Abstract:
This thesis investigates the potential for unexpected delights within architectural juxtapositions. The city contains varying and contrasting urban fields that exhibit complex levels of interaction, chance and delight that are proffered by the unexpected. The tension between opposing forces in the city realm such as public and private, raw and refined, rough and smooth, old and new, ugly and beautiful can help create phenomenal architectural experiences. The overlapping of urban activities through moments of contrast contributes to a level of disjunction within a space. This challenges the urban occupant's perception of conventional architectural constructs and demands a deeper engagement with the surrounding space. Unexpected delights have the ability to awaken the urban occupant out of complacency, not permitting them to be lulled into a one-dimensional response. This changes the emotional and physical interaction between individuals and their surroundings. The reward for having an encounter with an unexpected delight is that one is precipitated into a natural and more spontaneous response. The city provides the platform to which this theory is applied. The chosen site is a derelict car park in the middle of Auckland's Central Business District. The standard mixed-use, office block is treated as its own extraordinary urban field. The site interacts with the urban occupants as the spaces encroach on their visual and physical field. The unexpected delight of the contrasting building to its surroundings and the spaces within it, fosters a new experience of the city and of one's self in the urban condition.
