Having made the jump from engineering to architecture, there was no stopping award-winner Ian Moore.
With his black-on-black attire, manicured facial fuzz and Le Corbusian-style eyewear, Ian Moore certainly looks the quintessential architect. So it may surprise you to know that he almost missed his calling. "My father was a builder and hated architects, so he encouraged me to be a civil engineer instead," says Moore.
Born in Warkworth, north of Auckland, to parents who were a well-oiled team (his dad built homes, his mother was an interior-design nut), the young Moore lived in no less than 34 houses growing up.
"By the age of 14, I was doing the technical drawings for Dad," he remembers.
The dutiful son, he did in fact gain his civil engineering qualification from AUT but, although he mastered the dynamics of loads and resistance, his mind was flooded with the energy for shaping spaces.
At his first job at BECA in Auckland, glued to a computer screen where he helped engineer bridges in far-off Papua New Guinea, he dreamed of escape.
"One day I went out at lunchtime and bought a ticket to London," he grins. That was the start of an OE that never ended - and the first stop on an architectural adventure that would take him to the top of his game.
In the end, crossing the Rubicon from engineering to architecture was easy; meeting British architect Norman Foster gave him all the inspiration and impetus he needed.
When he arrived in London in the early 80s, architects Foster + Partners had clinched the contract for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank headquarters in Hong Kong. Foster's ground-breaking proposal was based on the structure of an oil platform. Ove Arup & Partners, who Moore was working for at the time, were responsible for designing North Sea oil rigs, so they already had the experience. It was a match made in high-rise heaven and that's how Moore ended up consulting in Norman Foster's office.
"The practice's physical environment was sensational," he recalls. Industrial in design, it was reminiscent of a ship. The staff wore jeans and sneakers and the great man himself floated between work groups, a pioneer in hot-desking.
Meeting the charismatic, articulate Foster left an indelible impression. Moore: "He carried a sketchbook with him and, no matter which part of the design you were working on he already had a page or two on the topic."
Foster's practice thrived on an orchestrated mix of competition and collaboration. "He'd organise teams of up to six people and give them all the same challenge of designing a specific part of the building. On Friday afternoons, they'd come together with their ideas and by combining bits of each, piece together a solution."
Moore was enthralled. He immediately enrolled at the Southbank Polytechnic (now London South Bank University) to study architecture part-time and all was well - until the British Home Office caught up with him and tossed him out.
He hot-footed it to Sydney (that city's vibrancy had won him over) and finally got his architecture degree from the University of Technology there.
"My first project was to design bus shelters for the Queen Victoria building." He took the simple, yet apposite, idea of a tram roof, adapted it in aluminium and won an Australian Institute of Architects urban design award.
Later, as part of the team at Burley Katon Halliday, master of modernist chic, where he was to become a director in 1990, he inherited his first apartment building. Ironically, this small block was to be constructed in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, the same country he'd nearly visited as a fledgling engineer.
Moore says Port Moresby is one of the most beautiful places he's ever been. "I spent a week sitting on the site on Tugubaga Hill, taking in the view over the city out to the Coral Sea." Although others were concerned for his safety, he thought this tropical city was paradise. He designed a steel-framed building on stilts to reflect the indigenous design of long houses.
"That way you got above the snakes and created shade beneath." It was naturally ventilated with solar-controlled glass louvres and put together like a giant Meccano set at a sophisticated steel facility in the capital. "Then they rolled it on to the hill bit by bit, like the Flintstones," laughs Moore. For that design, another award (the inaugural Hardies Housing Award in PNG) made its way to the mantelpiece.
In 1996, perhaps in reflection of his parents' winning formula, Moore joined forces with interior designer Tina Engelen and as Engelen Moore began to define a pared-back aesthetic that became uber-chic. Their multi award-winning Price O Reilly house in Redfern, Sydney was one that made people sit up and take notice. "It was like a white aircraft hangar that shocked and inspired," recalls Moore.
Bigger commissions followed including the Altair Apartments in Rushcutter's Bay in Sydney which scooped two World Architecture Awards in Berlin in 2002 for Best Building in Oceania and Best Housing Scheme in the World.
Since he set out on his own again in 2005, Ian Moore has continued to bring his particular vision to apartment blocks. On this side of the ditch, he designed Stage 3 of the Beaumont Quarter and his latest contribution to Auckland's built landscape is No 1 at Rhubarb Lane, near Victoria Park. This is the first cab off the rank in an ambitious scheme by developer Doug Rikard-Bell on a mixed-use site that was once the Auckland City Council works depot.
Moore's Kiwi roots have allowed him an invitation to join a line-up of celebrated local architectural firms, including Cheshire Architects, Fearon & Hay and Warren & Mahoney to add their signature style to the buildings in the precinct.
How does Moore approach this type of design? "It's not about size, it's about the people who live there," he insists. "I design from the inside out and start off with no preconception of what the building will look like from the street." The result, he says, is "like having one of my houses, all stacked on top of each other."
The Rhubarb Lane plan centres on a cobbled concourse where the developers hope to attract a butcher, baker, green grocer and the compulsory cafe. "The first stage has been modelled on Vulcan Lane," Moore explains. "I think the narrowness of the street between buildings will allow a sense of close community."
The vision is one of urban utopia where flower sellers, market stalls, a moonlight cinema, small theatre, and other retailers create a buzzy close-knit environment where residents can work and play and never have to leave. But are enough New Zealanders ready to abandon their quarter-acre dream for a flash city pad?
"I think so," says Moore. "We have to get the idea right to attract them. With Auckland's population increasing, we need to aim for density - there's no way we can keep spreading out."
