The former Wanganui Departmental Building was designed by the Ministry of Works. Photos/Supplied
The former Wanganui Departmental Building was designed by the Ministry of Works. Photos/Supplied
Buildings of stark beauty and simplicity – or are they just plain ugly? The heritage value of Whanganui city's brutalist architecture is under the spotlight as part of Whanganui Heritage Month.
Whanganui District Council heritage adviser Scott Flutey is aiming to "widen the conversation" about brutalism as part of the city's focus on heritage this month.
"We've been having a conversation nationally about brutalist buildings. They're solid concrete, they're not beautiful, but are they of heritage significance?"
Brutalism emerged in the United Kingdom during the reconstruction work of the 1950s following World War II.
In Whanganui, examples of the minimalist concrete style can be seen in a range of 1960s-80s buildings, including the former Wanganui Departmental Building at 133 Wicksteed St, designed by the architectural division of the Ministry of Works and opened in 1979.
A guided walking tour has been put together for Whanganui Heritage Month by Flutey and a group of Museum and Heritage students from Victoria University - Te Herenga Waka.
Flutey said the tour aims to widen perspectives about what gives a site or a building heritage value.
"It's something I've wanted to look at for a while. They may not be beautiful, but they could be important.
"Is ugliness something that you need to consider when you're looking at the heritage value of a site or are there other values that come in, like spiritual values?
"Quite a few of these institutional places were used as churches and some of them in Whanganui still are. Others are used as schools."
Historical narratives associated with the brutalist buildings will be told during the walking tour, which will focus on architecture in the downtown area.
The tour begins at City College and ends at Wairere House, the Government's former national computer centre at Pākaitore, where anarchist punk rocker Neil Roberts blew himself up in 1982 in protest at the gathering and storage of personal data.
The Davis Lecture Theatre in Whanganui.
"The building is revered now by punks and anarchists as being the site where Neil Roberts made his political statement with dynamite 40 years ago. I think it's passed out of our collective memory a little bit, so it's worth revisiting some of these sites and stories."
A group of four Victoria University students have designed the tour alongside Flutey, himself a graduate of the museum and heritage masters degree. The research project in Whanganui is part of their degree studies.
Student Olive Russell said she hopes the brutalism Whanganui tour will encourage a new appreciation for the style.
"We are eager to share our projects with the Whanganui community and are working really hard to make these tours as educational and fun as possible."
Flutey said the one-hour walking tour covers quite a bit of ground, but is mostly on the flat.
"There will be a bit of walking involved but hopefully not too strenuous, and we'll be taking it quite slowly."
