An Inverted Odyssey: AMP Society Building

Abstract

The title 'An Inverted Odyssey' represents a life journey through this space. The Amp Society Building consists of three major and quite diverse programmes: - The courtrooms of 'The Ministry of Justice Tribunals Unit' - The offices of 'The Department of Building and Housing New Zealand' - The large communal lobby gathering area that forms a transition from the street to the inner environment It was important that these three programmes reside integrally together while portraying their own unique symbolic characteristics, their own individual ceremonies and rites of passage in life's odyssey, which we all simultaneously strive to achieve: - One (offices; pyramid) represents the daily working community, - The second (courtrooms; sphere) represents moral choices and ethics, addressing also self-awareness and personal judgment, and - The third (lobby; inverted pyramid) represents our connection to the greater community and the city. Ultimately the new intervention gives these three programs a common centre, based around different yet integrated symbolic geometries 'the sphere,' 'the pyramid,' and 'the inverted pyramid'. The pyramid floors of the office levels aboue are echoed by an inverted pyramid of space at the lobby levels. We leave the urban street and enter the inverted pyramid of shared communal space before transcending up through the building. The office symbolises the day to day life of the working community, while the courtroom symbolises ethics, spiriuality, morals and judgement. 'The Odyssey' is created by the unity of these programmes, essentially representing different sides of life.