Reconstructing the Heterogeneous Assemblage

Abstract

This thesis begins from a richness sensed in Te Aro. Investigations of this richness discovered that the structure of Te Aro and the structure of Te Aro’s blocks were highly relevant to this richness. This richness involves strong tendencies of interactions that facilitate a range of social interactivities, public behaviors and odd functionalities. However the richness constantly seemed under threat by homogenizing tendencies of development.

Examination of the past practices found the notion of ‘heterogeneity’ to be the most relevant reference point or question. Various notions such as slow space, terrain vague, etc. shared similar ideas as heterogeneity, a characteristic of Deleuze and Guattari’s conception of ‘assemblages’. Characteristics of assemblages are distributed in time and space and involve any relevant forces or relations. The notion of assemblage, heterogeneity and affects (involuntary functioning of the city involving human organisms) produced by assemblages was found to be the most adequate way to understand what was being found in field studies of Te Aro.

This investigation narrowed down on an area of Te Aro and its specific urban assemblage. The gradual identification of how this assemblage functioned and what it produced developed through the project. Developing an understanding of this assemblage revealed interactions involved, and opportunities of precise intervention. The developing precision questioned the usefulness of past conceptions and practices due to tendencies of general concepts and operations. Heterogeneity was often invoked in discourse, yet how to engage with it seemed limited by presumptions, which the notion of assemblage provided a means to bypass.

The investigation strategically investigated precise interventions and alterations to the study area’s assemblage, enlivened by reconstructing past design conceptions to suit. The resulting proposition attempts to engage with this assemblage, in the process contributing to the research challenge of how to design with the heterogeneity of an urban area. The specific assemblage associated with this area shares commonalities with the rest of Te Aro, suggesting ways to engage with other heterogeneous areas in Te Aro and disciplinary questions.