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The Architecture of Roger Walker

 

Theory and Application

Content

Introduction

Chapter 1 Influences That Shaped walker’s Architecture

Chapter 2 Theory and Practice

Chapter 3 Walker in the Context of Postmodern Architecture

Chapter 4 Transition in Style

Conclusion

Appendix 1 Chronological List Of Walker’s Buildings

Appendix 2 Awards And Competitions

Image Credits

References

Introduction

The New Zealand architect Roger Walker has contributed significantly to the development of New Zealand architecture. He believes that building can make people happy and a good building adds to what nature has given humankind. Walker says that “We have a duty to build well. Our perception of cultural meaning and hence part of the pleasure of being is tied up in how we make our places”. It has been said that his creativity could lead him into another direction than architecture but he has devoted much of his time developing his architecture. Walker argued that he loved what he is doing. He has loved building things from the time he built model aeroplanes as a kid.

Chapter 1

Influences That Shaped walker’s Architecture

 

Roger Walker’s architecture has been shaped by influences which have outlined its features and given it its distinctive characteristics. These influences include places, architects, architectural theories, buildings and technology. The first substantial influence on Walker’s architecture is his native city, Hamilton. As a child Walker remembers “being aware of growing up in a boxy suburban house. No matter where you went inside the place, there was a flat ceiling eight feet above your head. The only way to specifically define a living room in such a house, then, is to incorporate a so-called ‘feature wall’. It just seemed all wrong to me… So yes, I have reacted against the box-house; but it has been more a subconscious than a conscious act”. Walker was aware of Hamilton’s unnecessary blandness, mindless conformity, and its lack of originality in such a physically beautiful landscape. He sees his buildings as an overreaction and a valid response to this blandness and unconformity. Walker believes that people had to be shown that there were achievable alternatives. And the alternatives had to be somewhat outrageous. Wellington has also been an important source of inspiration for Walker’s architecture where he was attracted to the strength of the city spaces. Walker has been inspired by Wellington’s tall and narrow houses, which gave him the idea of the vertically growing house. His buildings have been a direct response to Wellington’s landscape, topography, and hills.

 

Walker’s childhood was also a great influence. The satisfaction of putting things together, first explored in childhood, has continued into his adult life. Like many others, “the crashing inappropriateness of what was largely being built in this natural paradise began to dawn on me”. At ten years of age, Walker’s colourful children’s books also provided him with some historical architectural features such as turrets, spiral staircases, etc. which became an influential part of his architectural style.

 

Although Walker has been influenced by a number of architects, including such international figures as Le Corbusier and Frank Gehry and New Zealanders such as, Vernon Brown (1905-1965), Peter Beaven (1925-2012) and Miles Warren (b. 1929), there is little evidence that they played an essential role in the development of his personal style. It could be said that Walker was influenced by their thoughts, precision in drawing, specific ideas, sense of how materials fit together, their details, and spiritual sense in design. Vernon Brown (1905-1965) influenced a whole generation of New Zealand architects. He combined aspects of modern architecture with the forms and materials of New Zealand’s rural buildings. Walker was influenced by Brown’s search for a vernacular timber architecture and sees it as an appropriate style to satisfy mankind’s spiritual needs. He does not believe that there are many technical problems that can not be solved, but mankind has never solved its spiritual problems. Walker still believes in the spiritual dimension of architecture just as Vernon Brown did. Brown argued that the public out there want to be alive in the spiritual sense and architects must not abdicate people’s primary spiritual responsibility.

 

Since Walker was a student in the School of Architecture, he has been influenced by Le Corbusier’s ideas (1887-1965). A touch of Le Corbusier’s brutalist architecture was apparent in Walker’s studio project for spaces, which were defined by partial walls and recessed windows. Le Corbusier’s influence is still apparent in Walker’s latest design, ‘Sirocco Apartment’ (fig.1), a variation on Le Corbusier’s Unité d’ Habitation (fig.2). Walker was impressed by Le Corbusier’s bravery and strength of purpose and form making abilities. This suggests that Walker did not entirely oppose Modernism per se but rather the unimaginative versions of it.

 

 

Fig. 1. Sirocco Apartment, Wellington

 

 

Fig.2. Unité d’ Habitation, Marseille.

 

Peter Beaven’s buildings were an

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Cover: Roger Walker Courtesy
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 03.09.2020
ISBN: 978-3-7487-5610-1

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