Abstract:
The current accommodation provided by growers for Pacific seasonal migrant workers in rural horticulture towns across New Zealand restricts their human rights and integration into local communities. This thesis proposes a central building and temporary accommodation that travels to each town during its harvest season located in the town centres of Te Puke, Hastings, Blenheim and Alexandra. The design of this central building and accommodation is necessary to show respect for the workers who make a significant contribution to industries that are the economic backbone of these towns.
The context of this thesis is established through analysis of events that demonstrate the turbulent relationship between New Zealand and Pacific migrant workers, from the 1970s Dawn Raids to the first case of human trafficking on a kiwifruit farm in 2016. This thesis argues that understanding Pacific culture and architecture is imperative to creating a space suitable for the thousands of Pacific migrant workers who come each year.
Through anthropological and architectural theory, this thesis establishes key themes that lash together the nine different Pacific cultures that arrive with the workers when they make their journey to New Zealand. These key themes of roots, movement, the ocean and community facilitate the design of a hybrid Pacific building representing the displacement of the migrant workers.
Architecture presents an opportunity to create space for migrant communities to feel at home. This thesis recontextualises Pacific architecture across rural New Zealand towns to create space to encourage cultural exchange between the Pacific seasonal migrant workers and the rural communities where they reside.
The design references the culture and experience of every migrant worker who leaves behind their homeland to come and work in New Zealand, acknowledging they are placed in a different environment, until they return home after their visas run out.