Abstract:
In the initial stages of design, buildings are envisioned in the painting as the 'Architect's dream'; a dream, an illusion that in order for them to remain beautiful they must not change. This dream however is not a reality. As generations grow and change, so will the use and aesthetic of a building; each stage of its life becoming no more than a mere fragment of history. In an age where urban designers have to make sustainable shifts in thinking, the reuse and renewal of existing buildings is more important than ever before. Urban sprawl is affecting cities worldwide and too easily do developers create new city centres from scratch, leaving gaping holes in key central areas, a form of inner city decay. The subject of decay affects areas of all scales worldwide, and has existed since the very first buildings were constructed. In a postmodern age, where the constant development of thought reacts to the ever-changing contemporary situation, it is too easy for developers to neglect the existing and lose the sense of identity of that area. However, it is the existing sites that hold the key to regeneration and reuse of spaces. They provide recycled meanings, a partial and incomplete metamorphosis that will always bear traces of earlier city spaces. The Auckland Railway Station is an example of a building that has experienced such decay. Located in an area that has been developed largely in the last ten years, a change in use has left the area fragmented and the Station ignored, isolated from its surrounding buildings. This thesis explores how such a prominent public building lost so much prestige, and defines the approach that must be taken in order to regenerate it back to the public figure it once was.