Karori’s early history The great explorer Kupe came to the Wellington area on his travels. Later his descendants, the sons of Whatonga, Tara and Tautoki, travelled from Hawke’s Bay’s Mahia Peninsula seeking new places to settle. Encouraged by what they found around Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the Great Harbour of Tara) Whatonga’s people moved south, first settling at Matiu (one of the harbour’s islands named by Kupe) and over time Ngāi Tara and a number of other iwi occupied the region. Karori is a western suburb of Wellington and its name is commonly thought to have been derived from a Māori phrase about bird snaring. The forested area was well known to Māori as a bird trapping and cultivation area, with tracks leading to it from Pipitea and then onto Makara on the coast. European settlement in Karori and clearing the forests began early in New Zealand’s colonial history, but in the 1850s it was still an isolated area featuring small farms. However, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries residential growth was promoted by improved road and tram access to Karori and by the mid-twentieth century it was one of New Zealand’s largest suburbs. There are several notable examples of modernist architecture from that era in the suburb and Karori has been described as ‘a suburb strong with Modernist history’. Important modernist architects William Alington, James Beard, Helmut Einhorn and Ernst Plischke all designed homes for themselves or family members in Karori. Other important buildings include John Scott’s Futuna Chapel and Architectural Centre Inc.’s Demonstration House. Teacher training in Wellington There is a long-established tradition of teacher training in Wellington, dating from 1880 when a teachers’ training institution, called the Normal School, was established in Thorndon. Teacher training came under the control of the Department of Education and a reorganisation of funding in 1903 saw the Auckland and Wellington teachers’ training colleges open in 1906. In 1913 the Wellington Education Board laid the foundation stone for a new teachers’ training college in Kelburn. The Kelburn college was a brick building opened in 1915, opposite Kelburn Normal School. Normal schools, also known as model schools, were often in close proximity to training institutions because a core function was to provide student teachers with practical classroom experience. From the mid-1920s the Kelburn facilities were over-stretched and there were consistent calls for more appropriate ones. This problem was compounded by the post-World War Two ‘baby boom’ creating an increased demand for teachers. After further delay, planning began for the construction of a new training college on a site neighbouring Karori’s Normal School in the early 1960s. Wellington’s new Teachers’ Training College, Karori From the early twentieth century the Karori campus’ site was owned by well-known businessman, Walter Kellow (1859–1938), founder of the New Zealand Master Bakers Association. It was acquired by the Crown under the Public Works Act just prior to his death. The site was initially set aside for public school purposes and then for the College in 1939, although some Wellington Education Board members were of the opinion the site was too far away from Victoria University. Between this time and the eventual construction of the College, Karori continued to grow and there were calls locally for the land to be used for an intermediate or secondary school instead. However, in the early 1960s the government launched a concerted building programme around New Zealand to expand and upgrade teachers’ training college facilities because of the ‘rapidly expanding school rolls of the time and the consequent rising demand for teachers’. This resulted in a number of new Teachers’ Training Colleges around the country which were typically located in suburban areas, such as Epsom (Auckland) and Hokowhitu (Palmerston North). Some were also created in connection with new suburban university campuses, like those in Ilam (Christchurch and Hillcrest (Hamilton). In September 1961 the Cabinet Works Committee gave its approval for creating the new Karori campus. After ‘a frustrating struggle [to get]…the new college we have needed for so long’, College, Wellington Education Board and Department of Education staff earnestly began planning in October 1961. From the outset it seems the College’s council planned to engage a private practice architect to design the campus, which is perhaps indicative of the relative autonomy college councils had achieved in the 1960s. The Ministry of Works’ role in the College’s construction process was to put forward a selection of preferred architects for the project and to approve contracts and designs. By the time the Planning Committee formed, Bill Toomath, of Toomath and Wilson Architects, had been approached to design the College’s physical education facility. The design work was soon extended for the entire campus - a commission which involved Toomath for more than a decade. This private/public approach to College building design was to continue with projects such as Helen Lowry Hall (1972), designed by William (Bill) Alington. Toomath had already completed a number of educational institution projects, including parts of Hutt Valley High School (his old High School) and