State Housing in Auckland the Facts: the Liberal Government State House Tenants Can Do Anything

ITINERARY n.32 6 7 5 4 3 8 14 12 9 11 2 1 13 15 10 State Housing in Auckland The Facts: The Liberal government State house tenants can do anything. After growing up in a state house in Christchurch, John Key passed New Zealand’s first became an investment banker and then Prime Minister. The official Prime Ministerial residence, Vogel Workers Dwellings Act in House in Lower Hutt, is one of the nation’s flashest state houses. In between these two poles, New 1905, building 650 houses in small groups. Between Zealand’s state house designs span diverse types produced over more than 100 years. This history starts 1919 and 1935, public with workers’ cottages built from 1906, and includes semi-detached houses (duplexes), one and two support for worker housing storey row houses, and blocks of flats, some medium-density and others high-rise. was largely in the form of Yet amid this diversity, the image of the standard ‘brick and tile’ state house endures. Some would go so low-interest loans rather than far as to call these houses icons of New Zealand architecture. The reason they are recognisable to all of house construction. Better us is because the country’s first Labour government built so many of them – about 30,000 up and down known than these early twentieth-century initiatives the country – during its 1935-49 term. A survey conducted in 1935 had concluded that about a quarter is the extensive housing of the country’s housing stock was substandard and worthy not of repair but of demolition. The state programme of the country’s housing programme was conceptualised both to re-house the New Zealanders living in such conditions, first Labour government, and to stimulate our manufacturing and building industries after the Great Depression. The early state comprising 30,000 houses house designs were produced through the NZIA and Fletcher Construction. In planning and appearance, nationwide and twelve they were far removed from the house type that had dominated 1920s New Zealand: the Californian blocks of medium- and high-density flats in Auckland bungalow. In contrast to bungalows, which developed a low-cost stigma and maintained American and Wellington. Later connotations, the comparatively conservative English cottage aesthetic of most of Labour’s state houses governments continued to remained popular in architectural circles in the 1930s and early ’40s. build state houses and flats, Concurrently, the burgeoning modern movement introduced open-plan living areas, flat roofs and joined in the 1950s, 60s and large expanses of glass. Labour’s medium- and high-density housing schemes, such as the Greys 70s by the larger, wealthier city councils, notably Avenue and Symonds Street Flats (both 1945-47), provided the Department of Housing Construction’s Auckland and Wellington, own staff architects, working under chief architect F. Gordon Wilson, with the opportunity to explore which focused on the these innovations and both blocks were key buildings in the development of New Zealand’s modern provision of medium- and architecture. high-density rental flats in Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC) continues to produce interesting new buildings today. The urban rather than suburban most striking attribute of the more recent schemes is the emphasis on medium-density arrangements. locations. Muldoon’s National government celebrated the This is the case for both new schemes erected on fresh sites, and for the redevelopment of older completion of New Zealand’s schemes, when densification is often one of the aims. 100,000th state house in Since the 1980s, our state housing schemes have mostly been produced by architects in private practice 1978. Construction of state rather than by government employees. Public housing provides particular design challenges, including housing continues today, tight budgets, efficient the use of space, and the need for hardwearing structures and surfaces capable although in recent years of withstanding a few knocks. Taking good design to the ‘man in the street’ was one of the aims of the the sales of state houses on expensive sites seem to modern movement, demonstrated particularly in the work of German modernists such as Gropius and make bigger headlines than Hilberseimer. Thus it is appropriate that in our neo-modern times, award-winning architects continue to the openings of new housing work in this vein. Julia Gatley & Andrew Barrie schemes. Reference as: Julia Gatley and Andrew Barrie, “State Housing in Auckland”, Itinerary No. 32, Block: The Broadsheet of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, No. 6, 2010. 