Architecture and Jewellery: Bohemian West Auckland in the 1950s

Abstract

This design thesis looks at connections between jewellery and architectural practices during the modernist movement in bohemian West Auckland in the 1950s. It culminates with the design of an artist-in-residence building on a steep slope in the Titirangi bush, a site surrounded by a rich modernist architectural heritage that was used to connect the disciplines of jewellery and architecture. The metaphor of the body as landscape and the brooch as dwelling underpins the thesis. Various aspects of jewellery and architecture disciplines were explored showing that both practices have links through the use of similar words and language. Both disciplines underwent a history of incorporating similar aesthetic aspects. The community in Titirangi in the 1950s included émigrés with modernist ideals that influenced the connection of these practices, both involving the human form and scale. This thesis finds that there were similar typographical relationships that relate to human skin and the landscape and similarities between tectonics, materials and design processes. Making-jewellery-as-research for the architectural design is discussed in two parts; the first informs the final design and the second focuses on making jewellery to convey architectural information about the building. This thesis finds that the disciplines of jewellery and architecture incorporate similar histories, theories and aesthetics during the modernist movement and that relationships with the human body are of profound importance in both.