First, Do No Harm; The Life and Death and Reinvention of Auckland's Former Infirmary

Abstract

Auckland’s Former Infirmary sits isolated behind a chain link fence in its stagnant, dilapidated state on the Greenlane Clinical Centre. Under current systems of management and within contemporary roles of healthcare, the Edwardian institutional building is seen as dead weight; rendered useless and unable to advocate for its own adaptability. Beginning life in 1907, and abandoned for the past 30 years, this once benevolent institution stands today only by virtue of Heritage New Zealand protection. In its dying breath, this thesis gives it a voice. As the narrator of this thesis, the Pneuma of the former Infirmary, (architecturally you may call me the genius loci) I offer a radical process of pragmatic reinvention to my own neglected form. This is an ongoing and adaptive process as an indefinite design. Where past attempts at normative adaptive reuse have resulted in inaction and my further decay, I offer a necessary alternative; an evolving synthesis of what I once represented, what I must now provide, and what I must adapt into. To avoid patterns that have led to my plight, I must make integral connections; to the city I am situated in, to ecosystems in which I am entrenched, and to my Tangata Whaiora (people seeking wellness). This is my speculation for my own means for survival. I find purpose anew in providing a secular sanctuary for the people of Tamaki Makaurau; a Basilica Whaiora. This design proposal makes space from my excavated husk, leaving only what heritage elements of my form are protected. An introduced steel frame strengthens the shell and my reactivation begins with the addition of a reinvention kit. This allows ephemeral activations that respond throughout the day to what is demanded of me as a communal space. Through configurations of a versatile set of room furnishings, I provide a lounge room for a whanau, a meeting space for a support network, a performance space for cultural groups, a retreat from the clinical environment to the employee, a community hub for the neighbourhood dweller, or a shelter for the passerby. Here, my own search for survival allows me to become invaluable to the success of the ADHB in ‘promoting, providing and improving’ health for people and communities.1 I situate this interior reinvention holistically within my context and resculpt my environs as an ambulatory precinct. Rongoa Gardens, native planting, and walkways connect me and situate my place in an ecosystem of healthcare facilities, transport routes, recreation spaces, and civic amenities. Where my current development has only allowed me to divide and isolate, I reimagine my vicinity as a bridge-making space. Ensuring the viability of my envisioned future, I propose collaboration as a means of ownership, as I become my own charitable trust, and ensure my ongoing adaptability and navigate unexplored avenues of economic management. My reinvention ruptures the improvident pattern of life and death of Greenlane’s eclectic clinical spaces through changing my trajectory towards a person-first approach, I offer a chance to heal the fractured and compartmentalised ground condition of the Greenlane Clinical Centre. In turn, I change my form into a space for the Tangata Whaiora of Auckland, and my survival is found in creating wide reaching connections between my existence and the people I exist to serve.