Thomson House model

"Our youthfulness allows us to be playful, lively, experimental, not over-burdened by the weight of our past. Our architecture is about the land, the sea and the sky... grounded, sometimes submerged, suspended, divorced from it, but always in a continuous process of negotiation." Rewi Thompson (2015), Future Islands catalogue.

Thirty years after its construction, the Thompson House still has the ability to shock. Its impassive façade, now scarred and weather- beaten, offers few clues as to what lies within. In 1985, the architect alluded to the violent history of the land upon which the house was built: a landscape of volcanic eruption, warfare and more contemporary con icts over subdivision consents and sea views. Yet he also spoke of the connection between the stepped form and the terraced hillsides of its surroundings, of myth, metaphor and spirit. Critics found the building difficult to understand. They saw a rough intruder squaring up to affluent suburban neighbours, or a protest building, an architectural bunker on the frontline of biculturalism. For Thompson, cultural difference is a fundamental right in Aotearoa New Zealand – it brings richness, diversity and creativity to a young country. ‘Who wants to live in a bland sameness, mediocre world?’ he asks. ‘Not I.’ Now Rewi Thompson has returned to the house to revisit the boundaries of exterior and interior. The new proposal draws on Māori wood- carving traditions to create a family space that references the traditional pātaka, or storehouse, where precious resources and treasured items are held safe. (text: Charles Walker, Future Islands catalogue)