Above us only CGI

Architect David Gibbs, who led a team which redesigned buildings at both ends of the motorway tunnels for the Transport Agency in response to concerns raised in public submissions, says in a brief of evidence prepared for a board of inquiry hearing in February that he recognises "the potential of the stack to be a dominating visual element in its context.

The solution in my opinion is for the stack to be designed as [a] large-scale urban sculpture."

He describes the proposed structure as "an assemblage of self-rusted thick steel plates that are both tapered and curved - in some ways reminiscent of spear-like leaves".

As for the tunnel building, which will be 6.5m high and more than 60m long, he said each of its four parts would be adorned with symbols "reminiscent of sea organisms and objects that might be found in the inter-tidal zone"

No, no, no, Mr Gibbs. Do you not realise that we are no longer in New New Zealand but in Peterland, where everything is reminiscent of something in the Lord of the Rings franchise? We have no style; above us only CGI: if a building is big, it reminds somebody of a Tolkein tower; if it is small, somebody will think of a hobbit house. No further discussion is permissible. All aesthetic considerations shall be reduced to analogies of elements in a children's story. You must not try to make something look indigenous or natural, still less modern and unique, because everything now reminds somebody of something made in the Weta Workshop.

So try to avoid thinking for yourself. It only leads to trouble.