The non-nonsense New Zealand houses; a modern paradigm in disguise

When Nazis invaded Poland, New Zealand received a wave of professionals fleeing from the conflict in Europe. Among these refuges there were a number of architects who end up greatly influencing the architectural landscape of the country. Their contribution is now celebrated by the architectural community but most of these refugees were never allowed to practice as registered architects ending up working as draftsmen. The official version claims that these refugees’ architects simply choose not to take a test in the New Zealand accreditation institutes. However, when looking on the life of one of these architects, Max Rosenfeld, this claim is simply not true. Apart from being architects, coming from continental Europe, these professionals had another connection; they were from Jewish heritage. This research focus on the life and work of one of these architects, Max Rosenfeld who for two decades was known as The Home Architect following the name of his popular magazine column. Rosenfeld was able to spread his architectural ideas talking directly to the NZ public. In his column and later on in his numerous plan-books, he introduced NZ to Modern Architecture not as an architectural style of choice, but the ideal alternative for a country that was building with little resources. This paper also argues that even though Rosenfeld did not live any remarkable building, he was able to decisively influence the way New Zealanders built their home in the formative decades of massive construction in New Zealand – from 1950’s to 1970’s.

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ISBN
978-1-944214-31-9