User:Heather Macpherson

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Heather Macpherson

ladn 412 2006

Victoria University of Wellington

School of Design

Blog

Contents

LADN 412: Landscape Architecture. Stage 1: Defining Your Position

Statement of Design Intent

Revised Statement of Design Intent

Motivational Quotes:

‘Form is only a snapshot view of a transition’ Henri Bergson

‘For two simple reasons Waiheke was not an appropriate home for people seeking long and unchallenged tenure: its location was too critical and its natural environment too attractive’ (Monin, 1992, pg 13).

‘If any central principle of critical regionalism can be isolated, then it is surely a commitment to place rather than space’ (Frampton, 1983, pg 162)

Proposal:

At present the space is ultimately working well for the Commuter, but as their needs vary greatly from those of the visitor/tourist something needs to change.

To convert the existing space in and around the ferry terminal into a place that highlights Waiheke Islands (specifically the site) culture, ecology and the transitional nature.

Design Brief:

» Chained sequence of movement

» Extension of nearby facilities

» Allow for multi use spaces (instead of segmented sections)

» Produce a design that not entirely based around the functional elements of the ferry terminal

» Extenuate/encapsulate the image/identity of Waiheke Island Landscape (immersion into the island’s landscape characteristics)

» Produce a welcoming landscape (a stage on which Waiheke Island is presented for the first time)

» Most elements are to be in low relief to the landscape so as to not impede on the views up the valley

» An ideal transport network normally avoids the need for interchange. But due to Waiheke being an island that is too far away from the main land to warrant a bridge an interchange is unavoidable. Therefore I propose to extenuate this interchange so that visitors as further immersed into the Waiheke environment before being whisked away other parts of the island.

Initial Statement of Design Intent

Sprawl vs. Alternative lifestyle

From what I have seen on Waiheke Island to date it would seem there are two schools of thought as to the identity of the island. The families that have been there for years, making a living on the island, instilling a strong community spirit, and allowing themselves to enjoy the beauty of nature. And the people who have recently discovered the islands beauty, leave it to go to work, or have weekend houses in order to use the island at their leisure and leave it for the conveniences of Auckland during the week.

Urban sprawl from Auckland could ultimately end up in creating an extension of Auckland and therefore mitigate Waiheke Islands’ existing character. It is at this crossroads of the islands’ identity that I want to give the residents, new and old, a chance to decide for themselves who they are. It is in the liminal space of Matiatia Esplanade Reserve that I propose gateway into Waiheke Island highlighting Waiheke Islands’ identity (past, present and future) in relation to the islands’ history, its position within an ecological network of islands and its relationship to Auckland.

At present the view of the harbor on arrival from Auckland does not show passengers they have reached a destination, more a transitional space. By allowing some non obtrusive development to occur on the site I propose this part of the island will be seen as more of a destination. Existing urban fabric on the site seems under utilised due to being visually unconnected with the main settlement of the island. By also instigating a visual link to Oneroa at a walking scale (as apposed to an automobile scale) the island may be more accessible to visitors.

Preliminary Site Issues

Group analysis on Waiheke Island

Theory

» Augé, Marc (Translated by John Howe). Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, (1995) London; New York: Verso.

Augé has outlined thought of the non-place. ‘Shopping malls, motorways, airport lounges’ and even ferry terminals are ‘both everywhere and nowhere’. We seem to spend a lot more of our time than previously spent in non-places. The ferry itself could be seen as a non-place – all part of the experience of terminal to terminal. The destination that a passenger is seeking is ultimately not the ferry terminal at either end, but something that lies beyond. Could this however be changed? As another non-place would be so easy to suggest, like small tourist shopping mall, extension of the bus services or a parking building, it’s hard to pin down what destination could be proposed for this site. However through looking at Waiheke Island identity, ecological elements, and cultural use of the beach I hope to pin a programme down.

