J­­oin exhibition curator Albert L Refiti for an informative floor talk on Oceanic Architectural Routes: The photographic archive of Mike Austin: Presented by Architectus.

Refiti writes of the exhibition: 

“The images and ideas seeded by Austin’s Oceanic architecture lectures quietly sprouted alternative roots in contemporary New Zealand architectural history. Some of these roots became routes (to borrow a metaphor from anthropologist James Clifford) – they enabled Pacific architectural customs and knowledge to connect with the vast reservoir of Indigenous knowledge worldwide, leading to the burgeoning interest in Pacific/Moana and Māori architecture today.”

Find out more through talanoa with Refiti within the exhibition. This free event requires registration. 

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Leali’ifano Dr Albert L. Refiti (Samoa: Fasito’outa, Vaovai, Vailima) is Associate Professor of Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology. He is co-editor of The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture (2018) and Pacific Spaces: Translations and Transmutations (2022). He is a co-leader with Tina Engel-Schwarzpaul and Layne Waerea of the Vā Moana Research Cluster at AUT University and is currently conducting research funded by the Royal Society Marsden Fund on the history of architecture in Te Moananui with Rau Hoskins.

Dr Mike Austin has made a significant contribution in the research and understanding of buildings, architecture and culture of Oceania and the Pacific. Austin began teaching at the University of Auckland School of Architecture in 1969 after working in the architectural office of Newman, Smith & Greenough. His PhD in 1976 supervised by Gerhard Rosenberg, Polynesian Architecture in New Zealand, was the first serious study of Māori and Pacific architecture. He taught from 1969 until 1999 at the University of Auckland and was Head of Architecture at Unitech Papua New Guinea in 1987 before taking a position as Professor of architecture at Unitec in 2000.

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Oceanic Architectural Routes is presented by Architectus. Our thanks to The Purple Gift for providing special support for public programming around this exhibition.