How The West Was Lost – Architecture: Christchurch Rebuild.

An individualistic ethic that informs a society and its architecture will lead to cities that are ‘truthful’, prosperous, and exciting. Conformity, the individual bound by the prison of each other’s minds, will produce cities that are bland, creamy and homogenous. In microcosm it’s the difference between the free classical liberal society, built on the foundation of untrammelled property rights, and those societies that end up living behind razor wire.

The below atrocity happened in Christchurch just yesterday:

Christchurch property developer Antony Gough has slammed the city's Urban Design Panel for criticising his multimillion-dollar Terrace development plans and favouring the "bland, creamy [and] homogenous". 

The 17-strong panel of urban planners, designers and architects came under fire yesterday after its report suggested Gough's design for the former Oxford Tce Strip was flawed and lacked continuity.

However, a senior architect on the panel canned the colourfully attired developer's claims.

Who was that ‘senior architect’ and what was his problem with one of those inspiring people, so few in number, who is standing out as a hero of the rebuild, the damningly ‘colourfully attired’ Mr Gough?

 Panel member Jasper van der Lingen did not sit on the panel that discussed Gough's design but was still surprised by the criticism. 

… Van der Lingen, director of Sheppard & Rout, said buildings that formed the pleasant street scenes of Paris, New York and London were not all "wow".
 
Christchurch should save the spectacular designs, [snip]  for the major civic buildings.

Van der Lingen, you’ve missed your town planning calling, it was the Soviet Union, with its civic statues glorifying the state: we should strive for cities full of wow, not just civic buildings. And quite apart from that, this is Mr Gough’s own building, he’s taking the cost and the risk of it, so please, go away, it’s none of your damned business what he builds.