Notes on A Hillside Intervention

These ‘letter-crumbs’ form part of wayfinding (or losing) signage at Athfield Architects in Wellington, New Zealand. They are a quietly whimsical response to a magnificent site made prominent over 40 years by the visionary actions of eminent architect Ian Athfield, channelled through an eccentric cascade of buildings, perched high above the city and harbour, aimed directly at the Antarctic.

A post and floating sphere staked into the hillside mimics the letter ‘i’ in Verlag Extra Light; a brass ‘c’ is strung on a chain about the bough of a Ngaio tree; in torchlight a fallen 'a' projects itself as ‘g’; a light weight ‘h’ leans against the inside of a dusty glass window to the archives; a bold weight ‘l’ is a hole in the architecture mirroring the sky, until a figure approaches and fills the space.

Cut out of corten steel, brass, rubber, acrylic, zinc, aluminium, the materiality of these letters is a response to their weight and shape, and how and where they might be found.

More conventionally in the wayfinding system is the field of letters, floating off the wall at each of the three entry points, accompanied by a directional arrow or two to steer visitors away from private spaces into communal places.

Catherine Griffiths, June 2011