A heightened experience: swimming in Takapuna

Abstract

This thesis investigates a number of elements that are associated with the natural resource that is water in the world today. Water is one of the most essential ingredients on earth. It occupies our planet in the form of rainfall, oceans, rivers, ice, the atmosphere and our human existence literally relies on the presence of water. “Water has been an object of the deepest concern to man as long as he has existed.”1 Our relationship with water begins even before we enter the world and once we are born, we experience water and its myriad of qualities on a daily basis. Water in architecture has also long been evidently significant. Aside from many building materials containing water content, the design of architectural spaces for human habitation is commonly explored on the basis of our experiences with water. Generally when considering water and architecture together, we can either choose to collect and display water or direct it off surfaces and into drains.