Avondale Central : fostering urban renewal through critically regionalist driven design
Date
2019Citation:
Mildon, M. (2019). Avondale Central : fostering urban renewal through critically regionalist driven design. (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)). Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10652/4828Permanent link to Research Bank record:
https://hdl.handle.net/10652/4828Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION:
How can the theories of Critical Regionalism be used to assist in the designing of the urban centre of Avondale and how can that urban centre assist in prompting place-conscious urban renewal?
ABSTRACT:
As a result of Auckland’s continual urban sprawl and ever-increasing population, it has been outlined in the Auckland 2050 Plan that as a city, Auckland will be redeveloped as a multi-nodal city. What this specifically means is that the CBD, Manukau, Westgate, and Albany will become the four major nodes of Auckland and the old suburban centres and villages surrounding and in between them will be adapted into minor nodes that service the major nodes. The consequence of this plan is that the architecture and cultural identities of suburbs and regions find themselves in a submissive position to the ideals of the city and its emphatic emphasis on progression. It is in this context that this project identifies the significance of the urban centre as it can simultaneously satisfy the needs of the multi-nodal city whilst also endorsing and prompting self-conscious development and urban renewal.
Reacting to the placeless demeanour fostered by the multi-nodal city, this project seeks to, through a Critically Regionalist driven architecture, reaffirm the role of regional architecture as the vital necessity that shapes and enriches local life and culture. The premise of Critical Regionalism being that it is a concept of the environment where the people and particularities of a region are seen as being essential to the formation of its architecture. Additionally, this project also explores, through an urban centre, how the theories of Critical Regionalism correlate with urban design ideas.
Avondale, the subject of this project, became the grounds for this exploration as it lacks an identifiable urban centre and it is also primed for intensification and renewal. Despite this projects initial intentions of satisfying the needs of the multinodal city, what instead transpired was a protest for a far greater polycentric variation of a multi-nodal city. Avondale Central develops as a precedent for a sustainable, self-orientated, and self-sufficient urban centre that simultaneously embodies the particularities of its region and prompts self-conscious urban renewal.