BY DESIGN
ARCHITECTURAL PATTERNS
W Richard Dalman Managing Director, Dalman Architects dalman.co.nz
hile architecture is a threeOne of our architectural tasks, when we dimensional discipline, architects leased the space, was to design a new fascia are often called upon to create panel façade above the length of our glazed decorative patterns for two-dimensional frontage to announce, ‘here we are’ and surfaces such as building façades, roofs, and provide a backdrop to new signage. interior surfaces. Where do the ideas for I guess we could have left this as a plain these patterns come from? white surface, but we liked the idea of As with the overall architectural ideas for a ‘bringing to life’ the old totara forest. So we building, architects consider a range of sources imagined the forest, drew a horizontal band and inspirations, such as the function of the across the trunks at the height of where the building, the requirements of the client, the fascia would be, abstracted a pure elevation history of the site, and the local environment. of the tree trunks looking deep into the We looked to all of these in developing a new forest, and created our pattern from this. façade for the Dalman Architects office on the The above images indicate the process and corner of Colombo and Peterborough Streets. final result. The fascia is constructed from We met with local landscape architect Di painted cedar slats of differing thicknesses. Lucas (she lives around the corner), who While the derivation of this fascia pattern has a detailed knowledge of the site’s is not obvious to most people, it does add natural history. Many years ago, this area some meaningful texture and pattern to our of Christchurch was covered in totara streetscape. If all of our built environment forest, and Di actually provided us with two designs had some relationship to our 3000-year-old totara stumps that had been natural and cultural history, then our cities dug out from under the nearby Christchurch would become a more authentic reflection Star building site to prove it! of who we are.
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