New Zealand School of Music (ARCI 312)

This projects brief involved the relocation of the New Zealand School of Music (NZSM) to a site in the centre of Wellington on the corner of Leeds and Ghuznee Streets. The programmatic requirements of the brief were very specific and it was crucial that the architectural planning elements where concise, logical and maximised the space budget of the site.

The design of this building developed from looking at the historical origins of both Jazz music and Classical music which NZSM specialises in. Jazz originated from the poorer areas of southern American states, and the music was typically of a loose, improvised, spontaneous nature. Classical origins were from upper middle class Europe and the music had a level of purity, precision, and explicitness to it. The design concept then became about creating an architecture that was a combination of both creativity (Jazz) and order (Classical). 

This developed into having the large auditorium as the explicit core of the building and all other programme branching off of it. The exterior of the building has more creative and irregular forms but there is always reference to the order and structure that is at the heart of the building. 

The concept is best expressed through the public walkway, where inhabitants enter on a sharp angle with irregular concrete forms surrounding them. As they walk thorugh the centre of the building they pass under the large auditorium and the path straightens, the structure becomes prominent with large columns and shear walls giving an implicit order to the space. Exiting out the other side, inhabitants again experience the irregularity of the sharp angle and the more irregular concrete formwork on the buildings exterior.

(spontaneity > explicitness > spontaneity). 

  

The Earthquake Museum (ARCI 312)

This brief investigated the design of an earthquake museum on the Wellington waterfront. A major requirement of the brief was to create a some form of a journey that occurred throughout the museum that was informed by the architecture.

A requirement of the brief was that the structural elements of the architecture be realistic. Therefore the basic form of the building had to be run through a structural program RESIST to size all members and ensure the building had sufficient torsion resistance in an earthquake.

The structure and specifically the structural change within this museum is the main concept for the design. The compressive structural side utilises large steel moment frames that gradually change from a slightly arched form to a typical post and beam system. The centre of the building and entry space uses a combination of tension and compression structural members to support the roof and floor systems. Finally the tensile structure side uses cantilevered columns with tensile cables to support the roof and floor systems.

The narrative of the museum is this journey from one stuctural system to the other, showcasing the different ways that a built form can resist forces that occur in both lateral and gravity directions. Bracing systems are used in the structure to provide resistance for lateral loads from earthquakes and wind forces.

As the inhabitants move through the tension side of the structure the floor gradually raises and the cantilevered columns are tilted on more of an angle. This is to give the inhabitants a sense that they are being elevated by this tensile structure as they move through and adds a dynamic element to the architecture.

This uppermost tension suspended floor is the memorial space in the design looking back towards wellington city and the waterfront in the southern direction and looking back through the core of the built form in the northern direction so visitors can look back at the structural systems they passed on their journey through the museum space.      

Interior view at memorial space, looking back down through the museum all the way to the architectural compression side.

The Wellington Waterfront Model (First Year, First Semester)

After visiting the ‘cut out’ in the Wellington waterfront site, what resonated most with me was that entering the site I was taken down beneath the waterfront.  On display were the detailed beams and framing that provided the support to hold up everything surrounding. As I entered it felt as though the hidden structures of the waterfront that I had never really thought about before were being revealed to me. Previously I had always just walked along and not given second thought to what was beneath my feet keeping me safe from water below. All had been revealed.

The model I created was to display this revealing and edifying experience the waterfront cut out site had given me. I chose to use a leaf to display this as it is a common example of a form we just assume can be there and we never really think about the detail and intricacies behind its shape. We can see some of the larger veins that run through it and we know this has something to do with it but do not think further. This is the same with Wellington's waterfront, we know something is there but we do not realise how detailed the structures are beneath our feet. The top half of the model is the leaf by itself, and we assume nothing more about it. Then we look below and see the ‘hidden detail’ and we get a deeper understanding for the leaf shape and form.