The Greenwood Effect

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can Auckland’s Greenwoods Corner be redeveloped as the active focus of a thriving and characterful suburban centre for Epsom?

ABSTRACT: Auckland is a city experiencing rapid growth. With this growth comes vast development and infrastructure. While this growth has benefited a lot of Auckland’s older heritage areas with developments that embrace the character and increase the urban fabric and feel, others are at risk of losing their identity, character, and heritage connection. Greenwoods Corner in Epsom, the focus of this project, is one of these areas. Two contributing factors toward this issue are a heavy traffic presence creating a large pedestrian disconnect throughout Greenwoods Corner, and the demolition and replacement of character buildings from the immediate area. Many of these replacements are uninspiring, oblivious to the heritage, and insensitive to the areas character and charm.

With an obvious problem identified, this research project focuses on reinventing Greenwoods Corner as a thriving suburban centre for Epsom; importantly retaining character and heritage whilst acknowledging the unitary plan and requirements of a growing local population. The site at the epicenter of this project is 583 Manukau Road, containing the Art Deco bank building, standing at the apex of the junction of Manukau and Pah Roads in the heart of Greenwoods Corner.

Current knowledge from the fields of building conservation, working within existing architectural fabric, and enhancing public spaces in the pedestrian realm, are investigated to provide evidence toward finding an appropriate design approach. Additionally, existing relevant architectural schemes are acknowledged and critiqued to support this process. This project provides an in depth background of the history of the area and the development that has lead towards Greenwoods Corner and Epsom as they are in present day. This investigative work enables a scheme for Greenwoods Corner that applies adaptive reuse to the iconic bank building structure, as the forefront of a site redeveloped for the local population to provides a strong sense of place. The project is executed with the retention of existing, and the addition of new character.

It is hoped that this research project will help inform and provide insight to future development within older, characterful settings, allowing the original built form to be retained into the future whilst being incorporated with sympathetic and meaningful redevelopment.