Post Civic: revisiting the Auckland Railway station

Abstract

Post civic investigates the nature of civic in relation to its affiliations to the past modernist idealisms and then to alternatively propose a civic based from the more recent postmodernist idealism in order to effectively intervene upon an old civic site: The Auckland Railway Station. It recognizes that the way society thinks and behaves has changed and is still changing in light of the aftermath of postmodernist thinking, as a result the past notion of civic based from modernist idealisms must be reformed in order to suite the current citizens. The old Auckland Railway station which was once a successful civic site, but now cheap apartment complex, is a portrayal of the past civic architecture attributes not being able to relate within the contemporary city. The initial research into the logic of postmodernism informed the methodology to intentionally seek the attribute of the ideology such as: subjectivity, no absolutes and multiplicity. This was necessary because civic architecture is a reflection of the citizens, as a result the process should inevitably reflect these ideals as well. Using three methodology themes: Nostalgia, Ignorance and Eclecticism; the thesis explores the idea of multiplicity through the exploration of the three responses to a damaged site proposed by Lebbeus Woods in ‘War and Architecture’. Nostalgia addresses the site’s history by the creation of models in reference to traces of the events, which attributes to the act of restoration. Ignorance was the exploration through drawing of the ideas of anti-site and subjectivity in reference to the act of demolition and beginning anew. Lastly Eclecticism in regards to the act of alteration (or as Woods would describe as injection), involved the fragmentation and arrangement of the previous two modes in a new assemblages. The resulting proposal is a series of architectural interventions situated from the existing station to the outskirts of Judges Bay. In order to accommodate for the postmodern citizen the thesis proposes that the civic architecture be open frameworks, devoid of function and identity which is a reflection of such a citizen. That instead of the singular modernist proposal that ultimately was abandoned, that contemporary civic architecture should be scattered and multiple in order for the vast fragmented micro communities within the city can occupy and inhabit.