Midworlder's Fotothing

Napier - Architecture - Art Deco

Napier city was severally damaged by a 7.8 on the Richter Scale. earthquake in 1931, apart from the huge damage caused by the earthquake a subsequent fire started as a result ran through the business district.

Large parts of the city and nearby cities and towns needed to be rebuilt Art Deco was chosen as the main style for the reasons below.

* Art Deco was fashionable. With its past destroyed, Napier looked ahead and chose a style associated with Manhattan, the movies and modernism.
* Art Deco was safe. With its emphasis on low relief surface decoration, Art Deco forsook the elaborate applied ornament that had fallen from the buildings in the Earthquake and caused so many deaths and injuries.
* Art Deco was cheap. Its relief stucco ornament was an economical way to beautify buildings during the lowpoint of the Great Depression.

http://www.artdeconapier.com/default.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_earthquake

Unfortunately my attempts to capture the beauty of the cities architecture were hampered by the low cloud on the only hour I had available and that lack of time which meant a rushed shoot.

A lot of buildings have 1933 on them, signifying the year that a lot of the rebuilding was completed