Wellington Girls’ High School, so was well placed to design the College. The Hutt Valley High School classroom (1958), thought to have been the first use of fairface concrete for non-industrial buildings in the Wellington region, signalled Toomath’s brutalist intent. With the College’s design Toomath wanted ‘to avoid an institutional character, and to offer the students a stimulating experience of a coherent group of buildings and intervening spaces, as a planned community’. The original anticipated campus capacity was for 450 student teachers undertaking a two year course. However, in 1966 the government changed the teacher-training requirements to three years of study. This investment in improved training, coupled with advances in equal pay and increasing numbers of married women re-entering the paid workforce, led to a sharp growth in enrolment numbers at teachers’ training colleges throughout New Zealand. This meant that the anticipated roll at the Karori site more than tripled. Therefore, in December 1965 approval to go to tender for Stage One construction came at the same time as expanding the project so the campus could accommodate 1500 students. Toomath designed Stage One with future expansion in mind so his design for the second stage of building could accordingly be ‘grafted onto the original scheme’ seamlessly. The Stage One facilities were completed in 1969 and the College’s use began in 1970. The focus was on training primary school teachers and there was a phased approach with first year students starting their studies at the Karori campus while existing second and third year students completed their degrees in the Kelburn campus’ ‘cramped, condemned buildings’. By 1975, while Stage Two construction was still underway, all students matriculated at the Karori campus and the Kelburn building was subsequently demolished. There was no official opening of the College because of the staggered use and building programme. However, creation of the campus was marked with a sculpture, Acorn for Education, by prominent New Zealand artist Guy Ngan. The work, located in the Quad, was mostly paid for through donations from people associated with the College, such as former Principal and important educationalist, Walter Scott. When the sculpture was unveiled in 1972 Ngan was already well-known for his large-scale public artworks and in the same year completed a major commission for the new Reserve Bank Building. Later, it was thought appropriate to acknowledge the completion of the Stage One and Two building projects with a plaque unveiled by the Minister of Education, Leslie Gandar, in October 1977. Soon after its completion the College was already counted among Karori’s ‘important institutions’ and would become the suburb’s largest employer. Wellington Teachers’ Training College/Wellington College of Education (1970–2016) and after The College had more to offer students than simply providing training in the fundamentals of teaching. Activism was a ‘strong feature’ of the College in the 1950s and 60s, which could just have been an enviable result of being located in the capital city. However, it is also attributed to the institution’s reputation for recognising ‘that the best teachers were independent if often unruly, with a lively interest in what went on outside the classroom’. This spirit continued to be encouraged at the new campus with students protesting against insufficient education funding and low teacher wages, as well as other social and political issues. Some staff led by example, such as noted poet Barry Mitcalfe. While a lecturer in Polynesian Studies at the College he was also a prominent protestor against the Vietnam War, French nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the planned 1973 South African rugby tour. Protest and dissent was not always externally focused, such as when students and the College’s administration did not agree. For example, to show dissatisfaction during his term as Student President in the mid-1970s, Trevor Mallard, who later became a Labour Party Member of Parliament, Minister (2004–2008) and Speaker of the House (2017–), placed a fake situations vacant advertisement for the Principal’s job in a local newspaper. The College was also a vehicle for promoting social change in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in connection with what has been termed the ‘Māori renaissance’. Teachers’ training colleges were important places for exploring the integration of Māoritanga into an influential system, the school system, and the College was no exception. The College had been among the first tertiary institutions in New Zealand to introduce a Māori studies programmes as part of its broader Polynesian Studies courses, initially headed by Mitcalfe from 1963 and, later, Tipene O’Regan (Ngāi Tahu), at the Karori campus from 1972. John McCaffery, a student of Mitcalfe and O’Regan’s at the College who went on to become senior lecturer at Auckland University, has stated ‘[t]heir positive enthusiasm for te reo me ona tikanga and activist influence on future primary teachers proved to be dynamic indeed’. O’Regan and colleagues including Keri Kaa (Ngāti Porou) and Amster Reedy (Ngāti Porou), as well as College students, were part of high profile demonstrations protesting the unequal status of Māori language. During his time at the College