The creative team
New Zealand’s creative team to Venice in 2016. Left to right: Stephen Brookbanks, Bruce Ferguson, Jessica Barter, Rewi Thompson, Maggie carroll, Kathy Waghorn, Charles Walker, Jonathan Rennie and Minka Ip.
Photo by Jane Usher
It takes a team of talented experts to create a New Zealand pavilion exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
New Zealand’s creative team to Venice in 2016 is led by Dr Charles Walker, the director of AUT University’s Colab, an institution that draws together students and researchers from art, design, computer science, animation, game design, engineering, mechatronics, architecture, business and organisational development. Walker has a comprehensive knowledge of New Zealand architecture. He was the editor of Exquisite Apart, a book documenting 100 years of architecture in New Zealand, and a former associate head of design at The University of Auckland School of Architecture.
In leading the creative team, Walker is supported by associate director Kathy Waghorn, a senior lecturer in design and media at the University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning. With a background in visual arts, Waghorn has delivered complex multi-disciplinary projects in exhibition, publication and performance-based formats. In 2013, for the 5th Auckland Triennial, she developed the Urban Research Lab with San Diego-based architect and activist Teddy Cruz. In 2011, she was co-curator of Kei konei koe: O Tapuwae ki Tamaki Makaurau/You Are Here: Mapping Auckland at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
The full creative team comprises architects and model-making, exhibition production and audio-visual and technology specialists.
Jessica Barter and Maggie Carroll, co-directors of Bureaux, specialise in the creation of cohesive and finely detailed buildings, interiors, exhibitions, furniture and objects. Jonathan Rennie, from Athfield Architects, brings local and international expertise in architecture and exhibition design, including the collaboration between Athfield Architects and artist Paul Dibble on the New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, London. Rewi Thomson (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Raukawa: Rarongo te hapu) brings extensive experience as design architect and cultural advisor. Rewi is also responsible for some of the most notable and provocative architecture and exhibition designs in New Zealand over the last 30 years. The production and installation team comprises Stephen Brookbanks, who has been responsible for building and installing exhibitions in major public and private venues throughout New Zealand and Australia; Darkroom, a London and Auckland-based multi-media studio; and Minka Ip, founder of the Architecture + Design Fabrication Workshop, a specialist in scaled architectural models, prototyping and custom objects.