TIME MACHINE

Roger Walker is a pillar of Wellington architecture, establishing his own practice in the early 1970s, having begun his career in the 1960s with the architecture firm Calder, Fowler & Styles. Walker was notable for his unconventional design approach, even among the trendy modernist architecture of the 1960s and 1970s. His firm is now known as Walker Architecture & Design.

Walker was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1998 for services to architecture, and was awarded the New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2016.

In the 1980s New Zealand — like the rest of the world — was in love with the sharemarkets. It was also going through radical and major economic reforms, and the country was energised by the Springbok tour and going nuclear-free — was the hottest show on TV, and Tom Selleck’s Magnum did for Ferrari what Ursula Andress did for the bikini.