O’Regan also became involved with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust’s (now Heritage New Zealand) Māori Advisory Committee. He went on to be a leading figure in Ngāi Tahu’s Treaty of Waitangi Settlement negotiations between 1986 and 1998 and was knighted for his services to Māori in 1994. While training at Ardmore Teachers’ Training College near Auckland, Kaa and Amster were the Students’ Association leadership team, when Kaa was its first female President. As well as educating and mentoring student teachers at the College in the 1970s and 1980s, Kaa is a well-known author who became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Māori and the arts in 2013 and Reedy became a ‘nationally respected cultural advisor’ who worked in broadcasting and advised the All Blacks and Olympic Teams on cultural matters. Ako Pai Marae, located to the west of the Panckhurst Block, was opened in 1987. The land, featuring an existing hall which became the wharenui, had been owned by the Wellington City Council before being subsumed into the campus in the early 1970s. The marae represented the establishment of a separate Māori Studies department at the College. Formerly Māori Studies was within the Social Studies department, but a department in its own right was advocated for by Kaa, O’Regan and Reedy and endorsed by Principal Margaret Malcolm. Advocacy for the facilities earnestly began in the early 1980s and became more urgent in anticipation of the 1984 introduction of requirements ‘that all teachers [sic] college students undertake a course in multi-cultural studies’ which was heavily weighted towards Māori Studies. As well as being the Māori Studies department’s home, Ako Pai Marae provided ‘all students opportunities to experience tikanga (culture), and gave the college a special place to welcome and host guests’. The College itself was ‘[a]ffectionately’ known as Ako Pai (good learning and teaching) and the moniker had been used by the College’s Students’ Association magazine since the 1920s. It was also integrated into the institution’s Māori name, Te Whānau o Ako Pai ki te Upoko o te Ika, which was adopted by 1990. The inclusion of ‘whānau’ (family/close community) in the name was said to have been ‘a considered symbolic statement about the way staff and students wished to see themselves’, as Wellington’s community of learning and teaching. In 1988, the College’s English name changed to Wellington College of Education (WCE). This coincided with significant tertiary education sector reforms in the late 1980s and 1990s, which saw less distinction between universities, polytechnics and teachers’ training colleges and were the result of wider government reforms affecting the public sector. The introduction of bulk funding and tertiary education fees meant a challenging time in the education sector as institutions were compelled to have a more commercial focus. From the mid-1990s this was reflected by the College no longer being headed by principals, but by chief executives. Despite some links, such as representation on their respective Councils and sometimes sharing lecturers, the College and Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) were distinctly separate entities and the relationship was said to, at times, be characterised by ‘mutual suspicion’. However, closer connections began developing in 1993 when the Bachelor of Education degree was established and taught by staff from both institutions. Then in 2001 a partnership began between the VUW’s School of Education and WCE which aimed for smoother administrative processes, better quality teaching facilities and increased academic recognition associated with the programmes on offer. This partnership was formalised in 2005 when the two institutions merged, with WCE being incorporated into VUW’s Faculty of Education. This was part of a national move to integrate colleges of education into universities, which was achieved by 2007. Ownership of the Karori Campus was formally transferred to VUW in 2014 and 2015. A small payment of ten dollars was required at the time to legalise the transfer. Given the value of the asset, this seemingly bargain rate drew some public criticism which was labelled as ‘myth’ and ‘ill-informed’ because VUW had reportedly spent millions of dollars on campus running costs, maintenance and construction since they took over from WCE. In early 2016 staff and students moved out of the Karori campus, back to Kelburn, and the university contemplated the future of the site. Even during the College’s planning stage local residents showed interest in community uses for the hall and gymnasium and up until 2016 those facilities, as well as the marae and sports grounds, continued to be well-utilised by the community. For example, a reported 3700 children attended school assemblies, productions, dance classes and sports games there each week. In August 2016 VUW announced its plans to dispose of the property and in the same month Ako Pai Marae’s kaupapa and mauri ‘were acknowledged and brought to [the University’s] Kelburn campus’ and the waharoa and wharenui’s carvings were removed. A public meeting was held to address community concerns over the site’s future. Subsequent public meetings, media reports, and advocacy demonstrated the Karori, wider Wellington and New Zealand architectural community’s