Pleasure points —Re-designing suburban reserve walkways in Porirua

The human experience of being disconnected from nature is partly related to urbanisation encroaching on natural landscapes. One potentially positive outcome of urban expansion is the emergence of suburban reserve landscapes which offer people a modified nature within their local surroundings. While suburban reserve walkways provide access to nature the common design strategy for these walkways limits the range of experiences that are possible between walkers and nature. This research aims to investigate landscape design interventions on existing walkways in a manner that the experience of pleasure can be a motivation for people to interact with nature, consequently contributing to their physical and psychological well-being. The study area for this thesis is the suburbs of Porirua and uses the existing suburban reserve walkway network as a testing ground. The research process includes literature and precedent reviews relevant to the thesis’ key concepts such as pleasure, sensation, and design tactics for walkway design, but the core way the project is researched is through designing which is spread across two design phases. Design Phase One focuses on the re-design of a series of walkway entrances on several different walkways in the study area. Design Phrase Two focuses on two walkways and expands the design approach to spread across whole walkways. In this thesis, a walkway design approach is developed, informed by literature and walkway precedents, called Pleasure Points in which specific spots on a walkway are selected for design intervention in an attempt to produce the experience of pleasure through multisensory landscape interactions across the walkway journey as a whole. This thesis finds that designing points of pleasure can elicit people’s positive emotional and bodily response to nature, thus evoking a strong awareness of one’s surroundings.