Eco-revelatory Design: Developing an ecological narrative within the New Zealand urban landscape

Abstract

Eco-revelatory Design: Developing an ecological narrative within the New Zealand urban landscape explores to what extent a landscape architectural intervention, based on the theoretical parameters of eco-revelatory design, can develop new methods of engaging the public with ecological processes within the New Zealand urban context. The demand for an intervention which challenges the current disassociation between indigenous ecological landscapes and the New Zealand public was identified as a key imperative by author Geoff Park within the text Theatre Country: Essays on landscape and whenua. Challenging societal perception and engagement with indigenous ecology is an important exploration for landscape architecture within the New Zealand context. It presents opportunity for historically colonial boundaries to be dissolved.

In order to build upon existing methods within landscape architectural design this thesis seeks to engage and further develop theory from within the field. Eco-revelatory design is engaged as a theoretical focus within this thesis. Eco-revelatory design offers methods of reframing the culture-nature relationship in the New Zealand context, providing insight into methods of challenging the currently suggested dualism. The design case study seeks to develop a model for eco-revelatory design responsive to the New Zealand context.