Dorset Street Flats
  • Read
    • 03 Magazine
    • Architectural Conservation
    • The Architectural Review
    • Architecture 1820-1970
    • Architecture New Zealand
    • Atlas Of World Art
    • An Autobiography
    • At Home
    • Block Itinerary
    • Bulletin
    • Business South
    • Changing Times
    • Concrete
    • The Dictionary Of Art
    • The Elegant Shed
    • Europe, London and Alton West
    • Here
    • Heritage New Zealand
    • A History Of NZ Architecture
    • Home And Building
    • Home New Zealand
    • Last Loneliest Loveliest
    • Long Live The Modern
    • Looking For The Local
    • The Modernist World
    • Neo-Avant-Garde and Postmodern
    • New Dreamland
    • New Territory
    • New Zealand Architect
    • New Zealand Architecture
    • NZ Architecture
    • NZ House & Garden
    • Ohinetahi
    • Otautahi Christchurch Architecture
    • Practical Guide To Home Landscaping
    • Rolleston Avenue and Park Terrace >
      • Rolleston Avenue and Park Terrace Slideshow
    • Selected Architecture
    • Shifting Foundations
    • The Press
    • Warren & Mahoney Architects
  • Look
    • The Original Drawings
  • Watch
    • The New Zealand Home (2016)
    • Brutal Beauty (2011)
    • New Zealand At Home (2006)
    • The Elegant Shed (1984)
  • Rebuild
  • Blog
  • Contact

July 25th, 2020

25/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
REBUILD UPDATE

Geotech work inside the flats is now complete. The ground beneath the old floor slab has been excavated and replaced with gravel and a topping of crusher dust.
Wide variations in levels and alignments of walls and beams across the four ground floor flats, some of this due to earthquake movement, but some undoubtedly from the original construction.
Preparation work now underway for installing heating and insulation.
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

July 16th, 2020

16/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

July 10th, 2020

10/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Congratulations to the Cox Street R.C. Webb Flats for winning this year's Enduring Architecture Award at the NZIA Canterbury Architecture Awards this week.

Designed by Warren & Mahoney and completed in 1974, shortly after their triumphal success with the Christchurch Town Hall two years earlier (also a winner of this year's Heritage Award), the Merivale flats display many of the hallmarks of Warren's design first shown in the Dorset Street Flats and refined thereafter in a succession of domestic and commercial buildings: raw concrete block, exposed timbers, negative detailing and a fanatical attention to interior fittings.

Here is the citation from the Awards panel:

This very precise block of four ‘flats’ (as was the term used in the old days) comprised of unpainted concrete blocks, 45-degree pitched metal roofs and painted timber joinery reassuringly maintain a striking street presence 46 years after they were built. The south elevation a masterclass of simple forms, with truthful proportions and elegant details that have only improved with time. The architecture is clearly domestic, but its brutal expression and austerity is almost commercial, prefacing the architects’ later contributions to that class. It is this legacy that has elevated these houses beyond the norm and put them firmly on the map for architecture enthusiasts.

The link to watch the virtual awards ceremony is here.

0 Comments

July 05th, 2020

5/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photograph by Greg Young
REBUILD UPDATE

Here is a rather scary photo of number 4 completely stripped out, including removal of the old floor slab. It only gets better from here!
0 Comments

    Author

    Keep up to date by joining our Facebook page. Click on the icon above.

    Archives

    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2015-2024 dorsetstreetflats.com.  All permissions sought wherever possible.