Kaleidoscope - Architectural Resorts

Nothing is allowed to stand out so everything looks the same.

– Mark Wigley, on height restrictions in Queenstown

Ironically the old character of Russell as a tasteless town, desperate to attract and entertain foreign sailors, is being maintained over here in Paihia. The bad taste of Paihia is actually in keeping with the past. Each building interprets a different style in order to sell a different fantasy.

– Mark Wigley on Pihia

Unfortunately this view of our past [that NZ architecture was without ornamentation] has dominated our thinking, and we have crude, and boring, and mediocre boxes throughout New Zealand. But there’s no need for such a depressing tradition. We can go back and discover a rich historical past, full of ornament and sculptural buildings, buildings which excite and entertain. And I think it’s about time we did that.

– Mark Wigley's closing comments on Kiwi architecture

Drained of colour, drained of ornament, the town has been drained of life. I think Russell is a sick town, infected by a banal interpretation of the colonial.

– Mark Wigley on Russell

It’s just an endless reply of a theme from the 1970s, the only fantasy here is that of being ‘architecturally designed’.

– Mark Wigley on Queenstown

...it’s actually in tourist playgrounds like this one that our most serious ideas about New Zealand’s architectural identity are being forged.

– Mark Wigley