Ten Images + Ten Texts for Grey Lynn Jade Zane March
Water is synonymous with life and plays an essential role in the understanding and interpretation of the site. Cox’s creek provided a seasonal food gathering site for Maori and later after the arrival of the British became the site for local community market gardens. It’s source comes from the spring tapped by the old DYC vinegar factory behind Allendale House in Ponsonby Road. A steam powered sawmill produced logs and timber that was floated up the creek for the construction of early houses in the area. A plaque still remains at site to commemorate the long established Warnock Brothers Soap and Candle Works clearly seen situated beside the creek depicted in aerial photographpy dating from the 1940’s. Two masonry villas to the South West were constructed here after the whole area was purchased in 1874 by the Warnock Brothers. Home and work divisions are at play and the desire of development and progress in the area have always been paramount.
A used trolley and a tree collide in amusing discord providing the drama to a derelict backdrop of disconcerting buildings smeared across the pavement. This place could be anywhere and seems somewhat like a two dimensional film set or even a house of cards verging on the edge of collapse. Where are all the people and who forgot to take the rubbish out? Drive in and out as fast as possible and make sure you get what you came for as this is a place you may not wish to spend your time. Transience and the temporary nature of the development makes it placeless and more of a vacuum among the colonial villa sprawl.
The two colonial masonry villas that were in the Warnock family until recently occupy a pivotal position on the site anchoring the very corner to the South West. Their peculiar construction and resulting charm imbue them with a seductive mystery that urges one to discover more. The relationship between home and factory here raises the question of what is the appropriate solution to balancing work and living in a mixed use zoning scenario? This is an architecture of typology that is strong in facade as well as exhibiting an unusual surface plasticity with the masonry construction. Notions of desire and sentimentality come to play here.
Upon entering the side streets and roaming the empty concrete surfaces, a stack of pallets occupied the distant corner. She had the admirable ability to transcend the current situation and triumph with her alluring demeanor. Sometimes architecture hides among the mundane and will be revealed when you least expect it. One can draw parallels to the work of art collective “Gap Filler� in Christchurch or go further to uncover similarities between that discovered, or rather drawn from the site and the work of artists Rachel Whiteread and Gordon Matta-Clark. These types of interventions appear carefully placed in a stage setting where notions of occupied land, squatters rights and nomadic architecture also rise to the surface.
Grey Lynn is home to a robust community who will protest in the face of absurdity. One house become fortress, has been a local voice for decades. In the back streets one finds instantly a sense of edge and unease, eloquently yet somewhat in a gritty way transmuted into a situation that warrants immediate attention. Like the small Aldo Rossi like architecture that is used to store books and steps into the realm of knowledge and freedom. A hidden army exists woven into the existing fabric, which is always there and ready to respond. This is the strength of the community that fuctions as one and where unity of all people is paramount.
The decline and eventual fall of Pruitt-Igoe during the 1970’s represents the pivotal point at which those involved in building cities had to face the realities of misguided design. An icon of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure this development was destined to crumble under the pressure of social and political change. In Grey Lynn the issue at hand is tabula rasa versus integration of the existing fabric on site. Site becomes playground for invention and the work of Aldo Van Eyck comes to mind. A contextually sensitive approach will be taken where the drawn data from site will be tested and analysed.
Regeneration of the creek and diversion of the water source to fill areas central to the communal circulation spaces. Clusters of mixed use buildings are integrated into the natural topography of the site whilst addressing the need for variety and restraint in a varied and diverse context.
Inspiration comes in many forms and more often than not it will be the subconscious that orchestrates the filtering process. What do the Kingo Houses by Jorn Utzon, the 1960’s megastructures of Yona Friedman, Hans Hollein’s aircraft carrier and Peter Zumthor’s regionalism all have in common? Firstly they seek to address that nature of bigness scaled against the human mechanism as measuring device. The surprising thing about this however is that in all cases the outcome is similar yet in opposition to one another. What does this mean for an architecture in Grey Lynn and can a solution integrate all facets of contextualism?
Building mass is nearer the extremities of the site in order to provide a sense of protection to the green spaces that are revealed as one ventures within the confines of the boundary. The manipulation of the creek is consistent with the historical significance to industry it once had. The site thus becomes integral in joining together various green spaces in the local vicinity.
Park + Market Arts + Culture Work + Living Retail + Living Education Water
A natural amphitheater, a meandering water source, a communal meeting place, a central hub of activity and intensity and a hidden oasis are all conceptual derivatives drawn from site studies and observations. The cascading slope of the site will be celebrated by expressing the stepping and positioning of buildings into the land in a response to what is naturally present. Sun, wind and rain will all be considered to maximize user experience and enhance the intervention. This will be a place where people will feel welcome and comfortable allowing past, present and future to merge at a single point, which is the site.
Barbican center in London represents an oasis within in the metropolis with her hanging gardens of lush ivy and cascading water features that work in dialogue with the brutalist plasticity. Here the use is truly mixed and the solution appropriate given the contextual stratum at the site. In Grey Lynn this is also the case. It is possible to create mixed use urban development here that references past, present and also the future. All are considered equally importance and by doing so merge into one total experience of architecture and life. The solution puts the user first and challenges the existing fabric on site.
Ten Images + Ten Texts for Grey Lynn Jade Zane March