Spatial [re]mix : rethinking the production of mixed-use architecture in the urban context

Abstract

Scarcity of available land for development and an increase in real estate prices has led to the trend of utilizing mixed-use developments to solve the multitude of issues currently presented in twenty-first century cities. Mixed-use in architecture is not new; it has existed since the establishment of walled city-state. Mixed-use architecture was further utilized with the advent of the industrial era and the introduction of modern town planning, along with the introduction of the 1916 zoning laws in New York City This invites an exploration of the potential and the opportunities that these types of developments can provide in relation to their placed context. So why does the practice of mixed-use seem stale, relegated to a novelty, and even to the banal path of space making in architecture? This project therefore, will investigate the process of typology analysis in the context of the city as first principle aid for the production of mixed-use architecture. Through the research of related literature and precedents, a defined methodology with a focus on analysis and synthesis will assist in the development of a series of mixed-use interventions that goes beyond the current understanding of this particular type of building development. This project will leverage the use of drawing as an act that is allied with the practice of architecture in the making of the proposed series of interventions. The project can technically be located in any definitive urban area in the world, but due to the project’s brevity, a portion of Newmarket in Auckland, New Zealand was elected as the site of this research.

Research project site: Osborne Lane area, Newmarket.