ez E M I L Y ZHENG
PORTFOLIO ARCHITECTURAL MASTERS THESIS ‘19 - ’20
FINDING THE MAURI
Reconnec�ng Onehunga’s aquifers and subterranean landscape to cultural narra�ves
0
1,800
3,600
5,400
7,200
9,000
10,800
Maunagarei Mt Wellington 135
Maungakiekie One Tree Hill 182
7H 7œWXD D 5LXNLXWD Three Kings 133
Rarotonga Mount Smart 87
The Grotto Bycroft Springs
The Pond Captain Springs
Te Pane a Mataaho
Mangere Mountain 106
1700
Maori settlement Scale 1.15000
YEAR SITE SUPERVISOR
2019 - 2020 Onehunga, Auckland
Julie Stout
Onehunga began on the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour, at a place where bubbling springs formed freshwater pools in the fertile volcanic soils of the Maungakiekie volcanic field. Māori called this place 'one unga' - 'landing beach'. It was the largest Māori papakāinga (settlement) in the district, the gardens thriving with fresh produce, the shore lined with canoes and a constant supply of clean spring water that seeped through the aquifers from Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill) and Rarotonga (Mt Smart). Today, Onehunga shoreline is an industrial estate, asphalt and concrete covering its old gardens. Where children once played, trucks, buses, diggers and forklifts now scurry about. The edge of the Manukau Harbour is on the verge of becoming more industrialised by the current proposal of the East- West highway along the shoreline, which will further obliterate the few fragments left of the old shore: springs, streams and volcanic tuff crater. In the face of this disappearing natural landscape and desecrated identity, I wanted to find ways to restore the historic life essence and charm of Onehunga. This project searches for the mauri of the underlying landscapes at Bycroft Springs, Captain Springs, The Grotto, The Pond, Gloucester Park and the Manukau Foreshore Walkway. These sites retain fragments of the historical landscape and aquifers. Time gives the landscape a vertical dimension; quarrying into the earth is like going back into the past.
mauri definition
Māori noun /’maʊri/ “The life essence which is latent in all things … an energy behind … all things ... the elemental force that binds things together and gives them their being”.¹ 1 Park, Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape and Whenua, 24.
How can this geological feature, with its strong associations of mauri to the Māori people, be brought back to the surface and the present? How could I, through architectural interventions, expose the natural springs, and the uncanny but sublime narratives of Onehunga and the Manukau Harbour? This project aims to explore new ideas of marking, recognition and ritual between the unusual forgotten underground and the current manufactured landscape. It proposes the research question: How can architectural interventions be used to reinstate a historical knowledge of Onehunga’s aquifers and subterranean landscape into a heavily industrialised setting?
2019
The six green sites on the map mark the only remaining natural areas within an otherwise completely modified industrialised environment. These are fragments of the old historic landscape ingrained with rich Maori and European cultural narratives. In this project, I use these sites to explore ways of marking, recognition and ritual between the forgotten volcanic subterranean world with its aquifers and the old shoreline of the harbour with its tidal flows. Maori values of manaakitanga, mātauranga, wairuatanga and kaitiakitanga have been touch stones in the design. These interventions range from the utilitarian to the poetic. By celebrating the qualities of the different sites and connecting them with historical and spiritual narratives I attempt to bring the mauri of these neglected areas of Onehunga back to life in our city.
BYCROFT SPRINGS
The Water Fountain Tower celebrates life, the spring water, flora and the invisible spirits of the Bycroft Springs. In developing the Water Fountain Tower, I wanted to explore how to signal the forgotten underground springs and reservoir, currently entirely constricted by NZTA Bus Depot and tucked behind the train tracks across from the pumping station (currently providing 5% of Auckland’s drinking water). I felt it was important to see the marker from afar and be able to get up and look out from the massively constrained site. This Tower is to be first and foremost a marker in the overall industrial landscape signalling the original 1700 shoreline. The Tower taps into the underground spring water pipes coming from the pumping station and diverts it upwards into an internal shower where it descends into an opening in the decking. During the descent water can be collected and drunk, referencing the historic Māori stories of voyaging to this place to fill their gourds with drinking water. The cascading waters form vaporised spring water that trickle down the watercress that grown on panels concealed in an EFT skin over the metal grate platform. These components are carefully selected to maximise the illusion of the historic watery landscape. By night the 12-metre Fountain Tower illuminates the night sky acting like a lighthouse, an orientational aid to further mark the historic shoreline.
