Interiors in the Land of the Great Outdoors

Abstract

In the context of an expanding economy around the so-called creative industries, many cities are searching for theoretical models to guide urban development. Theoretical models from early post-modernists are being regularly re-examined, in part, because of their relevance to models for the contemporary city. This paper investigates situationist theory as a lens through which to explore alternative pockets of culture. Using situationist theory as a lens to observe the culture of the New Zealand bach, or the myth that it left behind, this paper exposes the paradox of bach culture as an urban model: the paradox of institutionalising a creative culture of resistance and of escaping the city only to find oneself at its centre.