A Place to Play

Abstract

Sport and physical recreation is seldom seen in New Zealand’s cities. Apart from major commercialised sporting spectacles, in large and highly controlled stadia, there are few opportunities for urban residents to observe sports. The limited opportunities for participation are pushed further away from the city centres as land becomes highly sought after and more difficult to obtain. The current architectural typology of sporting facilities in New Zealand lacks creativity, and manifests as shed like structures that strive to barely meet the basic needs of their isolated programmes.

With a desire to challenge the linear evolution of sporting architecture, this thesis will work within the paradigm of Digital Design. The theoretical principles of Gilles Deleuze are used to inform a design process which aims to create an architecture that integrates with its physical and social environments. It demonstrates how embedding algorithms at every stage of the design process, allows instant feedback on ideas and establishes a mechanism for thoroughly testing ranges of input parameters. This thesis asks, how can architectural design, through the use of Digital Design methodology, deliver society a social space that encourages creative participation in sport?

It proposes an emergent architecture, sited within the heart of Wellington City, which will provide all members of the urban society with ‘A Place to Play’. A deliberate departure from the highly regulated and controlled spaces, this thesis provides cross programmed, non-designated spaces that can be spontaneously inhabited.

The unexpected and unpredicted outcomes of the design methodology allow the architecture to emerge from the process of design and faithfully respond to the selected inputs. The complexity of the design continues to increase with each phase of the design built upon the preceding work, and thus if any modifications are made to early inputs, the design will respond and morph into a new form.