Catching a breath: Empowering holistic wellbeing within a suburban community

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can a communal hub provide for the physical, mental and spiritual needs of a suburban community?

ABSTRACT: Currently, many suburban communities are overwhelmed by the effects of rapid population growth and major urban redevelopments. The typical approach to major redevelopments has been to radically wipe down the existing townscape and start over with a blank canvas. In large urban development projects, communities are often left in a traumatic state that leads to a decline of the community’s sense of wellbeing.

CATCHING A BREATH project seeks to provide aid for the facilities within a suburban community that are about to undergo significant urban developments. The project challenges the proposed Panuku Development within the Northcote Shopping Center by looking into a series of interventions within the existing community center that will not only create stronger connections from the current and the new but also provide exciting ways for the people within the community to interact with one another. Furthermore, this project will investigate how to preserve and honour the original essence of the Northcote Shopping Center by retaining and enhancing the existing facilities to accommodate for the anticipated suburban growth.

The primary aim of this project is to provide the needs of a suburban community - such as public facilities - through a series of architectural interventions while also contributing to the improvement of the community’s holistic wellbeing. Thus this project asks: how architecture can contribute to improving people’s holistic wellbeing within the community.

SITE: Northcote Shopping Centre, Auckland, New Zealand