The Claude Megson blog: April 2026

Monday, April 13, 2026

INTERVIEW: "Celebrating the work of New Zealand architect, Claude Megson"

Great to see so many at the launch last week of Giles Reid's and Jackie Meiring's book on Claude Megson -- it was literally standing room only! (I could see a big hole in Unity Books' pile of copies as I left, which also augurs well.)

And really gratifying to see and talk to so many happy Megson home owners there. The appreciation for Megson's work is clearly undiminished.

If you didn't catch it, Giles was interviewed on RNZ by Kathryn Ryan this morning. Check out the interview here...

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.

This blog began 20 years ago to simply post photos of Claude's houses 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, as have the photographs.

Subsequently however, we have been blessed to have two books on Megson houses written by Giles Reid, with beautiful photography by Jackie Meiring: Counter Constructions and now their 2026 Claude Megson: Architect.

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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