desire for retention of the facilities. An online petition was also set up by the Save Karori VUW Campus group, which was signed by over one thousand people interested in retaining one of Karori’s ‘last vibrant community spaces’. In late 2017, Ryman Healthcare Limited, a retirement home operator, was announced to be the successful tenderer for the campus and took possession of the site in early 2018. Many notable New Zealanders had been associated with the College. Contemplating the College’s influence, well-known New Zealand playwright Roger Hall, who attended the College just prior to the Karori campus’ creation, suggested ‘it indeed would be an interesting exercise…to do a survey of how many of our writers, poets, actors, artists, potters and so on went to the college’. The College had a reputation as a liberal institution and resultantly seems to have been an attractive tertiary arts education option. Among the many notable Kelburn campus students were poet/writer James K Baxter, and artists John Drawbridge and Cliff Whiting. The College’s reputation as an incubator of artistic expression continued at the Karori campus, through the many talented staff associated with it. For example, Brian Carmody, well-known watercolour painter, is connected with the campus along with important children’s fiction writer Jack Lasenby. Distinguished New Zealand ceramicist Doreen Blumhardt was head of the College’s art department for 21 years and retired in 1972, a few years after the campus opened. Laughton Pattrick, a former music department head, is also a notable composer of children’s music and, together with wife Jenny, has created many children’s plays. Through the institution’s history its principals had a ‘crucial role in setting its academic and cultural direction’. In recognition of this, in the early twenty-first century campus features were named in honour of its influential leaders. The buildings named after principals include: the first principal, William Gray (1906–12); noted botanist John Smaillie Tennant (1912–23); Alan S Mackie (1966–80); John D Panckhurst (1980–82); Margaret Malcolm, New Zealand’s first female principal of a teachers’ training college (1982–85); and the last principal, Graeme Oldershaw (1985–96). Also recognised with eponymous features are other principals, such as gardens named after Francis Cecil Lopdell (1936-48) and the Library after Walter Scott (1958–65) - both of whom are recognised as important New Zealand educationalists. In a departure from this naming criteria, the hall commemorates a former student, James Allen Ward who was awarded the Victoria Cross in World War Two and was killed in action soon after. He is also recognised on the College’s Roll of Honour, and other memorials around New Zealand.

Current Description The College is acknowledged as ‘perhaps the most significant project of Bill Toomath’s career’. The NZIA awarded the complex an NZIA Local Award (Enduring Architecture) in 2005. The Architectural Centre Inc., an independent architecture and urban design advocacy and educational organisation, has also pushed for the College’s inclusion in the Wellington District Plan’s Heritage Schedule, recognising it as ‘[a]n excellent example of Brutalist architecture, and site design by a significant Wellington architect. This is a coherent and comprehensive campus design in authentic condition’. The College occupies a 3.2 hectare sloping site in suburban Karori, Wellington. Site preparation began in circa 1963 and included demolishing three late nineteenth or early twentieth century residences and their associated outbuildings on Donald Street, as well as some excavation and fill work. The College was built in two stages with Stage One built between 1966 and 1969, and Stage Two between 1972 and 1977. Stage One, constructed by M.J. Walsh Construction Limited, featured a group of five buildings set around a quadrangle of open space, inspired by traditional town squares like that in Capri. Angus Construction Limited was the contractors for Stage Two, which was a set of larger buildings linked to their Stage One counterparts by two sky bridges. With the exception of some prefabricated buildings south of the Gray Block, there were no other significant additions or alterations to the campus layout as designed by Toomath. The whole architectural landscape presented by Toomath, including the positioning and massing of the buildings and their relationship to each other and the landscaping elements, is an important part of the design’s success. The buildings Toomath designed feature precast concrete and in situ concrete construction processes and have concrete pile foundations and aluminium rib-jointed roofs. Structural joints are visible and expressive of the way the buildings work to hold up their loads. The structural rectangular forms are even-spaced, sometimes symmetrical, often repeating, and rhythmically geared to the human scale even though large or many spaces are incorporated. Within this the window bays on the various buildings are uniformly sized throughout the site, creating cohesion between the buildings. Between timber window casements there are ‘basalt-faced spandrels’. The surface below the windows is darker and contrasts dramatically with the predominantly light grey concrete wall spans. The frank and direct use of materials which characterised