Gerald Melling

Gerald John Melling (1943 - 22 December 2012) was an English-born, Architect, Poet, Novelist, Journalist, Author and Editor.

Gerald Melling came to his craft by an unconventional route and he brings his unique brand of Liverpudlian humour and a fair measure of Beatles'-style anti-establishmentarianism to the poetic little buildings he nurtures.

He wrote his first novel before he was even 20 years old, a free and restless spirit who has pursued his passions for architecture, literature and journalism for more than four decades. Also one of the most controversial speaker of his time, he is witty and at times his caustic comments may have offended many.

Nobody’s soldier that was a word to describe Gerald Melling.

He believed low cost housing did not have to be drab and dull, but instead could be innovative and inspirational.

In 2010, he told The Dominion Post: ‘‘I wanted to show that architects could work on a modest level. I love architecture, but not the profession. How professional is it to turn away someone with $300,000 and say, ‘I can’t work with you unless you have $800,000’.’’

Following the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004, he designed almost 50 houses and a community centre along the south coast of Sri Lanka, eventually writing a book called Tsunami Box about his experiences.^[1]

He was always interested in low cost housing, he stated in an interview with John Walsh:

Where architects are needed they’re not going. We really need architects to engage in low cost housing. What I want to see is good, experienced architects engaging in this. That’s what it needs. It’s one of the hardest things there is to do, low cost housing, to make an environment for people that really supports them.^[2]

Early life and education

^[3] Melling discovered an interest in art and poetry from a young age before choosing architecture as a creative outlet as well as a way to make a living. He left school at 16 to work in an architect's office as a cadet. He attended night classes at Liverpool Technical Institute. He later received formal architectural training in 1976 at Auckland University and gained his architectural registration in 1977.^[1]

Work

He worked briefly in New York City and Toronto as a magazine editor before emigrated to New Zealand in 1971 to work for the Ministry of Works in Porirua.

From 1977 Melling was employed at the Board Of Education where he worked on various school projects, including Worser Bay School and Thorndon Kindergarten. This period sparked his interest in education theory and environments for learning and culminated in the publishing of his book "Open Schoolhouse" in 1981.

Melling was briefly the editor of the 'New Zealand Architect' magazine while at the Education Board. He wrote the first books about living New Zealand architects; Ian Athfield, "Joyful Architecture: The Genius of New Zealand's Ian Athfield" and later Roger Walker "Positively Architecture: New Zealand's Roger Walker", helping to bring New Zealand architecture to a worldwide audience.

In 1990 he formed Melling Morse Architects along with Allan Morse, and the pair worked on public and private buildings including the redevelopment of Left Bank Arcade, Auckland’s Butterfly Creek and Melling’s own home The Skybox, which sits atop the Melling Morse Architects office in Egmont St.

Melling felt that architecture should be available to everyone regardless of income. He sought to develop a low-cost style of building which still retained qualities of space and light associated with "high" architecture. Melling experimented which various techniques to provide this including efficient planning, incorporation of recycled materials, "low tech" timber construction systems and reduction in scale. A typical Melling house employed vernacular construction techniques (and occasionally vernacular forms) combined with the double living height spaces, mezzanines, open plan layouts and modular gridded organization more usually associated with high modernist architecture.

In 2008 their company won the Home New Zealand Home of the Year award for a small Wairarapa home, called the Signal Box.^[4][5]

Following the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004, he designed almost 50 houses and a community centre along the south coast of Sri Lanka, eventually writing a book called Tsunami Box about his experiences. ^[1]

Selected Articles

"Thorndon Clinic", in Wellington’s New Buildings, David Kernohan Victoria University Press, 1989

"The Music Box", in World Architecture A Critical Mosaic 1900 -2000 Vol.10 Southeast Asia and Oceania Springer Weinn, New York, 1999

"The Samurai House" and "Skybox", in At Home: A Century Of New Zealand Design, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins Godwit/Random House, 2004

"The Music Box" and "Skybox", in Exquisite Apart, ed. Charles Walker 100 Years of Architecture in New Zealand NZIA, Auckland, 2004

"The Samurai House", in Architecture Inspired by New Zealand Mint Publishing, Auckland, 2006

"Skybox", in Home: New Directions in World Architecture and Design, Millennium House, NSW, Australia, 2006

Also numerous magazines, including Architectural Review, AIA Journal, Hauser, Architecture and Design India, New Zealand Architect, Architecture New Zealand, Home & Entertaining

Published written work

Tsunami box, Press Free range, 2010

John Walsh wrote "Tsunami Box is a revealing and honest case study of architecture altruism in action. It's a testament to its author's patience and persistence – firstly with drawing pencil, and later with writing pen".^[6]

An Artful Lodger NZIA 2005 Lecture Series - architecture poems.Thumbprint Press Broadsheet, 2005

Open Home(co-authored with Dave Cull, Stuart Niven, & George Chimirri)Random House, Auckland, 1994

Mid City Crisis & Other Stories Thumbprint Press, Wellington, 1989

Positively Architecture: New Zealand’s Roger Walker Square One Press, Dunedin, 1985

Open Schoolhouse: Environments for children in New Zealand Caveman Press, Dunedin, 1981

Joyful Architecture: The genius of New Zealand’s Ian Athfield Caveman Press, Dunedin, 1980

Poetry by Melling

Cursory Rhymes, June 2013 Published by Thumbprint Victoria University Press in association with Sport^[7]

Gerald began to write the poems collected in this book when he was diagnosed with nasty cancer in late October 2012 with was later combined into a book and introduced by Geoff Cochrane who is a poet and fiction writer and a dear friend of Melling.

b.1943, Bumper Books, 1999 Postcards from the Coast, Thumbprint Press, 1992 Illustrated Poetry, Satyrday Publications,1968

His poems appeared in Landfall, Islands, Sport, Takahe, the Listener and elsewhere.

Awards and mentions

Signal box, HOME New Zealand, Home of the Year 2008 3 News, 7 Aug 2008 Houses New Zealand, Issue 6, Gerald Melling The Gravy, Episode 13, May 2009

Samurai house TVNZ Home Front Feature Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture

Music box, NZ Timber Design Journal, Issue 3/Vol. 6, 1997 Wellington City Council Case Study

Split box, Modern Residential Design, 2008 Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture

Other publications

Several anthologies of New Zealand poetry, and numerous literary journals and magazines, including Canadian Forum, New American / Canadian Poetry, Open City, Islands, Landfall, NZ Listener, Sport, Cave, NZ Poetry

Personal

He has a daughter Zoe Melling and son David Melling who is also an Architect married to Angela, two grandchildren Eva and Isabel and his partner of 13 years Christine Norman. He died on 22 December 2012 surrounded by his family.^[8]

References

^[9][10]