived from the colour, weight and clarity of its construction.
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A book made with photographer Mary Gaudin on two adjacent houses by New Zealand architect John Scott (1924-92); the Werry House and the Francis House.
They are late works in good condition, but have slipped from memory and today are largely unknown.
Our intention was to focus on just a few things in these buildings; doors and windows, gutters and eaves and thresholds between interior and garden.
These simple facts of building are common to almost every house, so commonplace in fact as to barely register in discussion of architecture today.
However in Scott's hands these facts became ideas which he returned to throughout his life.
Order from : www.counterconstructions.com
Claude Megson Counter Constructions is the first publication on the work of this important New Zealand architect.
The book features an extended photo essay of five key buildings by architectural photographer Jackie Meiring, as well as drawings from Megson’s archive held at the University of Auckland. Book design by Seb McLauchlan.
Photos: Jackie Meiring, aerial ‘Open to View’
“This astute book fills a lamentable gap in our written architectural history and returns to prominence one of our most intriguing architects.” Dr Andrew Barrie, review, Architecture New Zealand