Toomath’s work is certainly evident in the use of concrete and timber at the College. The exterior of the buildings is assertive through the purposeful use of textured and formed concrete. The imposing nature of the concrete framework and panels is softened through the use of finely scaled concrete detailing, rich with texture and sculptural elements. There is a wide variety of decorative concrete surfaces used throughout the site, such as off-form, bush hammered and exposed aggregate panelling. These textural elements on the facades provide visual interest and unity of form between the buildings. Toomath used textured concrete repetitively as a variation on a theme for this community of buildings. The interiors continue the theme with large wall areas in precast concrete. This is softened by wooden staircases and large glass atrium windows. Elsewhere, there is a considerable amount of wood panelling within the buildings, providing a sense of warmth that contrasts with the cooler concrete exterior. Toomath’s practice was awarded a National Silver Medal in 1972 for his work on the project, with the NZIA Awards jury commenting that ‘[t]he detailing of the construction [at the College] shows great care and the use of materials is warm and sympathetic to the functions’. The northern building at the Donald Street frontage is the two storey Tennant Block. This was the campus’ main entrance and an additional clear gabled roofed canopy sits in front of the building’s integrated entrance canopy. Its scale sits well in suburban Karori because only a single storey is visible from Donald Street. When the site was being developed, there was concern among Karori residents about the ramifications of a college situated within a suburban environment. In response Toomath’s design took advantage of the existing contours of the site: a ‘[s]ingle–storey street frontage, in deference to its residential context, set the height for the whole scheme, with lower storeys descending down the slope, each with direct ground access’. This mitigated intrusion on the neighbourhood. For example, the campus’ western buildings - the five storey Panckhurst Block and eight storey Malcolm Block containing staff offices - are well set back from both Donald and Campbell Streets meaning their height does not significantly impose on the streetscape, especially when viewed from Donald Street. The Allen Ward VC Hall, adjoining the Tennant Block, is another entrance building where the sloping site has been taken advantage of to add height on its southern side while still being sympathetic in scale to its surroundings. The impact on the streetscape from the south is softened by plantings introduced at the time the campus was constructed and subsequently. A feature of this building is its clerestory windows allowing light in while maximising the auditorium space. The hall is appreciated for its acoustic qualities and the interior features ‘larch boarded walls, boarded fairface concrete, and structural sarking’. The interior concrete structure is exposed in accordance with brutalist approach of the honest and raw expression of materials and construction. The Quad is a partially concreted and grassed open space between the Tennant and two storey Gray/Student Services and Waghorn/Teaching Blocks, and is at the heart of the campus as built in Stage One. There is movement and flow from the administration and hall buildings down a level to the cafeteria and commons building with multiple entrances and exit points onto the Quad space. This space was designed to promote the experience of protection and enclosure with its community of buildings congregated around the open space, much like a traditional town square. Located in the Quad, near the Gray Block’s entrance, is the aspirational cast bronze Guy Ngan sculpture, Acorn for Education, unveiled in 1972. Ngan did not charge for design or labour – the only cost was for Turner and Evans, a Newtown foundry, to do the bronze casting. The concrete base for the substantial 3.35 metre tall sculpture was donated by the Students’ Association in honour of the College’s recently deceased Vice-Principal, Keith Fox. Ngan was inspired by the College’s motto, Lateat scintillula forsam (perhaps a small spark lies hidden here). The sculpture depicts ‘the roots [of the acorn, which] have tremendous grip on the ground and the shoots are bursting forth, pushing away the husks as the growth expands inside’. Guy Ngan’s daughter, Liz Ngan, has noted the sculpture was ‘specifically designed for the space and reflects the aspirational ethos of the buildings’ architecture and purpose’. The Oldershaw Block is north of the Quad and linked to the Waghorn Block by one of the ground level covered walkways connecting the Stage One buildings. Nestled within the Lopdell Gardens, this building comprises of an octagonal, single storey section, whose entrance is highly glazed, making it reminiscent of a band rotunda and signalling its music room function. Adjacent are associated teaching and office spaces in a two storey rectangular section. The designed aspects of the campus extend to the landscape architecture of the Lopdell Gardens that run from the north side of the Quad down and under the sky bridges. The campus has concrete retaining walls, garden walling and boxes, pathways and stair between its various levels, as