ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FROM HERITAGE NEW ZEALAND: TECHNICAL SIGNIFICANCE OR VALUE.

The Dorset Street Flats are one of the earliest attempts to construct a building in New Zealand from load-bearing concrete block. As they were required to use a number of concrete columns within the wall structure, Miles Warren and Lyall Holmes were ultimately unsuccessful in realising double-cavity reinforced concrete block construction in the Dorset Street Flats. However, the Dorset Street Flats were an important transitional building in Holmes' development of this innovative and influential structural system, as subsequent designs were built without the additional columnar support.

http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/7804

180 buildings from the DOCOMOMO NZ Register. The Dorset Street Flats also feature in the New Zealand "Top 20" list compiled in 1999 for DOCOMOMO International.

Dorset Street Flats
Dorset Street, Christchurch
Designed by Miles Warren
Designed and built: 1956-1957

Designed by Miles Warren on his return from London and from the Architects’ Department of the London County Council, these flats introduced a new kind of detailing to New Zealand domestic architecture, based on English New Brutalism.

The building consists of two offset groups of four flats, each group bisected by a clearly articulated external stair with open risers. The construction is of concrete block walls set on a concrete ground slab; concrete beams support the concrete slab of the upper level floor. Low-pitched, timber-framed roofs clad with corrugated iron are designed without eaves. The building’s clear tectonic order is articulated in detailing and material finishes.

The ground-level flats open onto lushly-planted gardens with brick-paved terraces and enclosed by concrete block walls. Upper-level flats have balconies recessed behind the main wall-plane. Together with the central slot for the external stair in each group of flats, the balcony recesses produce deep shadows that enliven the façade. Conceived as economical ‘bachelor’ flats, each with an area of around 45 square metres, the interiors have an open plan with an inserted bathroom box articulating three subspaces for kitchen, living and bed.

Paul Walker

JULIA GATLEY (ed), “Long LIve The Modern: New Zealand’s New Architecture 1904-1984”, Auckland University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-86940-415-4, pp 80-81.

Reproduced with the permission of the author and publisher.

http://www.dorsetstreetflats.com/long-live-the-modern.html

We hear that Dorset Street Flats sister building, the J.J. Connor Flats on Papanui Road (W&M 1960) are to be deconstructed and rebuilt based on the original Warren & Mahoney plans. The severe structural damage, especially to the front two flats, has prevented any restoration effort from being possible. The buildings were not in great shape even before the earthquake, and since, have been subjected to structural support to prevent collapse.

With the loss of these flats, Dorset Street will be the last remaining of the original four concrete block-era designs - Carlton Mill Road Flats, J.J. Connor Flats (Papanui Road) and R. Hyslop Flats (Oxford Terrace), all 1960/61, now all going or gone.

The photographs were taken in March 2015.