John Walsh

Architecture of the deal

Projects | John Walsh delves into the tangled history and the complex urban design thinking underlying Auckland’s 32,000m² New Zealand International Convention Centre by Warren and Mahoney in association with Moller Architects and Woods Bagot.

Courting excellence

Projects | At a house on the Coromandel Peninsula, by Davor Popadich Architects, John Walsh encounters a realisation of Vitruvian principles in the winner of the Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing at the 2025 Architecture Awards.

Rendered Futures: Drawing Architecture 28 June–24 August 2025 Objectspace, Auckland

News | Rendered Futures: Drawing Architecture, an exhibition of architectural drawings, staged by Auckland craft and design gallery Objectspace, was timely and thought provoking.

In between worlds

Projects | John Walsh explores the thresholds that mediate the formidable aspect and family dynamics of S.K.I. House in Wānaka by Roberts Gray Architects.

Levity and gravity

Projects | John Walsh explores Omata Beach House, winner of the 2023 Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing, by Herbst Architects and finds a pavilion on a plinth that seems as though it’s grown out of the land.

Culture and collegiality

Practice | John Walsh visits Te Rangihīroa, the University of Otago’s new hall of residence designed by Jasmax.

Artificial Islands

Review | John Walsh reviews Artificial Islands by Owen Hatherley — a writer who found our capital to be “small and dull” and Auckland’s architecture to be “baffling”.

Vernacular adventure

Projects | On the upper reaches of Lake Wakatipu, RTA Studio and Bureaux go high concept with traditional types at The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp.

Civic good manners

Projects | John Walsh talks to Gary Todd of Gary Todd Architecture about his award-winning Ebb-Dunedin and its underlying narrative to connect the building in place and time.