well as concrete bollards like those along the Donald Street boundary south of the Allen Ward VC Hall. The park-like entrance driveway landscaping included a pond which has become planted grove. In addition to the topography, Toomath’s positioning of buildings and landscape architecture features also seems to have been influenced by the existing vegetation in the site’s northeast. Aside from those selected trees in the open space fronting Donald Street, the site was cleared and, after the construction of landscaping features by Angus Construction Limited between 1978 and 1980, was re-populated with both exotic and native plants. These garden elements are seen as ‘integral to the design’. Architectural historian Paul Walker has stated it is ‘a compelling experience to move around the college complex, the deep leafy second landscape space coming as a great visual surprise, and the place is clearly much appreciated by those who work and study there’. The two sky bridges, emerging from the forested-like Lopdell Gardens and flanking the pottery kiln connected to the Waghorn Building, are a special design feature of the College. They are attractive walkways providing quick, sheltered, access between the Waghorn Block and each end of Panckhurst Block, which contains the campus library. The sky bridges contribute to the sense of exhilaration at the height and communal spirit in their unification of teaching and learning spaces. The pairs of tall precast concrete piers are shaped in a way which references cathedral vaults and the enclosed walkways above are cradled by towers extending from the piers. The sky-bridge corridors have exterior red-stained timber panelling which allows them to stand out from the grey concrete and the green landscaping. The interiors are lined with wood panels and more contemporary steel bracing for seismic resistance. Near the southern sky bridges is the Theatre Block. This was the last of the Stage Two buildings to be completed. A bronze plaque commemorating the completion of the College’s construction is located at its entrance foyer. The Theatre Block’s exterior stepped-down prestressed concrete panels express the internal seating arrangements and the building’s various functions. The upper section has three distinct areas denoting the separate lecture theatres within. The interplay of each area’s sloped roof is dynamic and unique within this campus of more traditional shallowly pitched roof types. The lower section’s concrete is treated differently too because these areas were designed as dance and drama studios. The College’s southern building is the Mackie Gymnasium – the first building Toomath was approached to design for the College. The main section of the building is a large open space for indoor sports and natural light is provided from expansive upper level glazing along its sides. The interior features extensive use of timber wall, floor and ceiling panelling. The substantial exposed precast concrete framing supports are an expression of brutalism within this ubiquitous gymnasium space. Once the two distinct building phases were completed it was necessary to undertake some interior alterations in various Stage One buildings to change uses of spaces whose functions were then transferred to the Stage Two buildings or those in prefabricated temporary buildings which were being incorporated into the purpose-built buildings. Again, Toomath had planned for this consolidation process and works included converting some existing spaces and removing or introducing partition walls in buildings such as the Administration/Gray and Teaching/Waghorn Blocks. The work was completed around 1979. Toomath’s on-going input into the campus’ buildings was the policy of the College’s administrators who wanted to ‘ensure the maximum advantage is obtained from the original concepts for the uses of the buildings and that the harmony of design achieved in the campus complex is maintained’. Brutalist architecture The College is an architecturally significant example of late modern architecture in New Zealand. Its physical layout of a series of interconnected buildings successfully engenders a sense of community as intended by the client brief and the architect. The large-scale concrete construction of the buildings, repetition of modular elements and the varied use of textured concrete as detailed surface ornamentation places the College within the brutalist architectural movement. This approach evolved out of Le Corbusier’s late works in the mid-twentieth century and in England was developed into ‘New Brutalism’, led by Alison and Peter Smithson and others. Concrete structures were relatively affordable and cost effective to maintain at a time when London and many parts of Europe had to rebuild after World War Two. Although interpreted differently around the world by individual architects, a characteristic of brutalism is honestly expressed concrete or béton brut (concrete in the raw), such as off-form concrete where the textural forms of the casting process were purposely retained for effect. The multiplicity of, and interplay between, textured concrete finishes Toomath used at the College is a sophisticated demonstration of the variety of finishes available in the brutalist vocabulary. In addition to Europe and Britain, by the late 1950s brutalist architecture was also being created in other places internationally, such as the United States of America and Japan. Toomath and other New Zealand architects were well aware of the influence of brutalism abroad, but a ‘well-informed sanity seems to have maintained a balance’ in New Zealand. The College’s structures display the principles of the brutalist architectural language, but Toomath was quite clear in his dislike of the term: ‘…[brutalism is] a most unfortunate word to have been adopted by architectural journalists because it has nothing to do with brutishness. It comes straight from the French “brut”… and it simply means raw, without trimmings, without a surface covering of something else. It’s to do with honest and direct use of materials. This word “brutalism” has done more damage than any other tricky phrase.’ Despite the negative connotations of the term brutalism, the word also implies physical robustness and determination in design and materials – descriptions applicable to the College. Comparative analysis There are only two examples of New Zealand teachers’ training institutions recognised on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero (the List): the Peterborough Centre (Former Teachers College Building) in Christchurch (1930) and the former Dunedin Teachers’ Training College (1906). Both of these examples reflect earlier stages in New Zealand’s teacher training system, whereas the College directly demonstrates the rapid development and expansion of the sector in the mid to late twentieth century, which coincided with the peak period of brutalism’s influence in New Zealand and around the world. The College sits comfortably alongside other notable examples of New Zealand brutalist architecture acknowledged on the List, including the Executive Wing (The Beehive), Wellington, designed by Sir Basil Spence and the Government Architect (1969–81) and the Hocken Building (Former), at Otago University in Dunedin, by Ted McCoy (1979–80). Contemporary examples of teachers’ training colleges are located in Auckland’s North Shore, Christchurch, Dunedin and Palmerston North. These campuses are all examples of, or demonstrate characteristics particular to, brutalist architecture, but the College’s group of buildings and structures is most often singled out among these because it presents a high quality unified brutalist architectural landscape. . Unlike the College, its Hamilton counterpart was not a stand-alone campus, but part of the larger University of Waikato campus whose architectural values were highlighted in Julia Gatley’s, Long Live the Modern. Comparable university campuses to the College are the University of Canterbury’s Ilam Campus, developed from 1951 onwards and University of Waikato (mentioned above), designed in 1964. The Ilam campus’ buildings are notable as exemplifying ‘the development of post-war modernism from polite restraint to confident, robust brutalism’, designed by various architects in public and private practice. Prominent examples include the Registry and James Hight Library. However many of the campus’ brutalist buildings have been substantially altered, including the painting of some of the characteristic fairfaced concrete surfaces, and the Student Union Building was demolished in 2016. For the University of Waikato, John Blake-Kelly’s Ministry of Works architects designed an integrated campus of multi-storey buildings constructed from pre-cast concrete panels, exposed aggregate surfaces and steel window joinery. Like the College, the architects had a blank slate on which to plan the campus. However, a distinguishing aspect of the Wellington Teachers’ Training College is the integrity and authenticity of its distinct precinct - the campus’s facilities being the vision of a single architect which has been little altered over the decades. This purity of design can be easily read and appreciated by users. The smaller scale of the Karori campus and the strong visual and structural language of the architecture and its contextual landscaping create an especially cohesive site, where the intended ‘fully designed communal environment’ can be appreciated and understood across the entire complex. Perhaps the most directly comparable tertiary campus to the College is the former Central Institute of Technology (CIT) campus at Trentham. Like the College, it was a relatively small scale institution constructed in two stages from the late 1960s and into the 1970s, and the designs were clearly influenced by the brutalist movement. However, architect Christopher Brooke-White (working for Haughton and Mair) had a larger, flatter, canvas to work with and, as such, CIT is not as compact as the College. This can also be attributed to the differing types of tertiary facility and the guiding design principles for each campus. Toomath wanted to create a community of learning to nurture and inspire trainee teachers, which eased into its surrounding residential area; while Brooke-White’s work, ‘towering above the nearby houses as a stern and ordered backdrop’, demonstrates CIT’s ambition of being ‘technical training reinvented within a university environment’. However, both architects are said to have conveyed these agendas through the use of textured concrete. For example, in service of Toomath’s aim, the ‘rigorous and unrelenting’ use of texture at the College ‘pulls the occupant in’.