Ruminations

The primary concern here is with so-called earth houses, aka earth berms, as opposed to rammed-earth or earth-sheltered homes. Earth homes are set...

  The next time you have cause to drive through Ashburton on State Highway 1 take a turn across the central rail line. If driving south,...

In October last year the ceremonial groundbreaking took place at the Port of Timaru for Holcim New Zealand’s new $50 million cement...

Dr Kerry Rodgers has clearly been out in the midday sun for far too long . . . Analemma: a plot or graph...

Some 4600 years ago, Imhotep designed and supervised construction of the world’s first large-scale, cut-stone tomb. It was Egypt’s first pyramid. Today it still...

Of the 18 libraries gifted to New Zealand by the late Andrew Carnegie, the most lavish was that of the City Of Dunedin. It...

Hundertwasser is one of few that could convert a garbage-fuelled power plant into a work of art, one that is now a major tourist...

The date: 1898. The problem: How to achieve a workable climb for New Zealand’s main trunk line from Taumarunui to the summit at National...

The recent celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall recall that using physical barriers to mark political borders ain’t...

Architect Dame Zaha Hadid died on March 31, aged 65. Her subsequent obituaries have generated as much controversy as did her life works. Royal Institute...