DNA NZ: a study in contemporary New Zealand landscape identity

Abstract

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa acknowledges the importance of landscape in constructing New Zealand identity. This thesis initially discusses existing landscape narratives as portrayed in The Museum, then explores new possibilities for a new urban landscape alongside the Museum. Cultural influences on the landscape are the primary design generators for this new landscape. This new landscape practically and metaphorically acts as a forest, a field, a fabric and a foundation. Te Papa's current portrayal of New Zealand's landscape in the Bush City exhibit contributes to a myth that relies heavily on representing the idea of a pure undisturbed nature. The stories of other controversial landscape relationships have been left untold. This thesis explores how our "imaginings" of the New Zealand landscape might be reinterpreted reflecting on how the skin of our land has been modified and reinvented by the practices of cutting, burning and colonising the land and in turn considers how these narratives can be displayed in a contemporary landscape context. The design centres on a landscape intervention that expresses this "re-invented" New Zealand identity, an identity that reaches beyond beautiful and diverse natural landscapes. It expresses a culture that is prepared to be innovative, to reflect on and to build on its past. This process explores and extends a new language and a new domain of landscape architectural form. Boundaries between art, architecture and landscape architecture blur and merge to challenge conventional disciplinary roles. The intervention challenges existing attitudes towards the landscape. It engages the senses, prompts thought, stirs feeling and invites people to create their own narratives and mull over possible meanings. Programmes, form and materiality trigger associations and relationships between the participant and the landscape. The design expression invigorates tension between mechanistic and natural landscape aesthetics. The design looks strongly towards a New Zealand identity in the face of globalisation while also unmasking human intervention in the New Zealand landscape. It is interactive and uses today's technology where appropriate. The land between Waitangi Park and Te Papa, a site currently described as a "transition zone" acts as a vehicle to investigate new landscape possibilities. Expressing relationships between environment and culture, in the domain of our National Museum through landscape architecture, leads to a greater consideration of national identity that will enhance the exposure of landscape architecture in New Zealand.