Towards the Water: Testing the Waitemata's Edge

Abstract

Auckland’s Waterfront has transitioned through a series of conditions which have defined the harbor throughout History. The transitory quality which ran in a linear progression eventually arrived at an intervention that was the corporatization of the Ports of Auckland. Today our harbor is made up of rows upon rows of heavy steel containers. The topographical and historical richness of our waterfront has had a blanket of urbanization and infrastructure poured over on top, masking away with it traditional ideas of locality, memory and cultural identity. With the permanence of the ports now replacing the intricacy of Auckland’s past, the thesis questions the current condition of the harbour and seeks the proper architectural appropriation of a continuum of the narrative that once was. With the rally earlier this year against a further extension into the Waitemata Harbour and the possibility of the Ports being reallocated to Tauranga, this thesis proposes an alternate architectural condition through the methodology of reversal and inversion; It challenges the very fabric of the ports, inspired by Mike Austin’s notion of the grounded vs floating, it dissolves and strips away the concrete blanket of commercialism. Instead, it sculpts and constructs an architectural vessel through fragmentation and collage which acts as an intermedium to reengage people with the water’s edge through a reimagining and reconciliation with the history and condition of the site.