Generation Architecture: An Investigation Into the Role of Architecture within Heavy Industrial Infrastructure

Abstract

This project will investigate the role of architecture within heavy industrial field. This has become dormant due to the current technical and fiscal demands that are predominant influences of industrial infrastructure design today. The unprecedented scale, in which these projects operate, both physically and socially, demands a design influence, which exists beyond the conventional pragmatic drivers used in their production. The understanding of the scale at which these projects have grown, and subsequently effected our environment is much larger than we have previously engaged with. They now include environmental and social effects, which are often ignored or ineffectively accommodated for. This thesis will identify an application of architecture in which the architect provides a socio-cultural voice for the contemporary workforce associated with these projects. The existing typologies, with respect to construction workforces, found within infrastructure projects, have become inherently mobile and temporary. Through the use of subjective historical analysis and interpretation of New Zealand’s Hydroelectric history, an architecture designed for the ‘new nomadic’ workforce will be developed. This will be accomplished through the development of historical technologies and solutions, which could be furthered in an effort to more adequately provide for contemporary requirements. The resulting architecture will be one that acknowledges the scale in which infrastructure development affects us as a society and responds to the needs of a mobile workforce.