A physical wall, a fence or boundary is a symbolic, as
well as physical, entity. Boundaries and enclosures are first and foremost
to do with containment and preparation of ground for fertility (perhaps
also growth, development, fulfilment and death). Foundational myths and
territorial rites associated with the establishment of boundaries testify
to the metaphysical significance of the ritual as an external act that
echoes within, and makes possible the interior landscape. In the foundational
myth of Rome, walls are holy but the gates that break them are not. A wall
is an archetypal form of relation between interior and exterior, a symbolic
marker in an ordered cosmology. The building of a wall is an act of will
directed toward the establishment of a known territory against the unknown.
As a physical manifestation it can only persist as agreement between discrete
beings, and as such, and because all is in flux, it is not neutral, nor permanent.
It is often contentious, volatile, even politically unstable. It requires
constant upkeep and protection, and if it is not kept it will eventually
fall, and with it—the self-identification.
The Albert Barracks perimeter wall, built in 1846-52 as part of the British
military installation overlooking colonial Auckland (NZ), was erected for
the protection of European settlers from attacks by Maori who were resistant
to colonisation. The peculiarity of this story is that it was built by Maori
labourers who took payment for its construction and for the extraction of
its basalt and scoria stone from Maungawhau (Mt Eden), an ancestral Maori pa
(settlement) of spiritual and historic significance for tangata whenua
(people of the land). As the colony solidified threats subsided, and so
did the need for the defensive structure. In 1870, 24 years after it was
begun, the decision was made to tear it down to make way for new development.
Nevertheless, a tract was left standing as an early gesture of remembrance
dedicated to New Zealand´s colonial history. Like many fortifications of
its kind, the remains of this wall have long been absorbed by the city
around it. Today, it stands within the grounds of the University of Auckland,
at the heart of its civic campus. Already by the 1970s, its massive aspect—85
meters long and 3.5 meters tall and almost a meter deep, became an encumbrance.
Old Barracks Wall, the University of Auckland
1963 project for the University of Auckland General Library by Beatson, Rix-Trott, Carter & Co, showing a "sculture court" at the entrance to the Library; never built.
