Pulse - Recovering the Lost Heartbeat of the Wellington Landscape

Abstract

With the expansive urbanisation of New Zealand’s once- natural landscape, the flowing streams - the pulse of the land’s heartbeat - lie dormant, out of mind, out of sight. These flowing waterways were once the backbone of settlement growth, but with increases in infrastructural technology, these waterways became culverted, entombed underground so that the city had free reign to expand. These forgotten streams are now carriers of pollution, unable to breathe beneath the confinements of the city. The question arises as to what the potential may be with these forgotten streams if returned to the surface of the city, can these streams offer an alternative blueprint to help address the extreme climatic events that are increasing in regularity and breaching the fixed capacity of our contemporary hydrological infrastructure?

The proposed 1.3 kilometre long site for this design research investigation is the buried traces of the Kumutoto Stream, the once-instrumental life-source that flowed through the heart of Wellington’s early settlement before being the inaugural stream to be culverted beneath the burgeoning urban environment. The site transverses beneath a multitude of urban and spatial identities, now devoid of any ability to reflect the heritage stories it once helped define.

This thesis argues that, within the context of the urban environment of Wellington City, the re-surfacing of the Kumutoto Stream can enhance the social, ecological and climatic qualities of the city, whilst offering an important link to the forgotten heritage of the early settlement.