Architectural Design: Māori, Christian, and Modernist Influences - A New Zealand Perspective.

By William Van Zyl

Has your world been turned upside-down at some point?

Please take a look at the innovative and creative ideas in this article. What do you see? What ideas do you have? What would it be if I asked you to develop a unique idea or concept for a spatial design? How can Māori shapes, forms, patterns and colours be embedded in a spatial design? 

That is the question teachers of Design and Visual Communication (DVC) will ask their students next year (2024). Why? Because they will be doing a new curriculum in New Zealand (High School context). Designers, architects, artists, teachers, and students will benefit from this article.

Please take a look at the CAMERA OBSCURA, created by three different people - a photographer, a sculptor, and an architect. 

I include a picture of this outstanding creative effort by three artists in New Zealand. Don't miss this brilliant design.

 

To whet your appetite - about the CAMERA OBSURA. The Whangārei Camera Obscura is an interactive sculpture on the Hātea Loop walk (Whangarei - New Zealand). A camera obscura is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. Visitors can enter the shell-like structure to find a surprising "upside-down projection room" inside showing the celebrated Bascule bridge, Te Matau ā Pohe and its surroundings, complete with vehicles, boats, people, scudding clouds and flowing water. The attraction offers visitors and residents simple yet wonderful phenomena of light projection and educational opportunities. Visitors can adjust the image using a movable aperture on the wall of the camera obscura. It is one of only a handful of obscura sculptures worldwide and is among the largest. Credit: https://www.wdc.govt.nz/Community/Community-Facilities/Timatatanga-Hou-Camera-Obscura

• Language: English
• Publisher: Five House Publishing
• Release date: Oct 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223520740

William Van Zyl

The author had an interesting and unique childhood. Not travelling abroad - as you would expect - but venturing into the fields, bushes, tools sheds and mysterious underground tunnels around his neighbourhood. His happy place was - and still is - tinkering with ideas, science, and new possibilities. Many times while cycling he will get new ideas; he brings the unexpected, the unique, the creative in a flurry on a page or in a sketch. To this day he dreams of vicious wars and sophisticated weaponry in an innocent child's scout cave. He loves diagrams, timelines, cross sections, sketches, and details of sinister and hidden concepts and ideas; always looking for a new mystery to decode and to encode. He investigates and explores extravagant thoughts which he includes in children's books, stories and articles; he loves to include philosopher’s perspectives, articles,  intriguing stories, and poetry in his writing. Academic and research work are also his forte. He always offers a simple but practical explanation within an engaging context. Not your ordinary thinker! A lifelong scholar and teacher. 

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