Architectural Historicism Revisited: The Case of Twentieth-Century Traditionalist Architecture in Queen Street, Auckland

Abstract

Originating from the fields of philosophy and history, the term historicism is often used by architectural historians. In historiography about twentieth century architecture, the term historicism is most commonly associated with traditionalist pre-Second World War buildings, designed with the eclectic use of historical styles. Considered anachronistic and outdated, this architecture is widely neglected in the architectural histories of the twentieth century, most of which are focused on the Modern Movement, or other modernising tendencies leading toward it. However, in reality, modernising architecture constituted the minority of the overall building construction during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Inspired by architectural history, the traditionalist – or historicist, as numerous historians have dubbed it – architecture was the period’s mainstream. Aiming to contribute to the comprehensiveness of the histories of twentieth-century architecture, this research addresses this issue. It focuses on pre-Second World War production inspired by principles, forms, and elements from history of architecture. The main commercial throughway of New Zealand’s biggest city, Queen Street in Auckland, was selected as a case study. Attracting some of the largest public and private investments in the country, Queen Street architecture was designed by the most renowned architects of the period and widely appreciated by the public. Therefore, it is considered as a representative sample that reflects broader architectural tendencies in New Zealand. To develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of historicism using the example of Queen Street architecture, the thesis explores the meaning of the concept in its native fields of philosophy and history. It continues by discussing the use of the term in the context of architectural historiography. The thesis asks the questions of whether historicism can be applied in the research of architecture, and, if so, what its meaning is in the context of architectural history. Attempting to understand the essence of traditionalist design methodology, the thesis seeks to find the motivation behind the eclectic use of forms from the architectural past. What were the sources of influence and the main principles that these architects were following? This thesis shows that a clear distinction should be made between two topics from architectural history – (1) historicism and (2) the pre-Second World War traditionalist architecture of the twentieth century. This thesis argues that an historicist outlook marked wider creative achievements of an epoch, and that architecture of the period approximately ranging from the 1750s to the 1950s did not evade its influence. In comparison, the topic of traditionalist historicist architecture of the twentieth century is a narrower one, exclusively focused on pre-Second World War architectural production inspired by history, and developed on historicist principles. This thesis considers traditionalist architecture as but one of the many historicist modes.