The modern movement in Canterbury : the architecture of Paul Pascoe

Abstract

When Paul Pascoe returned to New Zealand from England in 1933 he had received better first hand experience of modern architecture than probably any other New Zealand architect of his generation. This thesis examines the impact of that experience on Pascoe's career, the importance of his buildings and architectural writings and their significance in the history of the development of the modern movement in New Zealand architecture.

Chapter One discusses Pascoe's family background and his training in the architectural office of Cecil Wood, the most eminent architect in Christchurch in the nineteen-twenties. Pascoe's training was conservative, but during his years in Wood's office he absorbed much of the heritage of architectural excellence which Wood was heir to.

In England between 1933 and 1936 Pascoe first came into contact with the buildings of the modern movement. Chapter Two investigates the type of work Pascoe was involved with during his employment with Brian O'Rorke, a fellow expatriot architect, The Architectural Press, which, by this date supported the aims of the modern architects and with the Tecton Group, the most advanced architects working in Britain at this time.

Chapter Three examines the difficulties Pascoe had establishing a practice in the unsettled economic and political conditions of the late nineteen-thirties. It outlines his influential assessment of New Zealand architectural history published in the New Zealand Centennial Publication Making New Zealand in 1940.

The remainder of the thesis traces the development of Pascoe's houses, public buildings and churches from 1940 until his death in 1976.

The thesis concludes that the example of Pascoe's buildings and the enthusiasm with which he advocated modern principles to others were of great importance in the introduction of modern architecture to New Zealand.