CAPTAIN SPRINGS
I wanted to explore the subterranean world associated with the neglected underground springs and reservoir situated within a vast public reserve tucked behind industrial warehouses for Steelpipe New Zealand. I felt the site needed a marker to signal the historic bubbling landmark. I wanted to do something that was linked to the flow of water. By holding the water back and anticipating a geyser eruption, makes people aware of how much water is flowing through the system at any one time. The entrance is marked by a metre-wide break in the form, sheltering a metal ramp that begins to descent around the Geyser down to the focal point. The journey takes you into an artificial recreation of the underground subterranean world, lined with volcanic rocks wrapped in a metal wire case. At any moment, give or take 4-hours, a large gust of spring water is discharged which takes us back to that historic watery environment. The Geyser is a lure for gatherings, interaction and drama buried into the ground that rejoices in the hidden watery underground world and mauri of Captain Springs.
THE GROTTO The existing Grotto a collapsed lava cave is entirely hidden by suburban houses and garages. I wanted to reinforce the secrecy by making the entrance entirely controlled through an existing Skyline garage. Within it is an artificial recreation of the lava caves, a theatrical device aiming to reference the historic cave forms that held the spirits and bodies of the Māori ancestors. As you proceed you transition into a metal staircase nestled into the earth and then out onto a 2-metre-wide metal horseshoeshaped walkway. A curve around the south east end of the site until you are in alignment to the historic entrance of the lava caves. It looks down on the Grotto landscape below.
THE POND The Pond, only a street away from the Grotto, was formed by decades of diatomite (an early cleaner/ soap ingredient) extraction. It is currently an open water and nature reserve in the middle of a suburban setting. The proposed Floating Bubbles is a playful metaphor that references the historical diatomite quarry activity. The three floating ‘bubble’ shapes allow people to get out on the water, to sit, mediate or lounge about. They aim to be a calm and tranquil oasis.
GLOUCESTER PARK Gloucester Park was formed by filling in the original tuff crater of Te Hōpua a Rangi in 1934. In the 1975 the south western motorway entirely was put right through this distinctive landform, severing Onehunga from its foreshore. This intervention, Tuff Crater Ring aims to address this disconnection and highlight the original tuff crater to the greater public. By creating a 300-metre diameter steel pedestrian and bicycle bridge hovering over the original geography connections between Onehunga Town Centre and train station with the waterfront are now possible. The Ring is a 'vessel' that becomes a layered experience revealing the history of the place. The inner circle of the Ring is a multimedia inclined screen, providing theatre in the round of illuminated stories here illustrated by Lisa Reihana's "In Pursuit of Venice" moving images. Given the large urban scale of the project, I wanted to create a dramatic intervention that addresses the historic form and the highly mobile current condition.
MANUKAU FORESHORE WALKWAY
At the other end of the emotional scale the Pure Podium was designed for personal reflection and engagement with the tidal flow of the Manukau Harbour. The ancient Maori Pure (pu- ré) ritual was practiced releasing negative energy and stress with the outgoing tide. The 3-metre tidal change in water level activates a slowly changing spatial experience. At high tide the lightweight timber poles float up to form an enclosed space creating an inward focus. With the water so close, people can place a leaf into the water. As the tide goes out the timber poles slide back down to the mudflats opening the Podium to the expanse of mudflats and horizon. The structure in effect, 'breathes' in and out with the tidal flow.
ez E M I L Y ZHENG
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