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Beyond Futuna : John Scott , Modern Architecture and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand

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The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture

Abstract

John Scott is an important New Zealand architect of the post-war period and was also one of the country’s first architects of Māori heritage. His work is well known and widely admired. It includes houses, schools, churches—notably Futuna Chapel—institutional buildings such as visitor centres and one of the country’s first urban marae (Māori building complexes, traditionally tribal and communal). Because of his Māori heritage, many commentators have read Māori references into his buildings, but Scott himself always emphasised his dual heritage and referred to both Māori whare (houses/buildings) and Pākehā woolsheds as important building types in New Zealand’s architectural history. They become precedents for his own work. This chapter explores Scott’s life and work, and locates the work within the contexts of race relations, cultural development, New Zealand’s concern with national identity and its burgeoning regional modernism. It presents a body of work that is rich in ideas, references, spatial quality, materials, textures, geometry and luminosity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Aotearoa New Zealand had several centuries of Indigenous Māori architecture and building before European settlers arrived. While Scott was the first New Zealand architect of Māori heritage to reach the forefront of the profession, he was not the first to practise as an architect in Aotearoa New Zealand, nor was he the first to graduate in architecture in Aotearoa New Zealand. Brown (2009: 136) believes that William Bloomfield was the former, and Wiremu (Bill) Royal the latter. Bloomfield graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and practised in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1925 to 1960. Royal, who was seven years younger than Scott, completed his Diploma in Architecture at Auckland University College in 1960. He worked for well-known Christchurch firm Warren and Mahoney until 1968, when he started his own practice, also in Christchurch. His work on his own account was influenced by that of Warren and Mahoney , while also including a large number of projects for Māori clients, incorporating Māori symbolism. Mane-Wheoki (1990: 31) describes Royal as “a trailblazer in his attempts to reconcile and integrate cultures and traditions which function in two completely different conceptual frameworks”.

  2. 2.

    ‘Pākehā’ is the Māori word for person of British or European descent.

  3. 3.

    McKay notes that Scott would have been seen as ‘half-caste ’. Consistent with this, Te Ao Hou recorded that Scott ’s father was “half Maori and half Scottish”, while his mother was “of quarter-Maori descent” (Maori Battalion Memorial 1964: 33). Similarly, the Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects commented that Wiremu (Bill) Royal was “the first full-blooded Maori to qualify as an architect” (First Maori Member 1965: 7).

  4. 4.

    DOCOMOMO is the international working party for the DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the MOdern MOvement. DOCOMOMO New Zealand is its local branch.

  5. 5.

    ‘State house ’ is the Aotearoa New Zealand term for rental houses built and owned by central government. Thousands were built throughout the country from 1937 onwards.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Julia Gatley & Bill McKay

Authors
  1. Julia Gatley
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  2. Bill McKay
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Correspondence to Bill McKay .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Design, The University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Elizabeth Grant

  2. School of Architecture, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia

    Kelly Greenop

  3. Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Albert L. Refiti

  4. Seven Directions Architects and Planners, Seattle, WA, USA

    Daniel J. Glenn

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Gatley, J., McKay, B. (2018). Beyond Futuna : John Scott , Modern Architecture and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. In: Grant, E., Greenop, K., Refiti, A., Glenn, D. (eds) The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6904-8_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6904-8_23

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