Auckland Renters Club

Abstract

Currently more than half of the world’s estimated 7.3 billion people live in cities and this percentage is projected to increase to 66 percent by 20301. How these people will be housed sustainably, economically and socially is a defining architectural issue. The effect of this situation can be already witnessed in the housing shortages being experienced currently by the majority of developed urban centres. New Zealand , itself, is in the midst of a housing ‘crisis’ within the major urban centres, and in what is most commonly perceived as an undersupply of built fabric, its cities continue their outward sprawl. But how effectively is the current building stock being utilised? New Zealand’s main centres are characterised by the duality of suburban living and urban places of work. Workers commute to places of work for their working hours, during which suburban homes lie empty. The reverse being true outside of working hours. Recognising this, the hypothesis of this thesis is that there are opportunities to improve the utilsation of the existing building stock across the period of a day. Shifts in demographics and contemporary modes of occupation are also mined for the opportunities they present in the reinterpretation of the use of an existing building. Based on this hypothesis, the critical question is asked; What if instead of continuing to increase the supply of status quo building typologies, perpetuating the outward sprawl of cities, the utilisation of the existing building stock and its ability to attend to shifts in the demographic makeup of society and contemporary modes of occupation was considered? The critical question informs the following design research thesis. The academic question is pursued through a project vehicle in the form of an adaptive reuse of an existing office building. Located in a business park in inner city Auckland. It is characteristic of the issues to which this thesis seeks to attend. Through this adaption the building is programmed to be of mixed use across time.