Ken Davis: architect pushes back against demolishing Wellington's Gordon Wilson Flats

An architect is pushing back on plans to demolish Wellington's Gordon Wilson Flats - on the Terrace.

They were built in the late 1950s and have heritage status for being relatively unique social housing.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop has intervened to let owners, Victoria University, demolish the building, which it'll replace with student accommodation.

Architect Ken Davis says it's part of our cultural heritage.

"If we pull it down, we're destroying some existing viable housing units that already exist - they only need to be refurbished." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now good news for Wellington because those Hettius Gordon Wilson
Flats are going to be bold. The government's changing the RMA,
taking away the heritage protection and then they're going to
get demolished. Ken Davis is a former teacher at Victoria
University School of Architecture who's with us. Now, Hi, Ken, Now,
let me guess you love it because it's one of
only two examples of the brutalist that's left in the country.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes, no, I love I don't really love it.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
I think it's really important why as part of our
cultural heritage, and also the fact if we pull it
down we are destroying some existing Bible housing units that
already exist. They only need to be refurbished, and to
destroy them and to demolish them as a waste of
embodied energy and carbon, and it's really counter to global

(00:50):
trends in sustainable architectural practice. We're the most sustainable building
is the existing building.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Ken, they're ugly, thought, Well, it's just the.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Point of view.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
I think they're ugly too, but it doesn't mean say
you should destroy them.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
The beehives ugly?

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Actually should we do that?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
People's house was ugly? The thought that ugly be destroyed.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
You're just listing all of these buildings in Wellington that
need to be bold because they're hideous.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
No, there's no justification for pulling them down because you
don't like the look of them.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
In fact, ugly can be quite beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
So it's just the it's just the really the leans
you look at things through.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Really, okay, I mean, you know, me being silly aside,
set that aside. These buildings, this particular building is not like.
First of all, it is ugly. The brutalist style is ugly.
Then you've got the fact that.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's no, no, that's not true.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
That my argument.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Okay, well I've got plenty of counter arguments.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Let me go.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So it's ugly. Second of all, it's derelict. It's an
earthquake problem. Now I take your point that there can
be an argument as to whether it is cheaper or
not to refurbish this or demolish and start again. But
the owner wants to the university wants to demolish and
start again, So shouldn't we just let them do that.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Well, it was protected for a very long time, over
thirty years by the Williamson Council, and then it went
to the Environment Court when that was overthrown and reinstated.
So there's been a long history of terms of protection.
One point is that that isn't an earthquake risk. The
twenty fifteen seismic assessment by Becker's demonstrate the building based

(02:37):
on the analysis was fifty percent.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Of the national building standard.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
That's well above the thirty four percent that below which
buildings become earthquake prone. So in fact it could be
reinhabited immediately if it was refurbished.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So that's not an argument.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Ken out of interest. Where's the other one in the country,
the other brutalist building.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, the other one was Upper Grays Avenue, and sadly,
and in an act of cultural vandalism, because Congaroo didn't
understand the value of its own architectural heritage and still doesn't,
they pulled it down to build a very good development.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's housed many more people.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
But so that's often the trade off between keeping historic buildings,
whether you consider a historical or not, and that loss
versus the potential to build more. And in the case
of Gray's Avenue, sadly they replaced something that was of
significance with something of greater benefit probably, but there's no

(03:42):
reason to destroy everything.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
You know you don't want to destroy the city to
save it.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Fair enough, Ken, listen, thank you very much. I do
appreciate your time and appreciate your expertise as well. That's
Kevin Ken Davis, former Kayinger Order principal architect, also former
teacher at Victoria University School of Architecture. For more from
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