1 ca. 1910 2 1937-1949 3 1940s 4 1945-1947 Lawry Settlement Workers Labour Gov’t State Housing Dwellings South of Mt Albert Rd., Pensioners Housing Symonds Street Flats Ramsgate, Findlay, Hewson & Sandringham, and south Great North Road Symonds Street, City Cawley Sts, Ellerslie of the mountain, Mt Roskill Grey Lynn Design architect, Fred Newman The first Labour government’s state houses can be seen in many parts of Auckland. Sandringham is representative Ben Schrader has identified of the pattern of development While state houses were the Liberal government from speculative bungalows These are an example of generally aimed at nuclear (1890-1912) as ‘the first of the 1910s and ’20s (north the single-storey four-house families, the Housing Division central government in the of Mt Albert Road) to state units built by the first Labour and the State Advances Western world to build public houses (south of Mt Albert government. They become like Corporation recognised that housing for its citizens.’ While Rd). The state houses are short versions of row or terrace other types of applicants such Wellington and Christchurch compact with standardised housing. This group also as childless couples and houses from this period are roof lines and windows, each demonstrates the enthusiasm single people could be more well documented, little has house orientated to have its for the cul-de-sac that is efficiently accommodated been written on the Auckland living room on the north side recurrent in the street layouts in flats. The design of the ones until recently, with Michael to maximize sun. In an effort to of Labour’s state housing Symonds Street Flats followed Roche identifying Woburn avoid stigma, Dept of Housing schemes. The cul-de-sac that of Wellington’s Dixon Temple as the designer of Construction architects had been popularised by the Street Flats (1940-1944), while many of those built in the consciously introduced variety planning of Radburn, New also introducing a T-shaped 1910s, such as in Ellerslie’s in building materials and house Jersey, Clarence Stein and footprint and a subtle curve in Lawry Settlement. They shape and size, using both Henry Wright’s community for the street façade, which echoes are small, simple cottages, one and two storeys, semi- the motor age. The aim was to a bend in the road. Of the 45 generally with a central front detached buildings and four- reduce the amount of traffic on flats, 26 were one bedroom, door on the street facade and a house units within individual residential streets, thus making 18 were two bedroom and one window on either side. housing schemes. them safe for pedestrians. was three bedroom. 5 1945-1947 6 1957-1958 7 mid-late 1950s 8 late 1950s-early 1960s Lower Greys Avenue Flats Upper Greys Avenue Flats 93-113 Greys Ave., City 115-39 Greys Ave., City Kupe Street State Housing Star Flats Chief Architect, F. Gordon Government Architect, F. Scheme Kepa Road Wilson Gordon Wilson Orakei Orakei Much of the Kupe Street ridge had been occupied by Star flats are believed to have Ngati Whatua o Orakei. The been designed by English In 1941, with financial support Construction to the south of government erected houses immigrant architect Neville from Auckland City, the Labour the Lower Greys Ave Flats was in Kitimoana Street to rehouse Burren during the time that government embarked upon delayed because construction these Maori owners and then Fred Newman was head of a scheme of ‘slum clearance’ costs were disproportionately developed Kupe Street. The the Housing Division. Each in Greys Avenue. The initial high in the wake of World War usual government policy block is three storeys, with a scheme comprised 468 units II. By the mid 1950s when the of ‘pepper-potting’ was not dozen one- and two-bedroom on both sides of the street. decision was made to proceed, followed here. Rather, medium- units. The name derives Construction was delayed the 1940s design was no density housing was used to from the combination of because of the Second World longer considered appropriate situate a greater proportion of cruciform plan and butterfly War. From 1945 four blocks and the Upper Greys Avenue Maori residents closer to their roofs. In Freemans Bay, the were completed to this original Flats were redesigned to reflect ancestral land at the north same design was utilised design. The architectural technological developments. end of the street. Kupe Street for Auckland City Council language was a continuation of The later block is taller, slimmer became a testing site for the housing. Too often blocks of that used at Dixon Street and and, with reduced mass and Housing Division to trial new star flats have suffered from the Symonds Street. Of the 50 flats, more extensive glazing, lighter, designs for medium-density replacement of their butterfly five were one bedroom, 42 in both senses of the word. It housing, the latter encouraged roofs with a giant hipped roof, were two bedroom and three comprised 70 two-bedroom by government policy of the making them look like over- were three bedroom. maisonettes and 16 bed-sits. 1950s.

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