DOUBLE NEGATIVE
A vast open space, a primitive sculpture, an awkwardly placed set of agatius robusta trees, the ground covered in rigid stones that look like they were scrapped off the road after the road workers finished tarcelling.
Cheap.
Is the council just holding these trees here before they decide to use them somewhere more appropriately? Or perhaps this is Downtown shopping malls idea of a great use of public space.
Fantasy is a place where it rains
A canopy, parallel to the first floor of the Zurich House fails to act as it is intended. The 5 metre wide glass and steel extrusion spans the length of one side of the Britomart bus depot on lower queen. Have you ever walked while it’s raining down there? 1/5th of the coverage is walk able on a good day.
It’s a great way to enforce the single file format the military or have us interact with each other by bumping into one another. Maybe the architect never meant for this to happen, he was too focused on keeping the beautiful Waitemata view.
Hard & Fast street vendors
The street lends nothing. Shelter and shade from the canopy and that’s about it. I’m glad the Swiss moved in. Who knew delicious ice cream could save a building from being a hole.
In one end and out the other. You’re almost walking on a film set. Entrances feel more like exits. Does the mall hold you for anything other than a thoroughfare? The otherwise isn’t even worth walking to… but it seems so appealing. Shopping retailers focus on exchange rather than experience. Feels dehumanising. Levels, depth of spaces, verticiality and volume, directional paths and freedom to experience – get change happening through innovation rather than incorporation. The project should be about a co-production.
Cruise ships docks, passengers boarding ferries, buses, trains, street vendors, IFC and annoying people attacking you, tourists grid locked by an undiscoverable Wynyard Quarter, the Ports of Auckland and the rich ridges of Freemans Bay. We’ve already trapped them in the Britomart; the test is how long we can keep them here.
Two private towers, tumbling shadows on an empty courtyard, people walking in linear paths directing toward the quickest, safest, sunniest route. Do not disturb, you’ve been warned. People in the city are very focused. It’s a place of commerce.
I don’t understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?
The 41 Storey monstrosity is such a manky dog’s breakfast, it’s hard to imagine anything worse.
How can this building meet the code of compliance. Less than a metre between a window of office space and the neighbouring blank stucco faรงade. You really have to question what that guy on the 5th floor did to deserve that. What is pleasant about a lifeless wall, increased productivity.
The beauty of awkward junctions.
God may have created the world in six days, but while was resting on the seventh Beelzebub popped up and made this place.
Downtown Shopping Centre was safe... until change started to happen and it got left behind. Here’s our chance. Let’s make something incredible.
info@britomart.org
Dear Brit,
Dear Brit, What happened to you? You once were the best I could get but now you merely mean anything to me. I occasionally go and see how you’re doing but rarely want to interact with you because you no longer fulfil me. I’ve moved on. I’ve found better. I’ve found someone who is more accommodating to my needs. Someone who is more youthful and actually bothered to keep up with the times. Someone who offers a new experience, a change of scenery, a breath of fresh air, because there is more to life outside just you and I. It feels like you’ve just stopped caring. I feel as if I have forgotten you. I no longer long to see you but constantly feel you can do better, be better. I’m really sorry you got this way, I’ve neglected you and let you slip by. I feel it’s time for change. I want to see you be great again. It would be sad to see so much potential wasted. I’m here to help. Call me. Sincerely, Matt.
The pop up café with liquor licensing that is never barely occupied. It lends to the street space quite nicely, but what makes it unsuccessful? Being in a transition zone? No sense of destination? Lacking of in “pop-up” quality? Perhaps it just doesn’t have the nicest coffee or staff. That can make or break you.
HSBC looks like an abyss. Quay street must feel so neglected with such a nice ferry building (even better when the scaffolding was up), staring it directly in the face and putting it in its place. We complain how our shopping centres built near shore lines don’t address the sea as a building element, yet we let this area slide.
More importantly how can a souvenir shop occupy such prime real estate. They must be laundering money. No one is ever seen in them and their products aren’t everyday items. Sheepskin rugs, herbal medicines and jade necklaces. To a tourist this may be seen as an artefact of our identity, but I think we have more to offer.
Being still. An uncontested view, various acts of movement, enticement, exploration, wander, discovery. Rangitoto, cruise ships, cars beneath feeling elevated, people passing by, large open spaces. Observing the unusual feeling of being connected without having a place. In limbo. We should make more of this.
A random assortment of food and retail outlets span the perimeter of the ground floor faรงade. Colourful, garish and disorganised all under the projection of various canopies that look overly engineered and dated. Malls are the refuge centre for the all the lost ark animals.
