About Architecture Against Architecture

Abstract

The Kāpiti Coast is a retreat from the city, and it presents an opportunity to be a nursery of creative culture liberated from the political and economic pressures of a bigger economy. Creative, young, ambitious people of Kāpiti Coast tend to leave for bigger economies. However, similar people often leave cities too. Rather than associating creativity with the bigger economy of Wellington City, this thesis considers creativity from where many of these people come from – its hinterlands and margins. This thesis proposes a creativity school, providing an example of the type of facility that might give creative, young, ambitious people a reason to stay in the Kāpiti Coast.

In March 2015, Our Lady of Kāpiti Parish announced that they are moving from their existing site on the margins of Paraparaumu to a new site, adjacent to the Kāpiti Expressway (under-construction). The existing site includes Paraparaumu Parish and St. Patrick’s Primary School, and occupies the same street block as Paraparaumu Primary School and Paraparaumu Playcentre. Like much of the Kāpiti Coast, this existing fabric is dull and uninspiring; far from the diversity and vibrancy of Wellington’s creative precinct, Cuba Street.

This thesis aims to investigate architectural forms of expression, as alternatives to the urban sprawl and uninspiring existing fabric of Kāpiti Coast. These alternatives are explored through design-led research, presenting two answers (the initial design experiments and the design) to two issues (Context and Form):

-The initial design experiments present a series of modest interventions that are comparable to the kind of approach a graffiti artist might take to the existing fabric.

-The subsequent experiments (and the design) present a controlled and formally resolved building on the adjacent hillside.

By critically reflecting on both, the two series of design experiments form part of a broader disciplinary discussion on the implications of being about architecture and being against architecture.