Abstract:
Cities constantly change because people change. Areas change and subsequent social realities change. In central Auckland, areas once on the fringes have now become attractive places to live. As developments begin with good intentions to improve qualities of living, interest from private investors actually influences the growth of another demographic; whose more private lifestyles, I predict, will take away from the existing social ecologies of a culturally diverse but underprivileged community. In previous situations, people without power or wealth are forced behind the scenes upon a micro-exodus further into the fringes of the expanding city. This thesis hypothesises that a similar backstage migration of residents will occur in the Akarana neighbourhood block of Mount Roskill as the area undergoes gentrification. Therefore this thesis will initiate a process to investigate why it is important to keep the existing community invested in the area long term. The guiding principles will be to empower and to craft value from inside the community in order to form an inviting resilience allowing potential change to happen without forgetting about people. The second aim is to tailor the conventions of design and material construction towards a locally driven social movement. Through different forms of community engagement, a process was established to raise social awareness of cultural diversity and cultural affluence amongst the people in this neighbourhood. This took shape in the form of design-build workshops in the front yard of Peter’s house (my friend and neighbour). Much of Auckland’s urban development is based upon market-driven thinking with the premise of separating properties, private land ownership and the promotion of individualism. Land is developed separately inside an efficiency-prioritised urban framework and this paradigm establishes systems that are socially detrimental. Albert Einstein said that ‘you cannot solve a problem by the same thinking that created it.’ The axiom here regards people (those living on the margins) as teachers and the principal – the most complex ingredient to any kind of development. The third thesis aim comes from the need for employment in the Akarana neighbourhood block of Mount Roskill. There are stratified layers of underutilised human capital from an array of cultures and age groups. The people here do not own material wealth or land, but they own creative concepts of cultures that can enrich our own. Talents of qualified migrants and skills of locals without formal qualifications are underutilised at a community level and unemployment for local young adults is an issue. Here ‘public engagement’ becomes the design rather than completing a typical building. Instead of becoming the master planner of a design scheme, the methodology here was the instigation of an open ended idea; the Trollies. After initiating a simple workshop, I stepped back and began facilitating its process, slowly giving ownership to the community so they might make it their own. Building resistance to gentrification is a collective effort and I contributed but one voice amongst many. Mount Roskill is characterised by a convergence of Somali refugees and Islamic, Indian and Chinese families, Sudanese migrants, as well as large pockets of Pacific peoples, from transitory dwellers to deeply rooted inhabitants. Only a very few own their land and houses. Housing New Zealand’s 1950 workers’ state housing defines the predominant typology of the neighbourhood, articulating an unintentional homogeneity of open, transparent or low fenced boundaries between properties and roads. Over a number of years, openness of private spaces has encouraged an organic growth of social interactions between people of the same culture or young people of similar age groups; made distinct by a range of activities including the sharing of garden vegetables between immediate neighbours to youth recreational activities over front yards and roads.