He was one of the boldest and most influential Māori architects, whose outfits were as eye-catching as his buildings. A new book captures his creations, from his own defiant home to a ‘healing’ correctional facility
In the leafy Auckland suburb of Kohimarama, where pitch-roofed clapboard homes line well-kept streets, a striking grey ziggurat rises from the subtropical foliage. It looks like a defensive fortification, greeting the road with a monolithic, windowless facade. Narrow arrow-slit openings puncture the sides of its blank, blocky bulk, as if keeping a lookout for bands of marauding neighbours. “I know people hate my house,” wrote Rewi Thompson, the architect of this arresting home, which he built for his family in 1986. “I guess it’s too different from people’s idea of a house in Kohimarama, or too defensive or challenging, or pure cultural shock!"
Read the article at The Guardian here.
