KAHURANGI QUARTER PROPOSAL- AUCKLAND WATERFRONT

In collaboration with Sunny Lo, the following video presents our proposal for a redevelopment of tanks at Wynyard Quarter on Aucklands Waterrfront.

The conversion transforms a limited use historically privatised industrial zone into a precinct for generation, accommodation and exhibition of creative talent. With open studios for artists, scientists, performers etc. to both work and display, the entire environment is alive with vibrance and culture. An ever-changing environment attracting repeat visitors to explore the unique context of talent working at the very boundaries of their fields.

Kahurangi Quarter Presentation

Residential Apartments

Grad Show Exhibition

Printed presentation panel 1

printed presentation panel 2

MASTERS PROJECT TWO

WYNYARD POINT PROPOSAL

I am currently 6 weeks into a project consisting of preparing a proposal of site usage as Wynyard Point on the Auckland Waterfront. Working with the Waterfront Auckland organisation our prepared proposal will be presented to public in mid October.

Our group is proposing a retro-fit of the existing tanks along the wharf clustering them to the southern point nearest Silo Park converting the area into a creative culture precinct. This region will contain open studios for artists, engineers, scientists, and performers to harvest talent for producing innovation for the greater Auckland region. This is a unique usage for waterfront tanks and will provide a special identity for the waterfront drawing visitors to explore the cultural region.

Stay tuned for initial concept images after they’re presented later this week.

THEATRE IN AUCKLAND

The following images represent the design for a theater complex on Mercury Lane in Central Auckland. The complex incorporates a main theater (450 seat) and a secondary comedy club style setting (150 seat- mix of tables and terrace), and a bar/resturant.

The concept was to provide a setting which broke down the corner site and drew in the everyday public creating a more impromptu theatre going experience. The front of house is open showcasing the activity within to the street and surrounding context whilst the internally focused nature of the theatres is exaggerated through an aesthetic of zinc clad strong heavy forms. The overall broken down composition of the facade enlivens the basement-like feeling of the bottom of the lane and celebrates the vibrance and excitement of theatre in general.

STUDIO19 Rural House Update

It is now more than 9 months since we began work on the Rural House project. Having mostly completed the modules at the Unitec build site on time for moving (early Dec); complications, extra council enforced work, and general site requirements pushed the eventually completion date for us as workers back an extra two months. After more long unplanned for hours on site, as a group of students we had dropped tools by early February, at which point the following photographs were taken.

With just the grass left to go and a completion of staining and sealing of floor slabs in the living pavilion, I felt comfortable calling the house complete. Whilst there has been no official celebration yet, nor an official word of completion I feel this blog closes the door on that phase of my life.

It has been a fantastic journey which has given me an unbelievable amount of invaluable hands on knowledge that book learning could not even come close to matching. I would like to thanks Dave Strachan of Strachan Group Architects Ltd (SGA) for providing me with such a life changing opportunity. Thanks also to New Zealands favourite builder John ‘Cocksy’ Cox and my hero Marshal Cook for all his advice and assistance throughout the design stages.

Donning the NZ singlet!

Flights are booked, training plan in place and getting psyched for my first official competition representing the New Zealand. I have been selected for the Oceania Regional Championships in June 27-29th 2012, to compete in Long Jump, 100m and Relay.

The event attracts 22 nations from around the pacific with the NZ team this team taking 31 athletes. My younger brother Phillip has also been selected and will join us competing in High Jump, Triple Jump, Long Jump and relay in the under 20 age group. I am totally pumped and ready to train with full force in the lead up!

 

Masters! Y1 Q1

Our first design for the Masters of Architecture Professional course is well underway. The brief involves designing a theatre- simple, but the method we have been directed to take involves in depth study into metaphor analysis, acknowledging precedence, theatre investigation and form finding. It’s been a tedious process that will hopefully eventually lead to somewhere but for now I have settled with being content with functionless mass. The attached represents chaos, speed, binary dominance and recession, and a rich reference to various key points of context.

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House build dragging on

The house moved smoothly on 8-10 December as shown in photos it is now sitting perfectly on site awaiting landscaping. At this point the project is beginning to drag on however with student assistance still required past finish date of 17th possibly up until Xmas. I had planned to get back to training after completion at Unitec on Dec 1 but it’s been hard to juggle it. Last week I hit the track again with four 4 hour sessions of high intensity that felt wicked!! It motivated me so much and after weeks of building 10 hours a day was nice to focus on something else. My advice in the balancing act of sport and study for this week is when things are getting hard or overwhelming focus on whatever makes you happy which will instantly set you up for everything else. I needed this week to remotivate myself for life!! I’m ready for a summer of competitions and excited that I’ve managed to accomplish what I have for Uni but have kept up my passion and drive for the sport I love!

IArchitecture reflection

My feelings about the iArchitecture course this blog was started for

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=NZ#/watch?v=eJi0WtKo5c0

The good the bad and the ugly

It’s been a rolercoaster past few days leaving battered, bruised and shattered.

Good: last Thursday amidst the excitement of the Unitec grad show I was awarded top third year student for studio 2011. This award I’ve been chasing for three years and finally made it! Relief!!

Bad: I have now been out of training fir 10 days which whilst good for rest the reason behind it is worrying. I have a bad tissue infection above my knee which has prevented me moving
my leg. Its been noticeable feeling slightly less physically tired on site but has made me equally frustrated, I need to release!!!

Ugly: with all the chaos of last weeks final few days of build I was getting very tired which was a bad point to start playing with knifes. I finished carpeting with cuts all over my hands and one edge of my finger completely shaven off! Not pretty!!

Overall it’s been a fun week but summer could not come quicker, I’m looking forward to my trip to queenstown on Friday!

Today’s advice: if your training and working/studying make the most of rest opportunities do not waste them you never know what will hit you tomorrow.

ULTIMATE HOUSE PARTY

The ultimate house party as it was put by Shannon Ryan from Chanel four deceived the mood of the opening if the studio19 rural house project last night. It was a great success with hundreds of people having a walk around admiring the high standard I believe we have achieved. It was great to see the entire project presented as a final product with the lighting working, appliances in and surfaces cleaned and polished. The following two photos were taken towards the end of the night but give a strong sense of how the finished design looks.