Outside In

This thesis is exploring how architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture can influence productivity and mental stimulation, not only having spaces for students to learn, but spaces for them to thrive and create a community inside their cohorts. Using the current Te Kura Hoahoa - Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, the focus is on architecture students, with survey answers and insights from the fifth year post graduate architecture students. Three architectural interventions, Outside In, Learning Hub and Inside Out will be the focus in this design led research. Outside In is about bringing students back into the university space through bringing architectural interventions of the vibrant and bright surrounding city of Wellington. The Learning Hub is the pause in the middle, the space inside of the university for students to learn and collaborate in. Inside Out is about bringing the vibrancy of the university life, bustling with students, back out of the university and into the surrounding areas, enhancing the experience that students have inside the university through materiality, lighting and movement.

Spaces for students to use and inhabit for long hours must be designed to provide optimal comfort. Research has found that providing a sense of identity, belonging and control positively impacts comfort levels. Enhancing a positive work-life balance for students through the architecture will increase comfort and generate positive mental and emotional health, increasing productivity.

The multifaceted relationship between design elements will facilitate a well designed FADI to reduce stress levels, increase motivation and create a better overall quality of life for architecture students. This research develops multi-use, atmospheric and collaborative spaces for students to use while at university to remove the friction between wellbeing and productivity, making them join to become one.