A large shadow cast by the towering structure that is labelled HSBC. Office workers must be bemused by the pedestrians that awkwardly avoid the buildings projected image in the hopes of having their last walking moments with the sun before entering the cool air conditioned spaces of the mall. Vapid and lifeless, the marble tiled floors and convientantly placed planters give a false sense of nature and homeliness. Plush vinyl seating cascaded throught the asisles, providing a place to sit when people are tired, how kind.
Desire, something I lack when coming to Britomart. I could think of countless things to do rather than spending it in the lifeless mall or atrocity we have as Downtown shopping centre courtyards. Air conditioning helps though. The plush seating is nice. The odd planter gives one breath of fresh air.
An advertisers dream. Second most expensive billboard space in Auckland. The building is covered in a 5m high sky line trash ribbon. Visual pollution, litter on a canvas, junk mail of the cityscape. We see approximately 2000 ads every day, what’s the issue with 1 more. This is our society. We’ve let it happen. We let our building we degraded by such filth that an architecture is forgotten. It’s merely a canvas for another piece of junk, another plane for an image to clearly sell something.
The building isn’t about the architecture any more, it’s more for just providing the greatest opportunity for a maximum use of adverting. I’m surprised they even cut-out the window space of the billboard, if I was them I would ignore it. The building wouldn’t suffer, they hate natural light anyway.
Stealing the shore Crown Land
Reclamation of land Toxic garbage disposal
Footpaths cluttered with unused phone booths in the advent of cheap cell phones. But we can’t get rid of them, where else can you steal a moment of PDA (personal display of affection) or to cover from the wind to take a phone call (hate not being able to hear who you’re talking to). The wind blocking, wifi station and PDA booths are vital to our streets. If our streets had no street furniture there would be nothing to dodge as your navigate people walking slowly or understand the ignorance of people. Vital life lessons these things.
Ugly facades, beautiful buildings, who is responsible – they should be shot. Monstrosity. They could integrate something less soul crushing about the space. Malls are only good for rainy days. Why don’t we take a leaf out of the European book and design outdoor complexes that are more empathetical to nature and its surrounding context. It looks selfish. Let’s not have a heavy mass that ignores everything around it.
Rough Gem Congested traffic, pollution, uninviting shop fronts; three things to help understand why this street is unpopulated, even at the best of times. Maybe this should be a spatial strategy, used to stop loiterers. Make the exterior of the building so unbearable that it forces people in. A building covered in slime, grime, dirt and debris with a crystal clear interior. A gem amongst the rough. A city as an interior.
This is the greatest moment this building has to offer.
Money must talk. We’re short sighted.
A Great Escape. Linking Britomart train station to the street surface is a magnificent idea. How often do people use it though? It doesn’t give enough to the street, there is nothing at the entrance other than non-descript stairs to take you up & down. Perhaps open it up, breathe some life into it, and provide a service something with equity. Dig a little. Awaken some curiosity.
Mega-plex’s. Shopping outlets, eateries and public facilities, all under one roof. The perfect stomping ground for the recluse and indecisive shopper. Manipulation at its finest. Lacking a sense of time causing complacency. Minimal natural light, ambient “shopping” music, acclimatised spaces, busyness, people; what’s so bad about them? Sea views and a main transportation hub; with such a prime location to get in on that and they don’t? Office towers thrive on it, they up-sell because of it. Why is a mall any different? Ah it’s because shopping retailers don’t need it, it’s not important. Let the public experience what the corporate office does. Think of all the possibilities a mall could provide if it was a little more empathetical and giving to its surroundings.
Vertigo Pulling up vertically the street interactions with an interconnected nature. A life of its own - Sprawling beyond its own city block
Grandiose Soft avenues of space - Seeking bliss with the outdoors – resorts and gardens. Removing the “monument” of the mall. Making new.
The site is for pedestrians only. Parking is so restrictive it makes it difficult to function. Malls flourish on the use of the private vehicle. Its personal shopping, how more personal can you get with a car. Britomart almost takes the mall out of the complex. Interesting to know why downtown shopping mall exists, or better yet why it has remained to exist. It lacks the car culture. Something that can’t be transmitted to Downtown Auckland. If we did want the car back, Len Brown would kick up a fuss, that’s not in his draft annual plan. Where are shoppers going to store their junk?
PwC Tower – corporate business. Lovely foyer. Weird level change, probably didn’t capitalise on that. DFS Galleria – The Asian tourist sense of arrival. Off the plane and directly to Galleria, why bother? It would be cheaper to buy from somewhere in Asia with our huge tax hikes.
For something to live with every day, I’d rather have bird flu.
