2.3b Similarities & Differences
The Connections and Conflicts
Built a century apart, the two buildings originate from conflicting Architectural Eras. The Katherine Mansfield house, an Arts and Crafts construction, features natural, simple motifs, and shows the 19th centuries design world’s distaste of industrialism. In contrast, The Library, a Brutalist-influenced design, embodies industrialism.
Yet, both eras celebrate naked material – the natural wood of the Katherine Mansfield House, and the machine-made, harsh concrete of the National Library; visually depicting the two era’s confliction.
The National Library, completely modern, embodies centuries-old story belonging to our earliest settlers, the Maori - a major component in New Zealand’s culture. The counter-part to this is the Colonial settlers, who arrived short decades before the erection of the elderly Katherine Mansfield House. It is in this Thorndon home that the European influence can be seen; in this way, the two incredibly different buildings complete our countries origins.