In the 1960s and 1970s, New Zealand architect Claude Megson’s work was written about in the same company as Ian Athfield, Peter Beaven, John Scott and Roger Walker. As a teacher he influenced generations of architects who studied at the Auckland School of Architecture.
His individualistic and experimental houses designs were distilled from years of meditation on the design of houses. Seeing himself as continuing the project of modernism, he set out to construct a total environment, going beyond architecture in the narrow sense, marrying it to interior and landscape design, furniture, fabrics, crafts and the fine arts.
He fell out of fashion in the 1980s but in recent years there has been renewed interest in his work. This important book adds to that momentum, bringing together 30 years of research by the author, new photographs by Jackie Meiring and 150+ of his remarkable drawings to interrogate 33 of his projects. It celebrates, illuminates and helps secure Claude Megson’s legacy.
