Abstract
Abstract This paper addresses a gap in research regarding the design of the main elevations of the Gordon Wilson Memorial Flats (GWF). The GWF is the only surviving post-war example of high-rise multi-unit state housing in New Zealand. Its identification as a heritage building has been controversial, but this status was recently confirmed in New Zealand’s Environment Court. This paper examines the GWF elevations in the context of the building’s precedent, the London County Council-designed Alton West housing blocks. It concludes that the GWF façade designs are compellingly New Brutalist because they directly express conditions of living, including the structure, construction, and maisonette planning of the building, while negotiating the aesthetic dilemmas of mid-twentieth century flat block design, positioning the building as an important development in modernist residential high-rise blocks.
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