April Workshop Critics

Nick Robinson
Nick Robinson has an established reputation for high quality design, diligent landscape assessment and distinctive streetscapes from his work in New Zealand and the UK. He promotes sustainability through water sensitive design, green roofs and living walls, innovative planting design and protection and enhancement of biodiversity, both in public spaces and private gardens.

Sybil Bloomfield
Sybil Bloomfield is director of Bloomfield & Bark and a lecturer at Unitec teaching Visual Communication, History and Theory, and Design Studio. Sybil’s masters project at VUW explored the role of open spaces in increasing the adaptive capacity of New Zealand coastal communities in the face of climate related change.

Bill McKay
Bill McKay teaches at Masters level and runs the MArch (Prof) Professional Studies courses in the School of Architecture and Planning. He writes extensively on New Zealand architecture and urban design issues in books, journals and magazines such as Architecture New Zealand. His commentary and criticism over the last decade have been recognised by the NZ Institute of Architects with a President's Award, and Urbis magazine named him Best Architectural Writer.
He recently published Worship: A History of New Zealand Church Design, illustrated by award winning photographer Jane Ussher. His previous book Beyond the State: NZ State Houses from Modest to Modern (with Andrea Stevens and Simon Devitt) was a 2014 NZ Post Book Awards finalist and a Listener 100 Best Books selection and he speaks extensively on the subject of social housing. He has also made extensive contributions to recent books Long Live the Modern and Group Architects: Towards a New Zealand Architecture.
His PhD research is focused on the war memorial halls of the First Labour Government and their contribution to modernism in post-war New Zealand. He is also working on a design history of Auckland entitled Awkward City, a history of the country’s built environment, Making New Zealand, and (with Jason Mann) a field guide and website dedicated to South Pacific architecture.

Will Thresher
Will Thresher formed Thresher Associates 1998 on the strength of his extensive urban design and landscape architectural experience in the UK. The practice has since developed a solid track record of completed projects in both commercial and public sectors continuing to widen its client base locally and internationally
All public projects involve consultation with private and public stakeholders and liaison with other consultants. The practice specialises in delivering design consultancy packages carefully tailored to clients' needs, aspirations and budgets. Workload is typically diverse with involvement on a broad range of tasks and project types. Will has been a member of the Urban Design Panel since 2004 and his role has been extended by participation in specially convened panels for key schemes.

Dr. Janine Randerson
Dr. Janine Randerson is the Programme Leader Master of Performance and Media Arts AUT. Janine is also a New Zealand-based media artist. A research thread in Janine’s work is the technological mediation in ecological systems with a particular focus on the environment. Randerson has collaborated with environmental scientists on residencies and projects with NIWA, BoM (Bureau of Meteorology) in Melbourne and NERI (National Environmental Research Institute) in Denmark. Her current projects situate media art in relation to water, weather and politics both locally (Other Waters: Art on the Manukau in Onehunga) as well as internationally.

Lauren White
Lauren White is a senior urban designer and senior associate at Harrison Grierson. She’s also on the staff of Auckland University, teaching in the Master of Urban Design programme. Lauren has over 15 years’ experience on a wide range of public and private sector projects in New Zealand and overseas. Her particular skills in design and conceptual thinking enable her to scope projects and contribute creatively at all stages of project development. Lauren’s experience ranges from architectural design, housing and master planning projects to large growth planning projects. She’s also experienced in development feasibility projects and public consultation. Lauren has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies and a Master of City Planning and Urban Design. She’s an associate of the MNZPI and a member of the Urban Design Forum

Dr Fleur Palmer
Dr Fleur Palmer Te Rarawa/Te Aupouri is an Architect, Spatial Activist and Senior Lecturer of Spatial Design in the Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology.
Dr Fleur Palmer's award winning  Ph.D focused on the displacement of Māori communities through colonisation and is the first doctorate to investigate to implications of discriminatory practices on housing outcomes in Aotearoa. Through her innovative collaborative practice she supported the creation of an affordable housing project in Kaitaia for He Korowai Trust that also featured in a documentary on social housing directed by Briar March called A Place called Home. In her collaborative practices, she worked with 7 marae from the North Hokianga, and the Hawke family from Ngati Whatua to generate visualisations of future development to reflect the core social and the cultural values of these communities in support of self-determination.

Ken Davis
Ken is a registered architect with 31 years of experience in urban design, architecture, commercial interior design and product /street furniture design in Melbourne, Wellington and Auckland.
He has worked, principally in the private sector, with a diverse range of clients from property developers, property investors and property managers, government departments, city councils and large private sector institutions and has developed a range of skills and experience in the areas of strategic and conceptual design, client liaison, project coordination and management and communication and design management.
Ken is experienced in managing large teams of in-house and external building professional in a variety of complex award winning projects including railway stations, museums and libraries, office fitouts and multi-level housing developments
In addition, Ken is considered one of the country’s leading experts on the history of New Zealand’s State Housing projects of the mid-20th Century, through his influential undergraduate thesis “A Liberal State of Mind - The Architectural Work of F Gordon Wilson 1936-1959 - A Cultural Analysis” about F Gordon Wilson the first Principal Architect of the Department of Housing Construction from 1936 until his death in 1959 as Government Architect