> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > David Mann > > That's one plan that's been put forward, to make a new one in the same > shape as the old one but with modern design & materials. They're > demolishing it down until the walls are about 2-3 metres high so who > knows - they might be able to keep some of the stone and build it up > from there. Most of the demolished heritage buildings have had their > parts carefully catalogued and preserved. I'm told the Timeball > Station in Lyttelton is to be fully rebuilt within about 5 years. > [...]
after WWII a lot of old buildings, towns and cities were rebuilt as faithful replicas of what they had been - Dresden & St. Malo spring to mind; others were rebuilt in a modern style - Coventry is an example. Some bombsites were left as 'romantic ruins' and turned into parks and gardens as memorials. When you're in one of the replica places, and know it's a replica, it feels somehow fake. When I first went to the 'old' town in St Malo I was amazed at how it could have remained in such a state of preservation, until I found out that it's a replica and then I felt somehow cheated. Places are like people, and should wear the scars and wrinkles of their lives with a certain amount of pride and defiance. From what I can see the old cathedral had no special architectural merit*, although it clearly had a place in people's hearts, so I think if I were a local, rather than rebuilding something second rate I would want to see something modern, of greater merit, while retaining some of the ruins. New Zealanders presumably now have the confidence to want something that reflects their own unique situation, rather than something that harks back to 'back home' and the imperial past. *George Gilbert Scott was a great architect and is responsible for much of what is considered the quintessential English look, but the cathedral looks to me like a run-of-the-mill Victorian Gothic church, of a type which is ten-a-penny over here. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
