The Plausible Rogue

A new book on John Scottby David Straight celebrates the life and work of one of New Zealand’s most important architects – this extract focuses on the 1970s, in which he built three key houses.

- Douglas Lloyd Jenkins

The 1970s were an important decade for John Scott, a time when he produced many of the mid-career works on which his architectural reputation now rests. He began the decade with a recognised masterpiece in the form of the Martin House (1969-70). The Rogers House (1975), a modest house built by its owner, came in the middle of the decade, and the Arrowsmith House (1978-80), brought the decade to a close.

Each of these houses, and the experience of building them, was very different, reflecting the cultural and economic changes that occurred along the way. This was also the period in which Scott put down his thoughts in his only major interview – ‘Of Woolsheds, Houses and People’ – published in the periodical Islands in 1973.

Together this interview and these three houses – all until recently still occupied by the owners who commissioned them – give us insight into the way Scott worked with clients to achieve some of his most interesting houses, while also revealing the origins of, and the reality behind, some of the myths that now surround him.

Bruce and Estelle Martin chose Scott for the design of a new home on a section of subdivided farmland at Bridge PÄ, outside Hastings. In 1965 the Martins had been among the first wave of New Zealand potters to go professional, both leaving hospital jobs in order to pot full-time. The new site was needed to accommodate the new scale of operation, and they commissioned both a house and workshops.