Whimsical city

Abstract

The homogenised nature of inner city buildings and living do little to stimulate imagination. Instead they show the impoverished nature of the contemporary city. Current inner city housing holds negative perceptions; characterless and monotonous.

My proposal of injecting the city with architectural whimsy puts the focus on individuality. This research operates on a small scale to allow imagination to begin and not be overwhelmed. It is seen as a starting point to which future research can expand on if desired.

The aim of the research is to make observations of the city and look at how design might feed imagination back into the grid through a ‘whimsical’ design strategy.

The objective is to take away the conventions of design and operate on a whim. This will allow imagination to flourish and not be confined by specific rules. Always operating with a site and brief in mind, the designs are then left somewhere between fiction and fantasy.

Responsive to its specific site, Wellington City , the underlying argument is that the outcome could be applied to any city – New Zealand and the world.