Cliff Banger
Calling a mall successful because of the amount of people in the in it is like buying a porn film for its plot.
Britomart, the heart of commerce, really? A foreign exchange that ribbons around the Zurich House, courtyard empty, the only one’s observing it are in transit that probably have driven into work or the office workers in the PwC and HSBC. It’s probably easier for them to check their stocks of their phones in any case. So is it a success or failure? Does Auckland have any better place or perhaps it just needs to become a more prominent feature; something that is worth paying attention to. Wishful thinking or surreal prophecy.
Visual links to the train a view to the abyss Radicalise with unprecedented luxury The short comings of the city
Piano Nobile the shared foyer to facilitate co-production
Disrupting directional paths persuade peoples intentions
CONTENTS: ITEM: calcium sillcate brick. basket weave. remnants of gum, bird droppings, loose gravel. ITEM: public seating bench ash planks fixed to riveted to steel bracing steel leg mounted in ground with mixed coloured gravel. ITEM: left behind empty sugar wrappers recycled paper with printed logos
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 011
CONTENTS: ITEM: loose gravel scattered in designated planter. ITEM: radiata tree pikes spiked into ground with synthetic weave stapled in and around the pikes. ITEM: 6 to 12m tall agathis australis trees planted awkwardly in the queen elizabeth square. ITEM: Radiata timber planks positioned between the tiled surfaces across the planting area. Steel guard protecting the edge of the walkway.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 026
CONTENTS: ITEM: calcium sillcate brick. basket weave. remnants of gum, loose gravel. ITEM: two worn orange traffic road cones stacked. thermoplastic. ITEM: concrete upstand with steel bracket bolted to the ground mounted in a mixed colour gravel. ITEM: albino pigeon, healthy.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 020
CONTENTS: ITEM: 600mm by 600mm light grey flickered black wall tiles. light grey grout. in good condition. ITEM: wall mounted lantern. 3mm thick steel bracket bolted to tile surface. angular appearance with geometric cut away. 3mm thick cross mount with slot mechanism. apparent rust. yellow marble box shaped lantern with damaged edges. functional.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 030
CONTENTS: ITEM: calcium sillcate brick. basket weave. remnants of gum, bird droppings, loose gravel. ITEM: steel pro drill monitoring well mounted in mixed gravel. ITEM: squished cigarette butts. ITEM: cracked concrete plastered upstand. Entrance to level below and convenient seat.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 013
CONTENTS: ITEM: soffit mounted surveillance. white pvc exterior with clear pvc bulbus bottom. camera inside. ITEM: white pvc conduit. fixed by bracked screwed. ITEM: hardyboard soffit painted off white. ITEM: light grey flickered black wall tiles.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 033
CONTENTS: ITEM: hardyboard soffit painted off white. ITEM: 600mm treated copper soffit flashing. Signs of weathering and erosion. Angled 30 to 50 degrees. overlap present with adequate waterproofing.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
# 026
M 14
CONTENTS: ITEM: carpet tiled reccessed non slip surface for hsbc tower entrance. spans the width of the sliding doors. mirrored on interior. aluminium flashings. ITEM: 600mm dark grey marled ground tiles. dark grey grout. ITEM: black floor tiles with dark green marble. black grout. slippery when wet.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 041
CONTENTS: ITEM: dark laminated semi reflective glazing. aluminium framing. no damage present. ITEM: rough stone concrete rendered facade wall panel. sandy brown in colour. horizontal drainage cuts every 600mm. light grey grout. tension ties visible through wall panel. ITEM: concrete rendered wall panel, smooth with occasional roughness. light brown in colour.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 029
CONTENTS: ITEM: mixed colour rough gravel tile 600x600mm. orange, white and grey. non slip. dark grey grout. ITEM: full height glazing with white powder coated aluminium encasement. highly visible. ITEM: 1500mm high unfinished cylindical steel traffic barriers. prevention of cars encroaching. concrete poured inside. mounted in concrete through ground tile.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 009
CONTENTS: ITEM: 600mm by 600mm light grey flickered black wall tiles. light grey grout. visible weather damage. highly reflective. ITEM: 600mm by 600mm polished steel vent grate. 2x2 formation. recessed back with intricate star pattern.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 035
CONTENTS: ITEM: 600x300mm asphalt black ground tiles. visible raw stone abrasion on surface of tile. remnants of gum and bird poo. no visible cracks. ITEM: 50mm diameter yellow plugs mounted on tile surface. non slip yet more slippery than tiles. a few plugs missing. visible scuffing. ITEM: squished cigarette butts.
INSPECTION FOR BRITOMART
M 14
# 005