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One of New Zealand's leading heritage Architects will conduct a guided tour through Auckland's leafy suburbs to showcase the breadth of use of timber in New Zealand suburbs.
Conducted over 3 hours, we will look at examples of the settler housing from the 1860s through to the early twentieth century. We will visit some of Auckland's noblest houses to show both the comparative simplicity of colonial life and the decorative uses of some of the world's finest timbers.
We will look also at some of the early churches, which illustrate the imaginative use of timber as both structure and interior finish. You will see how timber was used to imitate stone masonry in commercial buildings.
We will take tea at Highwic, a fine wooden house based on a design by the American designer Andrew Jackson Downing.
These older buildings demonstrate the skill and craft of early carpenters in New Zealand, and showcase the qualities of the rich resource of native timbers that were the basis of New Zealand's first export industry. While timber has been the mainstay of New Zealand's residential construction industry, the wonderful native species were gradually replaced by commercially-grown Pinus Radiata and other fast growing exotics introduced from the nineteenth century onwards.
The tour will travel through a number of local neighbourhoods and provide commentary and examples of houses from the late 19th century, early 20th century,
New Zealand's environment is unique, and our housing has grown to reflect that uniqueness.
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