Hidden In Plain Sight: Revealing A Modernist Project

Abstract

“Transforming an existing property…represents the only opportunity to go much further in the design of new ways of living” – Anne Lacaton, Lacaton Vassal (Ayers).

The population of high-rise, Modernist slab-block housing has reached a critical life stage – presenting the choice of refurbishment or demolition. Many of New Zealand’s high-density housing models sit abandoned and derelict. Currently there exists a huge demand for high-density, quality, inner-city housing and New Zealand’s ageing stock of Modernist high-rises presents an opportunity for meeting this pressing contemporary demand for housing.

This research explores the potential of these Modernist housing projects to be repaired, improved and reformed to meet today’s demand and aspiration for higher density residential development.

In the mid-20th century, the international agenda of Modernism reached Wellington. The agenda promised a progressive model for housing offering higher amenity than its low-rise predecessors, which for too long had been deemed sub-standard. Modernist buildings, inspired by international models, were built. They were alien to cities consisting primarily of low-rise suburban development.

The Gordon Wilson Memorial Flats on The Terrace in central Wellington typify this era – particularly the slab-block typology. Designed in the mid-1950s by the Ministry of Works, under Government Architect F. Gordon Wilson, the block rose 11 stories and comprised 82 state flats. The flats remained in use, without radical alteration, until 2012, when they were declared structurally unsound, sub-standard, and thus too dangerous for habitation. The flats were ultimately evacuated, leaving the building’s future unclear.

The thesis devises a methodology based on the analysis of Modernist slab-block housing, in particular its key case study: the Gordon Wilson Memorial Flats.

The methodology has five major focus areas – context, circulation, common space, structure and maisonette/unit – that have been extrapolated from specifically Modernist concerns in slab-block, high-density housing.

These major focus areas each have three levels determining the extremity of design intervention necessary in the building – repair, improve and reform – and these are based on Modernist conservation principles.

The project proposes transformation of existing Modernist slab-block buildings, such as the Gordon Wilson Memorial Flats, into a contemporary housing typology – a reinvention of ground-breaking Modernist design to fill a contemporary demand.