The Claude Megson blog: 'DEGREES OF FREEDOM' Giles Reid on Claude Megson

Thursday, February 08, 2007

'DEGREES OF FREEDOM' Giles Reid on Claude Megson

Article on Megson referenced at the British Library:

Article details
Article title	DEGREES OF FREEDOM Giles Reid on Claude Megson
Author
Journal title	ARCHITECTURE NEW ZEALAND
Bibliographic details	2000, JUL/AUG, pages 84-97
Publisher	AGM PUBLISHING LTD	Country of publication	New Zealand
ISBN		ISSN	0113-4566
Language	English
Pricing	To buy the full text of this article you pay: £2.16 copyright fee + service charge (from £7.45) + VAT, if applicable

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WELCOME!

Welcome to the Claude Megson Blog, set up to record and celebrate the architecture of the late New Zealand architect Claude Megson as examples of his work appear around the web.

Most of the pictures posted here come from Real Estate sites, from whom the pictures are harvested before they disappear. Claude treasured his clients' joy in their houses far more than he did publication in glossy magazines; he took as a mark of honour clients' longevity in the houses he designed for them. Consequently, photos of Megson houses up for sale only appear sporadically.

The blog is just the beginning of the necessary larger project of recording and documenting all Megson's houses before "renovation" or (sadly) demolition occurs. Giles Reid has begun the project with his book, but it is still there for some knowledgable enthusiast to complete.

Who was Claude Megson?

Claude Megson was an inspirational architect and teacher. Several generations of Auckland architects are the better for his enthusiastic and knowledgable teaching, and many, many clients have been able to enjoy living in his enormously life-affirming houses.

Beginning his architectural work with architects Gummer and Ford he was soon given a nickname he was quite happy with: "I was always happy to be called Frank Claude Wright," he used to say.

What British architecture writer Geoffrey Broadbent said of Megson's own house could be said about them all:

This is work of a very high
international standard indeed. ...One is constantly struck by the surprise around the corner, the bright shaft of light penetrating from above into the softer glow of the main living spaces -- especially in Megson' own house -- that
give his work such very special qualities...
There is an essential "rightness" about Megson's spaces, for pleasant occupation by ordinary, normal human beings. Such things, says Dickson, have gone out of fashion with today's students. Well, so much the worse for the students [and the clients of those students when they graduate!].
Perhaps it hasn't occurred to them that if they design real spaces for human comfort and pleasure, then even those anguished souls overwhelmed by post-Heideggerian "problematics" about the nature of their existence might, given spaces like Megson's to contemplate that nature of their "Being," come to more positive conclusions! Because that's the point about Megson's spaces; they are life-enhancing.
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