Auckland 2070 : AC_2070_SARS-COV-2
Date
2020Citation:
Helg, A. (2020). Auckland 2070 : AC_2070_SARS-COV-2. (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)). Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand. https://hdl.handle.net/10652/5226Permanent link to Research Bank record:
https://hdl.handle.net/10652/5226Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION:
Can speculative design mitigate the effect of quarantine habitation in a dystopian future?
ABSTRACT:
The understanding of the origins of science fiction and dystopian worlds come from current-day anxieties of the world around us. Stemming, from Japano-American filmic futures that influenced Blade Runner (1982) and many other similar stories, to nuclear wastelands inspired from cold war nuclear threats, the ideas we see portray possible futures and explore how we might cope in these situations.
The pandemic coronavirus Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) took the world off guard, and the effects of the pandemic have been something that ‘Generation Z’ and Millennials have not had to deal with before. These ‘unprecedented times’ provoke ideas of dystopian futures amongst isolation and social distancing. The effects of lockdown and absence of work is a significant part of the sudden burst in violent and antisocial behaviour we see in America, with threats of social unrest, protests, and rioting.
This project aims to explore what a world might look like if the epidemic parameters of isolation, social distancing, and contract tracing, were a long-term reality. We can explore the effects these will have on social interactions and most importantly architecture. How will isolation architecture work, what are the defining differences, and how are these rules enforced with space and function? The setting is Auckland City, fifty years in the future (2070). The narrative follows the concept that Auckland is one of the last cities successfully fighting the virus throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. Auckland 2070 has become walled off from the rest of the country, and it houses the remaining few medical people able to fight the virus and produce a cure. As speculated, autonomy is a significant part of the way the city functions.
Due to the epidemic ruleset of social distancing and contact tracing, unmanned workforces (drones) are crucial to distancing and isolation, temperature scanning drones, autonomous Uber’s, robotic manufacturing teams and 3D-printed buildings are all defining points of this speculated future.