History - Congress in the ruinsBy: Kerry Allen
Fifty years ago, from May 18 to 23, 1971, the Australasian Architecture Students Association Congress took over the Wilson Cement Works ruins in Warkworth. Over 300 participants, including musicians, came north after two days of proceedings in Auckland.
The Wilson Cement Works ruins proved a muddy venue for a conference. Photo, Tudor Collins.
They brought materials to build temporary shelters and communal structures. Architect Graeme North, Warkworth resident for 28 years, attended the congress as a second-year student. It was his introduction to the town. I talked to Graeme about the congress …
“There was a lot of buzz about it. People were making prefab stuff for structures and things they could take to install there. There was talk about the speakers who were coming out. [Architect] Sim van der Ryn was from California and right in the thick of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations going on. There had been riots and the cops