» “In Africa an old person dying is ‘a library on fire’”. However people that relay history can often are just telling us what they know of the past or think about the past. They do not necessarily tell us all of the past. (Pg 9)

» Individuality Anthropology deals with all types of ‘other’: - the other that defines or represent the ‘identical ‘we’ (we French, we Europeans, we Westerners)’ - ‘the ethnic or cultural other’ - ‘the social other’ i.e. a persons gender, political, economic and family status, and their position within these systems. ‘the private other’ – ‘absolute individuality is unthinkable: heredity, heritage, lineage, resemblance, influence, are all categories through which we may discern an otherness that contributes to, and complements, all individuality.’ (Pg 18 – 19)

» The acceleration of history ‘We barely have time to reach maturity before our past has become history.’(Pg 26)

» ‘What is new is not the world lacks meaning, or has little meaning, or less than it used to have; it is that we seem to feel an explicit and intense daily need to give it meaning: to give meaning to the world, not just some village or lineage. This need to give a meaning to the present, if not the past, is the price we pay for the overabundance of events corresponding to a situation we could call ‘supermodern’ to express it’s essential quality: excess.’(Pg 29)

» ‘Intelligence of time’ is ‘complicated by the overabundance of events in the present’ ‘Intelligence of space is less subverted by current upheavals…than complicated by the spatial overabundance of the present’. This has lead to changes in scale and the ‘acceleration of transport’, which have consequently lead to ‘physical modifications: urban concentration, movements of population and the multiplication of what we call ‘non-places’’. The infrastructure instigated to allow this accelerated travel is as much a ‘non-place’ as the ‘means of transport themselves’. (Pg 33 – 34)

» Anthropological space - ‘the line’ - ‘the intersection of lines’ - ‘point of intersection’ i.e. ‘routes, axes or paths that lead from one place to another and have been traced by people’. These systems are not independent of one another, they quite often overlap. One path may connect several centres (points of intersection) for example. They also transcend from the large city scale to the village or domestic space. (pg 56 – 58)

» Signage ‘On the kilometre stones which punctuate roads at regular intervals, the distance to the nearest settlement used to be inscribed along with the distance to the nearest large town. Today this information tends to appear more legibly on big signs appropriate to the intensified and accelerated traffic’ (Pg 67). However if this type of signage is transferred to that of the pedestrian then what will the out come be?

» ‘Bypasses, motorways, high-speed trains and one-way systems have made it unnecessary for us to linger’ (pg 73) in historical sites. However the bypass to Waiheke is somewhat different to that of the concrete jungle at which it starts from.

» ‘If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place.’ (pg 77 - 78)

» ‘The distinction between places and non-places derives from the opposition between place and space’. (pg 79) - space is a ‘frequented place’ - space is formed by the inhabitants

» ‘Proper names’ for places can create non-places in places. Having destinations identified on a route does not equate to the reader necessarily know the place, on the other hand the name made allude to things that may ultimately not be true (pg 85). However does this mean every place should be referred to in some other way? Perhaps giving each place a symbol (§: the wharf formally known as Matiatia) would be one way around it.

» ‘The real non-places of supermodernity… are defined partly by the words and texts they offer us: their ‘instructions for use’, which may be prescriptive…prohibitive… or informative’. This then establishes the use of the space, ‘where individuals are supposed to interact only with text’ that is placed around the ‘non-place’ not by other individuals by institutions (pg 96).

» Non-place contracts are highlighted when required of there existence. E.g. ‘the ticket he has bought, the card he will have to show at the tollbooth, even the trolley he trundles round the supermarket, are more or less signs of’ the contractual relationship (pg 101).

» ‘The passenger through non-places retrieves his identity only at Customs, at the tollbooth, at the check-out counter. Meanwhile, he obeys the same code as others, receives the same messages, responds to the same entreaties. The space of non-place creates neither singular identity nor relations; only solitude, and similitude’ (pg 103).

» Frampton, Kenneth. Prospects for a Critical Regionalism,(1983) Perspecta, Vol. 20, pg. 147-162.

‘Crucial problem confronting nations just rising from underdevelopment. In order to get on the road toward modernization, is it necessary to jettison the old cultural past which has been the rasion d’etre of a nation?… Whence the paradox: on the one hand, it has to root itself in the soil of its past, forge a national spirit, and unfurl this spiritual and cultural revindication before the colonialist’s personality. But in order to take part in modern civilization, it is necessary at the same time to take part in scientific, technical, and political rationality, something which very often requires the pure and simple abandon of a whole cultural past.’ (pg 148)

‘How to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization…’(pg 148)

‘This paradoxical proposition, that regional culture must also be form of world culture, is predicated on the notion that development in se will, of necessity, transform the basis of rooted culture.’ (pg 148)

‘Everything will depend in the last analysis on the capacity of regional culture to recreate a rooted tradition while appropriating foreign influences at the level of both culture and civilization.’ (pg 148)

