Thursday 15 August 2024, 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Taiwhanga Kauhau — Auditorium, (lower ground) National Library Wellington. Entrance on Aitken Street or on Zoom.
Architect John Scott commented about woolsheds, that ‘they are us’. Chris Cochran has responded to that comment by researching and documenting the woolsheds of the Wairarapa where large-scale sheep farming began. He has shorn one sheep in his life but knows a little bit more about buildings.
Woolsheds as architecture
Chris Cochran’s talk will delve into the meaning of architect John Scott’s comment about woolsheds — ‘they are us’. He will show rarely-seen architectural drawings and will trace some emerging themes in the design of this building type.
Chris will also share stories about some of the important woolsheds of the Wairarapa, including Huangarua, Puruatanga, Tuhitarata, Matawhero, Dry River, Tupurupuru, Brancepeth, Te Parae, and seven major woolsheds built by members of the Riddiford family, all still standing. (Can anyone name them all, without the help of Google?) Dates range from 1859, through to a brief look at the modern shed design of the 1970s.
Woolsheds in heritage records
Woolsheds don’t figure prominently in station records — witness E J Riddiford’s laconic entry in the Te Awaiti diary for 21 January 1884: ‘Woolshed burnt down’ — but shreds of information from different sources sometimes come together to make a story.
Architectural drawings to be shown will range from primitive sketches to the most graphically beautiful, one of the prize ones being in the Turnbull collection, by an architect who is unknown in the annals of New Zealand architecture.
About the speaker
Chris Cochran (MNZM, FNZIA) has had a long career as a conservation architect with his practice ranging over the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand to the Antarctic, and building types from backcountry huts to Parliament Buildings. He has always had a particular interest in the New Zealand vernacular of pit-sawn timber, corrugated iron, and no 8 wire.
More information can be found here.