An Exemplary Job

Everyone likes to admire a job well done. In this photograph, architect James Chapman-Taylor surveys his handiwork in the lounge of Wilkinson’s Castle, Pukearuhe. Perched next to him is Marjorie Tweed, for whom Chapman-Taylor later designed and built a house in Upper Hutt. Wilkinson’s Castle was completed in 1930 and is a magnificent example of the Arts and Crafts architectural style. In a notebook that documents the house’s construction, Chapman-Taylor advocates staying true to materials and the principles of traditional craftsmanship. He celebrates the way the Castle nestles into the surrounding landscape, stating “Tinted with Nature’s most widely used colouring and built of materials that Nature uses kindly, it blends in with the hill and sky and grows harmoniously out of the earth. It looks as it if had always been there and always would be there as a matter of course."