New Zealand is in the news for reasons other than sport. The country is going through an identity crisis and resolution will be determined, following Scotland and Greece most recently, by public participation. The NZ Government, lead by PM John Keys, is holding a referendum as the country seemingly needs a new flag although this argument for change has been bubbling beneath the cultural landscape, much like a Rotorua mud pool, for some decades now. There are three historic reasons for change: firstly, that the current NZ flag which dates from 1902 appears too similar to the Australian; secondly that the nation considers its colonial heritage as being anachronistic today; thirdly that the flag does not recognise Polynesian indignity. New Zealand is part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a group of countries that seek governance to be more accountable to its citizens. Interestingly, the OGP’s four principles include: transparency, accountability, participation and innovation / technology. The first two principles seem to have been successfully delivered given NZ’s top two rating in Transparency International’s index which consolidates the government’s puerile ‘100% Pure’ brand building / tourism budget. The last two principles are of interest to the Game of Architecture research field: participation and innovation in relation to national identity brand building through the waving of a flag. To facilitate participation in the flag debate, the Flag Consideration Panel asked NZers to share their views and values as well as suggest alternative flag designs. The nationwide engagement programme included:

• a national road show with 25 workshops and hui across the country
• visits to busy shopping malls, libraries and markets
• over 700,000 visits to our websites, and more than 1,000,000 people reached via social media.

The Game of Flags is has the goal of producing a simple iconographic image to be flown at ‘commemorations, celebrations and times of mourning’ yet ideologically weighed down by ‘unity, symbolism, citizenship, culture and identity’. The consultation process reminded me of those we encounter in 012hil_rooftop nursery and 069hil_cowley st lawrence whereby the stakeholders are the designers. In the end one might ask, in relation to ‘mistaken identity’, is this really such a problem? Look at Europe: one could open a second hand flag shop and sell faded flags from of one state to another: Belgium to Romania, Netherlands to Luxembourg… Japan? You’re sorted. But if you had colonised the US it would have resulted in ‘spots and banners’.

In response to a recent tweet from Wallpaper*regarding “a boutique hotel with a rocker’s soul”, the writer seems to be acutely  unaware of Keith Richard’s interior design skills: televisions lobbed from balconies;  Or is it that the omnipresence of aspirational designer lifestyles trumpeted by glossies has meant that even today’s rock ‘n rollers are more concerned about plush furnishings and an ergonomic mattress rather than destroying a hotel room. Maintaining the increasingly risk adverse, Health and Safety soft rock ‘ n roll chic has it’s natural conclusion: the American Gladiator Bandstand has a ‘Battle of The Bands’ whereby the competition is not musical, rather architectural: hotel room thrashing.

The Mayoralty election in Tower Hamlets… 096agn_Mayor of Lambeth Niraj Patil inaugurates Agnes Riley Park with Reza Parizi of WHAT_architecture… in winter. 069hil_Mayor of Hillingdon Shirley Harper-O’Neill meets Maui Hoete of WHAT_architecture. 069hil_Mayor of Hillingdon David Yarrow meets Olatz de Solaeche of WHAT_architecture. 069hil_Mayor of London Boris Johnson meets Anthony Hoete of WHAT_architecture. 137aus_Lord Mayor of Perth Lisa Scaffidi meets Anthony Hoete of WHAT_architecture. [INSERT image] 000mot_Mayor of Tauranga Stuart Crosby hangs out with Ah!

On 2nd June 2015 Sepp Blatter declared his resignation from the FIFA Presidency. This was a surprise as Blatter had, just recently, been elected for a 5th term and so the speculation as to the timing of his resignation commences… Blatter, the ultimate patron/padrone of the practice WHAT_architecture FC, has been pushed out of football by a nation that doesn’t even really play football: the US. Federal prosecutors, led by Attorney General Loretta E Lynch, last week arrested senior FIFA executives on charges of corruption, wire fraud and bribery. Now with this resignation it appears that an American offensive might have presented Blatter with football’s ultimate sudden death scenario: Penalties! “Your goal is to avoid gaol…”

The Game of Poetry. A haiku is a Japanese poem with a rigorous almost game-like structure ruled by seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world. The Haiku Guys and Gals posted us their haiku duel for the Game of Architecture. So who won? Eric: Puzzle of space time, Pieces missing on purpose, And never finished.   Lisa: Armed with compass, And a finely tuned angle, I conquer my space

Have a look at the top photograph below: notice anything unusual? There is a high rise building in the distance that appears three times in the photograph… although this could merely mean multiple generic modernist blocks on the East London horizon. The photographic image has been manipulated: it was stitched together in Photoshop and hence the image contains the impossibility of four vanishing points, hence our new ‘three tower estate’ in Bethnal Green visible from Keeling House. Architectural representation used to reside in drawing but today thanks to mobile devices what we understand as the drawing is changing: the architect is today as likely to draw with his camera than with any pen. Indeed thanks to such devices the ‘photographic elevational drawing’ is increasingly common in contemporary practice. WHAT_architecture calls this ‘full frontal fotodrawing’ (FFF) and this is a two step process.

• Step 1: capture images in the field. Requires reasonably rigorous ‘in situ’ positioning of the camera perpendicular to the drawing plane.
• Step 2: post-production image manipulation: use of photoshop etc for parallax correction

With deep full-frontal-fotodrawings, that is where the elevation has depth due to window reveals, loggias, vistas etc, the FFF will have multiple vanishing points. This is a digital by-product and is a departure from the historic rules of perspective as evident in say Piero della Francesco’s Flagellation of Christ, the world’s greatest small painting (1455-1460).

At the Practice Research Symposium in Ghent 2 weeks, Johan Verbeke proposed to me that in research terms a ‘manifesto’ was a ‘proposition’ without the need for evidence. This in turn called to mind the brazen words of Patrick Schumacher who had written, if my memory serves me correctly, that there had been no manifestos in architecture since Modernism. If a manifesto is as Verbeke claims a mere trumpet call then Shumacher’s claim is a manifesto in itself as manifestos are liberated from any need to be factual or evidence based. Therefore as Architects we should get going: talk up your own manifesto as a means to say something provocative! For example, one Manifesto for architectural practice in NZ is: Bro’Town must replace Motown: social fraternisation is required in cities like Auckland which are being strangled by the car…. How to Write A Manifesto: see Henrietta Ross’ Election Aesthetics On the NZ car, see Patrick Reynold’s Transit Blog