Hundertwasser Art Centre Model to Tour Far North

A model of a $12.2 million Hundertwasser Art Centre proposed for Whangarei will be displayed at Far North District Council service centres for the rest of the year.

The Hundertwasser Trust and Whangarei District Council are giving Far North people the chance to view the model before a public consultation exercise next March.

The 1:50 scale model will be at the council’s Kawakawa Service Centre (next to the Hundertwasser Toilets) until September 22 and on display at the Procter Library in Kerikeri for a month from September 26.

It will be displayed at a yet-to-be-decided venue in Paihia in November and at the council’s Kaikohe service centre in December.

The model will finish its tour of the north in Kaitaia where it is hoped it can be displayed at the new Te Ahu Centre in January.

The model shows modifications Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed for the Northland Regional Council building at the town basin before his death in 2000.

The project did not proceed in 1993, because the regional council would not sell the building to the Whangarei District Council.

However, the district council bought the building in 2004 and resurrected Hundertwasser’s vision in 2007.

The Hundertwasser Foundation in Vienna supports the project and commissioned Viennese architect Heinz Springmann to build the model.

The centre will be the last authentic Hundertwasser building to be built in the world.

It is expected to attract up to 220,000 visitors a year, many of whom will venture north to Kawakawa to see the public toilets Hundertwasser designed while living in the Bay of Islands.

Features of the 1,638 square-metre building include:

• an onion dome-topped tower with a viewing platform
• a roof-top park with trees
• galleries displaying art work by Hundertwasser, including items on loan from the Hundertwasser Foundation
• a restaurant, shops, Maori art gallery and education area