Traces: Architecture & Artefacts Lost & Found in the Canterbury Earthquakes

Abstract

This thesis explores how spatial atmospheres create the emotional connections we have with artefacts and architecture - specifically in the context of public display. Peter Zumthor’s Atmospheres is principally relied on to answer the challenge: can and should architecture be designed from the outset to create emotional connections between artefacts, spaces, and those who inhabit the spaces? Humans are not emotionless, we move through spaces with bias. We have emotional connections that often coincide with vivid memories and sensory experiences, which we link to a sense of place. Usually those connections are harboured in our homes and private spaces. This thesis seeks to uplift the same atmospheric principles that encourage us to have emotional connections at home, and supplant them in our public buildings. The design project is a re-imagining of the traditional museum programme, in which artefacts are kept at arm’s length from the public and never removed from protective glass cases. The thesis responds to this by designing a series of five rotundas that are thematically coherent and linked by their form, so that together they are a museum, but individually they are distinctive from one another, to accommodate the different types of artefacts they display. The artefacts are categorised by: architectural ruins, timber, glass, metals, and ceramics. With reference to Peter Zumthor’s Atmospheres, the Museum must apply the key principles of: narrative, atmospheres, and weathering, to achieve a design that, in practical terms, provides an answer to the research question: how can spatial atmosphere enhance an emotional connection with architecture and artefacts?