After the tentative experiments of the 1930s to 1950s, New Zealand welcomed a new generation of more confident modernists in the mid-1950s, including London-experienced Miles Warren in Christchurch (Dorset Street Flats [1956-7]) and Prague-born Vladimir Cacala in Auckland (Blumental House [1957] and Kay House [1960]). For housing, they favoured large, bright indoor-outdoor living areas and white wall, light timber and exposed brick walls.
From the mid 1960s to early 1990s, many of New Zealand’s most significant public and commercial buildings were designed by (Miles) Warren and Mahoney in Christchurch, including Christchurch Town Hall (completed 1972), University of Auckland Student Building (1973), Christchurch College (1964), Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington (1982) and the mirror-glazed Television NZ building (1989). These conformed to basic modernist structural principles that were internationally mainstream by the 1960s.
DAVINA JACKSON, “Indigenous Conciliations with American Modernity: Architecture and Design in Oceania”, The Modernist World, Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren (eds), Routledge, 2015, ISBN 9780415845038, p 241.