Airports exist all over the world. More than 40,000 of them in all manner of places. Some are huge and others are small. Together they cater for approximately 100,000 aircraft flights every day.
The busiest airport in the world is Atlanta International, except for just one week in July each year when that statistic belongs to Oshkosh Airport in Wisconsin. The annual EAA Oshkosh Airshow is a magnet for more than 10,000 aircraft.
In the world of airports, whether big or small, it is hardly an every day occurrence for the airport’s principal passenger terminal to close with the departure of a flight, then reopen in a new building located next door for the arrival of the next flight. This phenomena recently occurred on Taupo Airport…home base for the Bazflyers.
Change, of course, is a constantly occurring theme but transiting is often said to be the art of change. It is the important element making a successful connection from the old to the new and in this regard it can be fairly stated that moving from the old Taupō Airport Terminal to the new one was an “artful transition”.
Taupō Airport might not be a record setter in any sense of the meaning, its definitely not a big airport, but its new airport terminal is certainly an individual statement in art. Not only is the building an architectural design reflecting Taupo’s volcanic environment, but a huge unique sculpture by famous New Zealand potter, Barry Brickell, adorns an interior wall. Saved from the scrap yard by a local businessman, Brickell’s A Study in Volcanology is one of 11 large pottery works he produced in his lifetime.
“A Study in Volcanology” terracotta mural by Barry Brickell
Commissioned by the Taupō Post Office in 1985, the imposing Brickell work stands 3.6 metres tall. It was split into two panels that sat either side of the building’s entrance. Subsequently, when the Post Office closed the panels were removed and reinstalled in a carpark where they languished until in 2014 the owner of the carpark advised it was going to be demolished.
Local businessman, Chris Johnston, has a deep interest in the arts and was aware of the significance of the Brickell artwork. It features 54 handcrafted terracotta tiles which collectively create a depiction of Lake Taupō, its surrounds and what lies beneath. It was based on Brickell’s own theory of volcanology.
Johnston arranged for the developer to let him know when demolition was planned so the artwork could be saved. Then, about a year later, Johnston got a call to say bulldozers were on the site and work was about to get underway. As it turned out the site owner had instructed the demolition contractor to take Brickell’s artwork to the landfill along with other waste from the demolition site.
Negotiation ensued. Johnston paid $4000 removal costs to become the owner of a work of art potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, the tiles that made up the artwork stored in one of the businessman’s buildings, were stuck fast to large concrete panels and needed significant work to remove and repair.
Brickell died in 2016 at the age of 80. A few years later, Johnston arranged for conservation experts to remove the 54 terracotta tiles from the heavy concrete slabs they had been glued to. It was a complicated project, with a number of the tiles breaking and needing to be repaired.
The completed restoration now occupies a prominent place in the new Taupō Airport Terminal, where it can be viewed as one piece like it was always meant to be.
Final flight from the old Terminal
First flight at the new Terminal
Artful transition from the old Terminal to operations at Te Taunga Waka Rererangi o Taupō
