''Design Review'' was a publication of the

Wellington Architectural Centre The Architectural Centre Inc is a nonprofit organization in Wellington, New Zealand, for architects and laypeople with an interest in architecture which offers lectures, site visits, tours and exhibitions. History of the centre The centre was es ...

. The Centre was founded in 1946, and began the first architectural school in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

(1947) and the first town planning school in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

(1949). The Centre was unique at the time of its founding in that it invited members interested in a broad range of design and the arts, rather than restricting membership to professional architects and architectural students. Internationally it is one of the oldest organisations of its type.

Philosophy and Scope

The Centre began the two-monthly publication of ''Design Review'' in 1948. The journal addressed design topics as broad as furniture, town planning, theatre and stage design, packaging, church design, book-binding, poster design, industrial design and of course architecture. It hence reflected the Centre's interest in architecture, design and the arts in the broadest sense and was the first journal of its kind in New Zealand. The editorial of April/May 1949 explicitly asked the question "What is Design Review?" answering this by stating that: "Like everything that has to do with the arts, design cannot be tested for its quality in a laboratory ... The elusive quality that a consensus of opinion agrees to call good design is not to be defined in terms like an axiom in geometry ... So we will leave the making of formulas and rules to those who like that sort of thing ... we shall publish in each number a discussion on some particular object; a house, a chair, a teapot or what have you. The contributor will tell you his or her opinion about the merits or demerits of the way that thing is designed, omitting any waving of the big stick to lay down laws of design. It is for you to decide if you think they are right."

Contributors

Contributors included

Doreen Blumhardt Dame Vera Doreen Blumhardt (7 March 1914 – 17 October 2009) was a New Zealand potter, ceramicist and arts educator. Early life Vera Dorren Blumhardt was born on 7 March 1914 in Huanui in the North of New Zealand. Her parents were German- ...

Helen Hitchings Helen Hitchings (17 June 1920 – 4 July 2002) was a New Zealand art dealer, best known for the short-lived but influential eponymous dealer gallery she opened in Wellington in 1949. Gallery of Helen Hitchings At age 28 Hitchings opened New Z ...

, E.H. McCormick, Odo Strewe, William Toomath, Gordon Wilson, Anna Plischke, film maker

John O'Shea John Francis O'Shea (; born 30 April 1981) is an Irish professional football coach and former player. He was known for his versatility in playing several positions on either side of the pitch or the centre. Born in Waterford, O'Shea joined Man ...

, writer

Alan Mulgan Alan Edward Mulgan (18 May 1881 – 29 August 1962) was a New Zealand journalist, writer and broadcaster. He was born in Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, of Protestant Irish parents, on 18 May 1881, and died in Lower Hutt. In 1935, M ...

, and photographers

John Pascoe John Henry Pascoe (born 10 December 1948) is a former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia and Deputy Chancellor of the University of New South Wales. Background and career Pascoe was raised in and , the only child of a grazier ...

and Irene Koppel. Editors of the journal included architects

Ernst Plischke Ernst Anton Plischke (1903 – 23 May 1992) was an Austrian-New Zealand modernist architect, town planner and furniture designer whose work is well known throughout Europe and New Zealand. Early years Plischke was born in the town of Klosterne ...

, Maurice Patience, and Al Gabites, and well-known artists

E. Mervyn Taylor Ernest Mervyn Taylor (1906–1964) was a notable New Zealand engraver, commercial artist and publisher. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1906 but primarily lived and worked in Wellington, New Zealand until his sudden death at the age of ...

, and

Eric Lee-Johnson Eric Albert Lee-Johnson (8 November 1908 – 24 May 1993) was a New Zealand artist and photographer. Biography Lee-Johnson was born in Suva, Fiji and moved to New Zealand in 1912 with his parents. As a child he showed an unusual gift for dr ...

. The final issue of ''Design Review'' was in 1954.

Digitisation

Recently the entire run of the magazine was digitised by the

New Zealand Electronic Text Centre The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC; mi, Te Pūhikotuhi o Aotearoa) is a freely accessible online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials that are held by the Victoria University of Wellington Library ...

(a unit of the library at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

) and can b
viewed online

References

Marriage, Guy "Doing each other's thing " ''Architecture New Zealand'' (Jan/Feb 2005) n.1, p. 78-79. "What is Design Review?" ''Design Review'' (April/May 1949) v. 1, n. 6, p. 2. {{italic title Mass media in Wellington Architecture in New Zealand Magazines published in New Zealand Magazines established in 1948 Architecture magazines Bi-monthly magazines New Zealand design