Almost unnoticeable: A project on time existence in place and non-place
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Other Title
Authors
Liu, Yingxi
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of Architecture (Professional)
Grantor
Unitec, Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology
Date
2024
Supervisors
Schnoor, Christoph
Budgett, Jeanette
Budgett, Jeanette
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
New Zealand
immigrants
migrant identity
identity construction
non-places
learning spaces
architecture and space
multiculturalism
sense of place
sense of time
immigrants
migrant identity
identity construction
non-places
learning spaces
architecture and space
multiculturalism
sense of place
sense of time
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Liu, Y. (2024). Almost unnoticeable: A project on time existence in place and non-place (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)).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/10652/6490
Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION
How could architectural non-places recultivate and express our cultural individuality?
ABSTRACT
This project’s starting point is an exploration of the sense of relief as a traveller when visiting the airport. Such transitional spaces, including airports, motorways, shopping malls and supermarkets, are the products of modern lives. They exist to accelerate the pace of our modern lives in order to provide maximum efficiency. These spaces are mostly not concerned with identity; they are the opposite of places – and have been called non-places by French anthropologist Marc Augé. Despite how non-places weaken our cultural identity, at the same time they provide momentary shelter for those who are struggling to adapt or fit in. The shared equal identities which non-places create – such as passengers, customers, or travellers – temporarily relieve us from an uncertain reality.
For immigrants who do not have the opportunity to gain identities in an inherent manner, a sense of place and belonging is required in order to establish grounded-ness. This project examines the spatial qualities of non-places and explores architectural possibilities in order to recultivate cultural individuality.
German philosopher Martin Heidegger has expressed that human existence on the earth is deeply associated with its constant engagement with things and with the built environment. Theorists and architects like Juhani Pallasmaa, Peter Zumthor and others have questioned modern architecture’s promotion of the visual dominance of the eye that originates in a single moment of time, diminishing the connection with time in space. Māori and Pasifi ka researchers such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith or Okusitino Māhina demonstrate how time interconnects and intertwines with space. Bill McKay examines the meeting house to demonstrate a time-space relationship that relationships do not happen in space alone; it takes time to make relationships in space.
The project’s aim is the design of a space with genuine openness for gathering that allows people to embrace all the possibilities with a multicultural backcloth. This research project seeks an architectural solution to push us to learn more about our differences and to place ourselves in others’ views. There is a cluster of learning complexes proposed at two separate locations and linked by a footpath and bridge. One is designed for public space to support learning and knowledge exchange. Another cluster of smaller study spaces is designed to support individual or small-group studying. Different design approaches are made to reimagine the experiential experiences from a bodily dimension therefore to awareness of empathetic architecture.
Site analysis: Alten Road parking and Stanley Street parking, Auckland CBD, New Zealand
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