Heritage Sunday

File under: architecture, heritage, events, Wellington

There's been an exciting late addition to the programme for Wellington Architecture Week. The old High Court Building on Stout St, which is due to be renovated as part of the new Supreme Court complex, will be open this Sunday from 10am to 1pm. Not only is this the only public opportunity to access the building before construction starts, but Roy Wilson from Warren & Mahoney (the architects of the project) will give a presentation at 10:30, and a scale model and drawings of the project will be on display.

The famous Chapel of Futuna will also be open on Sunday, from 3-5pm. An extraodinary fusion of modernism and Māori architecture, it has been recognised (by pretty much everyone except the developers who bought the land it sits on) as perhaps the most important 20th-century building in New Zealand. If you take this extremely rare opportunity to see inside, you should also take the opportunity to donate to the Futuna Trust, as they've still got some work to do in order to purchase the building and secure its future. The programme requests that you "please park on the road", but I'd suggest taking the number 3 bus (which goes every 15 minutes, even on a Sunday), and walking up Reading St to see the chapel at 62 Friend St. The bus stops not far from a much more recent addition to Karori's architectural heritage: the Karori Library by Warren & Mahoney.

If you're not all heritaged-out by that stage, Antrim House at 63 Boulcott St will be open from 10am to 4pm. This plays a double role in Wellington's heritage, since not only is it a significant building in its own right, it's also the headquarters of the Historic Places Trust.

And if architectural heritage interests you, you'll probably want to be at Te Papa tonight, for the The Pivotal Architectural Debate at 7pm. The motion up for debate is that "Urban designers should leave heritage alone", with Sue Piper, Anthea Hartig and Grant Stevenson supporting the motion and David Kernohan, Deb Cranko and Guy Cleverley against.