A recently returned ex-pat, I found myself at the New Zealand Institute of Architects' Awards in the somewhat paradoxical position of acting as an international juror while being'indigenous'. Studying architecture in the late 80s, the concept of 'Maori architecture' would itself have been a paradox. The Auckland school's pedagogies at the time were resolutely colonial and aligned to Europe such that the architecture of the South Pacific was never accorded a comprehensive scholarly gaze. So was with some intrigue that I noted a shortlisted project in the housing category named: Toto Whare. In the Maori language, a whare is a house and traditionally refers to a structure with an open plan (no interior walls), a single door and one window. Given this paucity of fenestration, the whare is naturally orientated towards sunlight rather than view and so offers a far more interi-orised living space than, say, a European house in New Zealand which strives to connect the indoors to the out.
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