‘Critical Regionalism recognizes that no living tradition remains available to modern man other than the subtle procedures of synthetic contradiction. Any attempt to circumvent the dialectics of this creative process through the eclectic procedures of historicism can only result in consumerist iconography masquerading as culture.’ (pg 149)

‘It is my contention that Critical Regionalism continues to flourish sporadically within the cultural fissure that articulate in unexpected ways that continents of Europe and America. These borderline manifestations may be characterized, after Abraham Moles, as the “interstices of freedom.” Their existence is proof that the model of the hegemonic center surrounded by dependent satellites is an inadequate an demagogic description of our cultural potential.’ (pg 149)

‘Opposed to the Regionalism of Restriction is another type of regionalism: the Regionalism of Liberation. This is the manifestation of a region that is especially in tune with the emerging thought of the time. We call such a manifestation “regional” only because it has not yet emerged elsewhere.’ (pg 153)

‘If any central principle of critical regionalism can be isolated, then it is surely a commitment to place rather than space’ (pg 162)

‘Political space of public appearance’ (pg 162)

‘Where these cultural and political conditions are absent, the formulation of a creative cultural strategy becomes more difficult.’ (pg 162)

‘The bounded fragment against which the ceaseless inundation of a place-less, alienating consumerism will find itself momentarily checked.’ (pg 162)

» Mattewman, Steve. More Than Sand: Theorising the Beach,(2004) South Melbourne, Vic.; Auckland [N.Z.]: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in: Cultural Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand Identity, Space and Place/ edited by Claudia Bell and Steve Matthewman.

Through a discussion of three beaches Matthewman illustrates the beach as a ‘liminal zone’, a place where something starts, but something finishes at the same time.

Used as a weekend retreat Brighton (England) like so many beaches ‘offered an escape from the everyday restrictions of social class, be it expected activity or appropriate attire’. This idea of being able to go to a beach and your status not meaning anything has dwindled. The price you have to pay to go on vacation can not only be a price in terms of monetary value but a price on what you leave behind.

Bondi beach (Australia) ‘kicks sand in the face of all other Aussie beaches’. It has been seen that due to beaches such as Bondi the retreat to the suburbs is no longer happening, ‘we are now taking them with us’. Suburbs have sprawled in order to get what seems the best position – natural beauty but with a shopping centre.

Piha (New Zealand) in contrast to the other two beaches is ‘untamed, wild and a little out of the way’. The ‘most dangerous beach’ in New Zealand, Piha is our ‘most famous surf beach’ also. The two together does not seem like a recommendable pairing but none the same it is still popular.

The differences in the use of a beach in relation to Maori and Pakeha are outlined. Pakeha see the beach as a ‘comfort zone’, while Maori see the beach as a place of ‘conjoining genealogical history and natural ecology’.

The identity of Waiheke Island has gone through many contentious changes over the years, and due to its’ close proximity to Auckland it’s bound to go through many more before it finally reaches an agreed identity. However if people don’t know what the identity of a place it how can they call it home? And therefore by using the gateway of Waiheke Island to inform visitors, locals, and prospective residents a like I hope to allow Waiheke Island to retain an identity of its own.

» Menard, Henry W. Islands (1986) New York: Scientific American Library.

» National Geographic Society. Islands Lost in Time (1998) Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Both Islands, and Islands Lost in Time are not theoretical readings, they are however giving me some insight to Island life and Island ecology. While I have not completed these books, they seem to be a means of starting an investigation on Island systems.

» Prentice, Chris. ‘On the Beach?’: The Question of the Local in Aotearoa/New Zealand Cultural Studies. (2004) Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Chapter in: On Display: New essays in Cultural Studies / edited by Anna Smith and Lydia Wevers

Unlike normal cultural studies theory, this essay talks of the meaning of ‘local’ in relation of the country as a whole instead of specifying a particular location with which to make reference to. By referencing David McKee-Wright and his ideas of the homeland not being a specific place, but a quality that comes with a country’s settlement, Bill Manhires words of ‘smoke at anchor’ (‘land of the long white cloud’), and Ian Weddes ideas of intersection of past and present, and instabilities of space we are lead through to the ideas of how the beach (liminal space) is seen in New Zealand.

