Nuts and bolts: Empowering communities through making

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Supplementary material
Other Title
Authors
Haley, Alyssa
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of Architecture (Professional)
Grantor
Unitec - part of Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology
Date
2022-10
Supervisors
Patel, Yusef
Pretty, Annabel
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
Auranga (N.Z.)
New Zealand
makerspaces
community recycling centres
circular waste economy
workshop spaces
community engagement
tool libraries
sustainability concepts
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Haley, A.(2022). Nuts and bolts: Empowering communities through making (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)). Unitec, Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6085
Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION How can a community maker’s facility support empowerment on a personal and community scale? ABSTRACT With the current condition of over-consumption prevalent in society, the activities of making and crafting have proven to present an unparalleled opportunity to realign consumption culture in a way that emphasises the value of our possessions. Nevertheless, the tools in which to partake in making exercises remain outside the realm of democratised access in the communities needing them most. Subsequently, this project aims to alleviate the problems associated with consumerist culture by constructing a community-centred ‘tool library’ and ‘makerspace’ that promotes a sharing economy and a culture that values making over purchasing. This raises the question: how can a community maker’s facility support empowerment on a personal and community scale? In conjunction with the anti-consumerist concerns of the project, a design for disassembly (DFD) approach presents itself as a viable architectural solution to reduce the production of materials and the wastefulness of the current construction industry paradigm. This approach governs an opportunity for the facilities to be disassembled which raises the corollary that it can also be reassembled elsewhere, therefore, extending the outreach of the building to further communities. This research will therefore explore the gap of portable making facilities and the benefits of such on a personal and community scale within the domain of architecture. As such, this research aims to discover, primarily, the benefits of ‘making’ for community members served by a little-to-no cost making facility on both a personal and community scale. This coincides with a secondary aim to discover how temporary architecture yields the possibility of reaching wider audiences than that of its more permanent counterparts. These aims are explored through the fields of making, community, and temporariness to discern their relationships to aid in designing a well-informed makers facility - down to its nuts and bolts. Site: Auranga, New Zealand
Publisher
Link to ePress publication
DOI
Copyright holder
Author
Copyright notice
All rights reserved
Copyright license
Available online at