NZ Visual Diary - entry 336

cottage along Mt Eden Road

This cottage along Mt Eden Road at the base of Maungawhau dates to the early/mid 20th century. The cottage is emblematic of an architectural style of its time across numerous suburbs that emanated from Auckland’s city centre.

While otherwise unremarkable, this cottage piqued my interest for its potent metaphoric value. I imagine the structure being absorbed slowly but inexorably into the forested firmament of Maungawhau. It is as if this landform, sacred to the Ngāti Whātua, is reclaiming with tree and bush what had been of its root and branch; as if an architectural marker of 20th century post-colonialism that epitomises Pākehā urban settlement has been gently but resolutely required to reconcile and answer for the violent contradictions embedded in its history.