In the Maori culture the beach is seen as an arrival and departure point, the ‘corridor between the known and occupied world and the uncertainty of the ocean’. Due to technological advances the historically inevitable journey from island to island (or continent to continent) by sea is no longer the only form of travel, much to some peoples delight.

Prentice writes, the reason we as New Zealanders seek out the beach is get away from our structured lives. However even though we are trying to escape the rat race, we all to often still expect amenities to be provided in order for us to enjoy the vacation. This therefore means that the beach is now a place for work as well as leisure.

One of New Zealand’s distinguishing characteristics used by the tourism industry is the Maori culture. Through controlled access to tourists of the Maori culture the industry has converted us from a location into a destination.

As New Zealanders and tourists go to our beaches for the same reason, a ‘visitor and ‘locals’ exchange’ has started to occur. It is this point exchange that I want to investigate. The residents of Waiheke Island for the most part moved there due to its remoteness, however as its tourism value increases so to does the pull on Auckland ‘locals’ looking for close get away destination. This has seemed to create a split in the population on Waiheke Island, those who moved to Waiheke for live and work away from Auckland, and those who moved to Waiheke to have a temporary reprieve.

» Rogers, Richard. Cities for a small planet (1997) London: Faber and Faber Limited.

Sustainability is fast becoming a necessity in design. The sustainability of cities as a whole needs to be watched as well as site specific. So we don’t end up with an ‘endless city’ something needs to change. From what I have seen at Waiheke Island it would seem that if the tourism industry becomes any larger than it is at present then development will have to increase in order to keep up with the demand of the tourists. On the other hand this will instigate more jobs on the island promoting the compact model of mixed-use development – Work, Leisure and Living. At present commuting from Waiheke Island to Auckland is high in order to people to keep their high salaries to pay for their new lifestyle. If more development were instigated on the island would this help in remedying this? Or will suburb sprawl to Waiheke Island mitigate the character that people are moving there for?

Precedents

» Barbados National Park, Barbados. Urban Strategies Inc.

Rodriguez, Alicia. Preserving Paradise. Landscape Architecture, March 2000, v. 90, no.3, 50-53.

‘Away from the hustle and bustle of the big hotels there’s another kind of tourism which involves experiencing the more natural areas of Barbados and the real day-to-day life of the country side’. It is this side of Auckland that Waiheke encompasses.

Three main sections:

  • “The National Park Development Plan”, Design projects to protect, preserve and enhance the park.
  • Guidelines for management of the park.
  • Financial aspects.

By using all these sections as precedents for future investigation I hope to produce a scheme that will stand the test of time.

» Ben Gurion International Airport, Lod, Israel. Shlomo and Barbara Aronson.

Aronson, Barbara and Shlomo. Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod. Topos, 2005, n.53, pg 60-64.

» Bus Station, Forecourt of Spaarne Hospital, Hoffddorp, The Netherlands. NIO architecten.

Nio, Maurice. Bus Station in Hoofddorp. Topos, 2005, n.53, pg 28-29

» Daniel Island, South Carolina, USA. DesignWorks.

Hammatt, Heather. Avoiding Suburbia. Landscape Architecture, March 2001, v.91, no.5, pg 50-55.

Through this precedent and the reading ‘The New Urbanism and the Communitarian Trap’ (Harvey, David. The New Urbanism and the Communitarian Trap. Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997, Number 1.) it can be seen that New Urbanism theory has been proposed to reduced the ‘love affair’ with the automobile and create a sense of community/neighborhood in order to create a sustainable development.

» Helsingborg's south access road, Sweden. Bengt Schibbye.

Wingren, Carola. The City’s Threshold. Topos, Sept 1998, n. 24, pg 94-100.

» Imperial Landing, Stevenston, Canada. Perry + Associates.

Enlow, Clair. Leaving history where it lies. Landscape Architecture, December 2005, v.95, no.12, pg 44-51.

A new community has been created on a site that was historically a fishing and processing centre. However instead of covering us these industrial remnants they have been integrated into the design. By highlighting the past instead of hiding it with new design the identity of Waiheke island may be heightened.

» Mario Schjetnan, Grupo de Diseno Urbano.

Trulove, James Grayson. Ten Landsacpes: Mario Schjetnan. (2002) Gloucester, Mass.: Rockport; Hove: RotoVision.

Wyman, Louise. A Critical Regionalist. Landscape Design, Feb 1997, no. 257, pg. 10-14.

» Onahama Port, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Taiko Shono.

