Sea of Opportunity: A new vision for a floating COHOUSING community in the Auckland Waitemata Harbour

Abstract

This thesis asks how the design principles of community cohousing can be applied to floating architecture to provide a new, meaningful, and durable form of living on water that is unique to Waitemata Harbour. The research unfolds with a review of the environmental and societal concerns that this thesis is attempting to tackle, and establishes how both floating and cohousing architecture can address these concerns. The research then expands in to a discussion of theories relating to this project, informed by context theory, the writings of Richard Toy, the marine schemes of the Metabolists, and Maki’s group theory. Cohousing and water-dwelling community design and organization principles are then analyzed, with an assessment of the balance of space between private and common areas, followed by an analysis of the precedents of both cohousing and contemporary water-dwelling communities. Diagramming and mapping were used as tools of exploration. Analysis and sensitivity to the site informed the conceptual design process. Sketching, physical modelling, and use of the computer modelling programmes, to produce many iterations, became the tools of exploration for the conceptual development of the design.These theoretical and conceptual findings conclude with a design proposition towards a new water-based architecture of sharing, social interaction, and openness – a demonstration of community living - and one which is unique to Waitemata Harbour. Drawing on the writings of Toy and context theory, the design of this new Auckland Waitemata Harbour water-based dwelling cohousing community, and its interconnected jetty landscape, has been based on a sympathetic response to the context of Waitemata Harbour. This thesis attempts to integrate the site with Waitemata Harbour by responding to the surrounding volcanic landscape. Drawing on Maki’s group theory, the scheme is made of components which can be relocated and are adaptable to change and growth. The design encourages its residents to walk through a pedestrian jetty, through an assortment of linked dwellings and social spaces, all anchored by a central common house. The carefully organized jetty offers a variety of promenades throughout the site and access to both large and more intimately scaled spaces. These spaces allow social interaction and strong integration with the water and outdoor while the communal common house is the social hub and heart of the community. It is a horizontal, non-hierarchical village of linked spaces where people can meet, share activities, and be closer to nature. This proposal is a place which invites and draws together both visitors and the water dwelling community to meet with water and architecture.