New Zealand at the Venice Architecture Biennale

The Venice Architecture Biennale begins later this week, and includes New Zealand's first-ever exhibition at this prestigious event (an initiative led by the New Zealand Institute of Architects). In our February issue, we spoke to David Mitchell of Mitchell and Stout Architects, the creative director of the New Zealand exhibition, about what they're planning for the show.

David Mitchell (centre) with the other creators of New Zealand's first-ever exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale. From left, back row: Mike Austin, Claire Natusch, Sara Lee Chia-lin, Julian Mitchell, Frances Cooper, Rick Pearson and Ginny Pedlow. Front row, from left: Julie Stout, David Mitchell and Rau Hoskins. Photograph by Jane Ussher.

HOME What is your team planning for your exhibition at the architecture biennale?

DAVID MITCHELL, CREATIVE DIRECTOR [Dutch architect] Rem Koolhaas is the overall creative director this year, and he’s chosen the theme ‘Fundamentals’, which addresses the evolution of national architectures in the last century. He’s saying that modernity is taking over everything – that there’s an increasing homogeneity in architecture around the world. He’s probably right in general, but we think there’s a Pacific gene in New Zealand architecture that has got more distinctive over the last 100 years. It shows in light post-and-beam and panel structures, often with big roofs. We cross over between the Pacific and the European.

So will you convey these ideas in a structure, or an exhibition format?

We’ll have our own room in a palazzo to work within. One of our key pieces is going to be a brand new pataka which is being carved at this moment. It stands on a pole and is the first thing visitors to the exhibition will meet – a Pacific structure if ever there was. Then we’ll have a whare-like, or house-like tent structure within the space, the walls of which will show images of New Zealand buildings that back up our thesis about how deeply lightweight structures inform New Zealand architecture. These images could include wooden houses of the 1950s, the Waitomo Caves Visitor Centre, holiday homes by Herbst Architects, Wellington’s Futuna Chapel, Christchurch’s Cardboard Cathedral – a Pacific structure by an architect of sufficient prominence to get noticed around the world – and the Auckland Art Gallery, which won World Building of the Year. It couldn’t be a better moment to showcase New Zealand architecture. 

Your exhibition will be called ‘Last, Loneliest, Loveliest’. Where does the name come from?

It’s a quote from Kipling, written about Auckland. We like it because it implies a lot about what makes New Zealand’s situation unique. 

The Venice Architecture Biennale runs June 7 to November 23http://venice.nzia.co.nz/ You can read more about the New Zealand exhibition and see video of David Mitchell presenting the exhibition concept at this link.

David Mitchell & Julie Stout's studio

As promised earlier (and our apologies for this being a promise we've been slow to deliver on), here are some extra shots of David Mitchell and Julie Stout's studio, which is adjacent to their new house on Auckland's North Shore. The house was the subject of an earlier post, but as the studio is an intriguing structure in its own right, we wanted to share more of Patrick Reynolds' photos of it here.

David and Julie had the studio built before their house, and lived in it while the house went up on the site behind them. They liked the 19th century idea of garden follies, so designed a contemporary version for themselves. In the image below, you can see why some passersby thought the roof had slid off after construction was finished:


Now, the flaxes are flourishing on the roof garden, which makes for a great hangout for tui and a pleasant addition to the view from David and Julie's bathroom, on the third floor of the big house. In the shot below, you can see the inside of the studio, filled with light playing over the honeyed tones of the plywood linings.

The small kitchen is located underneath the mezzanine bedroom:


At one end of the kitchen, a small cutout in the cast concrete walls allows a glimpse of the shallow pool that surrounds much of the house, reflecting dappled patterns of light inside during the day.


Julie says the railings on the mezzanine floor make the world's best drying rack.


Upstairs, a tiny bathroom is tucked behind a glass partition beside the bed. This is a very small space, but its complexity and warmth make it easy to imagine living there, at least for a while. At the moment, Julie and David use it as a space for guests, but it could also be adapted to become a space for working from home, or rented out if necessary ... David and Julie both like the idea of the house being easily adapted to fit their future needs, or those of people who might eventually live in it after they're gone.

Mitchell & Stout on the North Shore

David Mitchell & Julie Stout's home on Auckland's North Shore is a complex beast, so let's take a slow tour of the exterior, courtesy of our photographer Patrick Reynolds. Here's a view of the house from the street, looking up at the top-floor terrace:

This is a view of the main entrance, sheltered by a large polycarbonate sheet that sends rainwater into the half-pipe you can see in this shot. In rainstorms, the water rockets along it towards the tank:

The polycarbonate sheet in the shot below serves the purpose of lending privacy to the kitchen, without diminishing the amount of light that gets in there. You can see the lower slopes of Rangitoto in the distance in this shot, as well as the home's 'moat' with water lilies.

And here's another view of the 'moat', this time looking from between the house and the garden studio, which sits at a slightly offset angle to it. At some times of the day, the sunlight reflecting off the water creates a lovely quality of light inside the ground-floor flat occupied by Julie's mother.

This view is of the ramp leading from the garden to what Julie and David call the 'back' door of the house, which opens into the kitchen and dining area.

Come back and visit the blog next week and we'll take you for a few more photo tours, including David and Julie's garden studio, and some of the other Home of the Year houses.