Latent sea: urban landscape, Onahama Port, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Architectural Review, Dec 2001, v. 210, n. 1258, pg. 40-42.

» Parc de la Mar, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Equipo Zocalo.

Bover, Pere Nicolau. An expressway park demonstrates Majorcan finesse. Topos, Sept 1998, n.24, pg 101-105.

» Strasbourg Car Park and Terminus, Strasbourg, France. Zaha Hadid.

Hof, Stephane, Claudia Klein, Lars Muller, Jean-Francois Allain, Ishbel Flett, Anne Lavanchy and Wolfgang Himmelberg. Zaha Hadid Car Park and Terminus Strasbourg. (2004) Baden: Lars Müller.

» Semi-floating dock in La Condamine, Monte-Carlo. Doris Engineering.

Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme, 2003, n. 236, pg. 162.

» Terminal at Mannheller, Sognefjord, Norway.

Bjorbekk, Jostein. Waiting for the Ferry. Topos,Sept 1998, n.24, pg 83-87.

» Vauxhall Bus Station, London, England. Arup Associates.

Richters, Christian. Just the Ticket for Vauxhall. Blueprint, June 2005, n. 231, pg. 36-37.

» Yokohama Ferry Terminal,Yokohama. Japan Foreign Office Architects.

http://www.archidose.org/Jul02/070802.html viewed 16th July 2006.

Although the scale of Yokohama Ferry Terminal is much larger than Matiatia, the general idea of having a ferry terminal that has a landscape quality and provides for multiple experiences through different entrances and exits may help me in providing an evolving identity of the island.

Schedule

Week 1 (10-16 July)- Initial research of site - Analysis of relevant theoretical views - Defining my Position

Week 2 (17-23 July)- Stage 1 Submission - Feedback Stage 1 - Discuss with Jillian & Mark any issues that are not clear in my position - Continue research while starting to define broad scale agendas

Week 3 (24-30 July)- Images (mapping) produced for site specific issues to supplement theoretical position - Presentation of broad scale agenda

Week 4 (31 July - 6 August)- Formalise position - Start presentation/decide what is required to show the scheme

Week 5 (7-13 August)- Finish presentation of Stage 2 - Submission and presentation of Stage 2

Week 6 (14-20 August)- Feedback from the Stage 2 presentation will allow me to think of other directs to go in and further any theoretical background information.

Week 7 & 8 (21 August – 3 September) Mid Trimester Study Break - Possible trip back to Waiheke for further site investigation. - Research technical detailing

Week 9 (4-10 September)- Discuss any information gleamed from second trip to Waiheke - Can these be integrated into the design? Or are they unrealistic - Start technical detailing to inform whole design

Week 10 (11-17 September)- Finish presentation of Stage 3 - Stage 3 Submission

Week 11 (18-24 September)- Finalise ideas through the detail - Technical detailing

Week 12 (25 September – 1 October) - Technical detailing - Start book

Week 13 (2-8 October)- Finish technical detailing - Stage 4 Submission

Week 14 (9-15 October) - Collation of final theoretical & design ideas in book - Presentation of scheme Model (physical or digital) Plan Sections Images Mapping

Week 15 (16-22 October)- Presentation of scheme Model (physical or digital) Plan Sections Images Mapping

Week 16 (23-29 October)- Stage 5 Submission & Presentation

Throughout the whole trimester I will keep a record of changing ideas in my blog and update this in my Wiki page to keep a running dialogue of my process for the book to be produced at the end of the assignment.

Mentors/Contacts

  • Cheryl Robilliard

Landscape Planner - Masters Landscape Architecture, Bachelor Landscape Architecture E-mail: cheryl@pos-mgmt.co.nz

  • Jillian Walliss

Course Tutor Senior Lecturer School of Design Email: jillian.walliss@vuw.ac.nz Phone: 04 463 6277

  • Katrina Simon

Senior Lecturer Landscape Architecture School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Email: ksimon@unitec.ac.nz Phone: 09-815 4321 ext 7277 Fax: 09-815 4346

  • Mark Lindquist

Course Tutor Senior Lecturer School of Design Email: mark.lindquist@vuw.ac.nz Phone: 04 463 6103

  • Sarah Coady

Urban Designer Matiatia Competition Project Manager Auckland City Council Email: sarah.coady@aucklandcity.govt.nz Direct dial: 09 307 4549

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