Reviving the he(art) of the city
In most Metropolitan cities around the world, creative art centres are built to enhance a sense of cultural identity in citizens and engage them in creative processes, which would encourage community bonding and the development of creative skills. However, New Zealand urban centers often lack such facilities that are open to the general public. Contemporary civic architecture also often fails to provide spatial experiences that are meaningful and inspiring. This project aimed to reintroduce meaningful and inspiring spatial experiences that encourage creative education in contemporary civic architecture.
This thesis question is: How can architecture of a creative art centre be designed to encourage a creative learning development and increase a sense of social cohesion of the occupants?
The thesis was broken into four parts, each addressing the research Aims and the following objectives. The first and second design stage investigated various drawing methods for the development of an architectural outcome that embodied creativity. This was explored through the iterative hand-drawing methods which tested approaches of Kazimir Malevich, Zaha Hadid and Bernard Tschumi. The goal was to use these drawing approaches for site research and analysis. Deeper contextual and programmatic understandings were researched and analysed to reconfigure the site drawings in the conceptual architectural outcome that would reflect the site’s unique identity. In the third stage, the focus shifted towards designing public spaces that would benefit the Art Centre community. This stage involved a narrative design approach to translate contextual concepts into architecture that prioritizes community-friendly experiences. The narrative approach was based on the theories of Penelope Haralambidou and Cathy Ganoe. The final design stage involved exploring phenomenological concepts to create spatial experiences that would inspire public engagement in creative learning processes. This involved reflection on a number of theories, including those by Özçam, Pallasmaa, Louv, Kolb, and others.
