Abstract:
As climate change causes the sea level to rise, urban development in many coastal areas will be retreated from the shoreline. But in some cases, the retreat-inflicted loss of valuable urban land can be compensated for by occupying the water surface above the same, now submerged location. In light of today’s priorities – particularly the imperative of resilience and affordability in the face of climate change - Auckland has been introduced to floating homes. Countries around the globe are already in tune with the new reality -- that is the rising sea level -- with utmost seriousness in their efforts to provide preemptive solutions. (e.g.; the floating housing communities in Netherlands). However, seaborne communities around the world still lack a unifying identity intrinsic to water-based dwellings: there is an overwhelming tendency to employ building technology originally intended for buildings on land, which are functionally and formally foreign to the erratic conditions of the ocean surface. Could this be the reason why New Zealand is yet to embark on the idea of inhabiting the water? Tendencies to resort to familiar land-based styles for floating houses are unfit to tackle the challenges in the current ‘climate change generation.’ Therefore, to address this issue, a modernist assertion, the fundamentals of Le Corbusier’s style of building on land -- constituted and elucidated by The Five Points -- ought to be revised for a new and more practical baseline for establishing a colony of floating houses; the new house must follow a different set of ‘five points’, fit for making and living on the water. The search for the new ‘five points’ is about flexibility and adaptability - goals which reflect a dynamic society in a dynamic natural environment. This calls for a combination of the modernist manifesto with the techniques of the Japanese Metabolist movement who have envisioned gigantic cities floating on water. After having theorised out this blend, a series of precedent studies and a process of model making is to determine the architectural product whose metabolism is reactive to its environment -- its people and nature. The final iteration of design, at the scale of a household, with its tetrahedral frame supporting its multifunctional interior, is juxtaposed by similar yet non-identically customised modules that proliferate over a portion of the Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour. The modular houses utilise interchangeable components and multipurpose furniture that embodies an idea of growth and decay. At its village scale, the infrastructure pontoons -- with walkways on top -- systematically radiate off in a branch-like fashion from the central plaza, which is surrounded by cafes, restaurants, and retail. Segments of the walkway unoccupied by residential units accommodate supporting facilities to allow the colony a degree of self-sufficiency. The project addresses a real and urgent problem -- climate change and sea level rise -- and then first proposes a set of robust theoretical principles by the Metabolists. These principles are then evolved and tested in series of design iterations through sketching, modelling, and computer visualisations in order to arrive at optimal solutions at both master planning (community) and architectural (dwelling) level. The presentation of the final design highlights the main objective of the project -- resilience, affordability, liveability.