Interior Darkness / Contained Shadow

Abstract

One reason for a tendency in New Zealand architecture to feature brightly lit interiors is perhaps an association of sunlight with health, cleanliness and wellbeing;1 another the perception of openness to the landscape as an authentic ‘Kiwi’ outdoors dwelling experience. This tendency certainly became an obsession of the New Zealand architectural media from the 1950s: professional photography increasingly produced images of light-filled spaces in step with the building industry’s shift to larger glass panel sizes. As each decade brought advancements in technology, both in building and in print, images of interiors became ever brighter.2 As modernist ideas gained influence in New Zealand, a shadowy interior became, more and more, a sign of some sort of architectural failure, an inability to eradicate darkness.