“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins”. As said Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the urbane, cigar smoking, patrician German who was once one of the most influential architects in America.
When Frederick Charles Daniell submitted his competitive plans for the Martinborough Town Hall*, carefully drawn with ink and water colour on cream paper in 1912, he was very aware of the visual solidity of brick structures. The bricks made in Silverstream, in relatively close proximity, could easily be supplied to Martinborough – the perfect building material.
There was at that stage no thought of the earthquake risk. The Waihinga Centre project is of course bringing the building up to current earthquake strengthening requirements.
As part of the demolition process, the construction team pulled the lining off the wall, between the supper room and the main auditorium, exposing the inner brick wall 300 mls thick, carefully built and robust. … Continue Reading
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