Shifting Downtown

Abstract

Tendency: Haphazard development consumes the landscape stripping it of character and disrupting natural processes. Development of this type is prevalent in small growing rural towns featuring foreign urban designs transposed over the land which create a conflict between permanent urban infrastructure and the transient landscape. Natural processes have become ‘natural hazards’, and the landscape has become ‘green spaces’ which are completely indifferent to the original landscape character.

The Thesis looks at the possibility of settlement patterns which retrofit the natural systems into an urban framework. This forms a symbiotic relationship between movement patterns of natural processes and the urban development patterns, aiming to keep the original character of the landscape as the urban centres identity and give space for natural systems to function. The town of Paraparaumu is used as a case study.