Abstract:
This design research examines current and historic practices of water infrastructure. It critically assesses the way that urban populations have become increasingly distanced from the consequences of the water we use – from the way that water is extracted at mass scale to meet the demands of nearby (or not so nearby) urban settlements, to the disassociation between human waste and its effects on the environment. Questioning the relationship between water infrastructure and the public, and examining recent examples where design is used as a tool to cultivate awareness of water infrastructure, this research aims to address this disassociation by asking: How can water infrastructure be re-imagined to serve as public amenities? In doing so, this research contributes to a theory of human resilience, where increased public awareness and appreciation of water resources aids in establishing an overall respect for its conservation. Underlying this, sits the critical questioning of the role of architecture in shaping our infrastructure. How can architects play a role in creating a new paradigm for infrastructure design? After assessing existing and historic practices of water infrastructure, this research seeks a new typology of built work, INFRATECTURE, where architectural design is used to reimagine the hard, mass-engineered systems of infrastructure into public play spaces and adaptive support networks for people and the environment. The thesis speculates on the transformation of what is arguably the most ostracised part of a city’s water system – the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Taking the site of the existing Mangere WWTP and adjacent Puketutu Island in Auckland as an experimental ground, the WWTP process is re-conceived as a series of interventions across the landscape. They become tools for reconciling the public with this previously off-limits site. Treatment processes are coupled with programs of recreation, ecological protection, research, education and production to form interactive elements that respond to differing site conditions. Mechanism and man come together to negotiate space and present an emerging paradigm of water infrastructure with a transparent approach to waste.