Auckland architect Ron Sang characterises his work as "very clean, simple, no-fuss architecture". Born in Fiji of Chinese descent, Ron came to New Zealand in the late 1950s to study architecture. He went into practice by himself a few years after graduation with some novel ideas to attract clients. "I had to make myself known to people. So I developed a few, well, almost gimmicks." The first was the big door. "I visited China in the 1970s and one of the things that appealed to me was the big gates and doors of the temples. This is good feng shui - it lets energy come into the house. So I started to give people big doors to their houses." Feng shui is now mainstream - and still a key component of his design. "A lot of feng shui principles are commonsense. Lots of things that are good feng shui are also good design, good planning," he says. Ron has always practised what he preaches. "The first house I built for myself had a door that was 5.4 metres high and 1.2 metres wide. When you opened it you had a view through to the two storeys of the interior."
展开▼
