Waiohine: A River of Becoming
Shaun Rosier Land411
Kia Ora koutou katoa Ko tararua te maunga Ko ruamahanga te awa Ko Rosier te hapu NĹ? Carterton ahau Enoho ana ahau ki poneke NĹ? reira tena kotou, tena kotou, tena kotou katoa
Kia Ora all, this booklet will be a documentation of the design process I undertook throughout the duration of this project. Hopefully it will shed some light on the inner workings of the chaotic machinations of my mind; hopefully being the operative word. I am from the area in which this project was undertaken, in-fact I grew up less than 2 minutes drive from this river. This has given me an extra vigor to complete this, to give back to my own landscape. Hopefully (again!), I have done it justice. Shaun Rosier.
shaun.rosier@gmail.com www.cargocollective.com/rosier
Admiral Hill, Gladstone.
Site visits with Rawiri Smith
Kaurarau Dam, Gladstone.
Site visits to my own landscape
Kaurarau Dam, Gladstone.
Kaurarau Dam, Gladstone.
Site visits with Rawiri Smith
Hurunui-o-rangi Marae, Gladstone.
Site visits to my own landscape
Admiral Hill, Gladstone.
Cultural Experience Model
Both Maori and Pacifica cultures orient themselves in the landscape via narrative. These narratives describe acts, happenings and people, singular in space in time. The continued occupation on those landscapes ensures the values and memories are preserved. This model attempts to capture this, although no amount of abstraction can capture the complexities. Each point on the model contains a story about who I am and how I think I fit into the landscape.
It was mentioned to me that how can I begin to understand someone else or someone else’s landscape when I don’t even know my own. Being in Carterton and seeing it from a fresh perspective opened my eyes and mind, leaving me feeling not quite whole. Whilst I may say rivers and mountains that were close to where I grew up, I didn’t identify with them. Learning about these cultures and where they come from, what is significant to them will be crucial, but more importantly I think it will cause me to think about where I come from, what is significant to me and my being.
Wairarapa Regional Analysis
Mental Wellbeing
Wananga (learning)
Removal of Bad tapu
Recreation
Hauora (Wellbeing)
Material Collection
Bathing
Physical Wellbeing
Food Collection
Baptisms Blessings
Taniwha
Spiritual Wellbeing
Navigation Routes
Social Wellbeing
A Landscape of Wellbeing Early on in the latter part of the first half of the project it became apparent the importance of Hauora (wellbeing) to Maori. This is not limited to themselves, but also to the landscape, for the health of the landscape informs the health of their person. As such, a study of the wellbeing of the Wairarapa and Porirua waterways was undertaken. For this aspect I focused upon the physical alterations and factors impacting the waterways.
Flow Impacting Willows
Major Physical State Changes
Water Flow Rates
Wairarapa Flooding Issues
Wairarapa River Analysis
Harbour Edge Health
Waterways through urban areas
River Alterations - Rural
River Alterations - Urban
Porirua River Analysis
LIN NZ and dE
Waiohine River The Waiohine River is only second to the Ruamahanga River in size and water volume carried. Unlike the Ruamahanga, the Waiohine still holds onto a fair amount of its ecological value; surprising when compared with every other water body in the Wairarapa. The river passes between Greytown and Carterton, posing a significant flood risk to its surroundings. The Waiohine offers something no other water body in the region does; a stable platform to design something new on.
Waipoua River The Waipoua river was once highly prized by Maori for its ecological abundance and variety. Now its river course has been drastically changed and any sense of previous ecology removed. The river has the potential to cause significant damage to the city in a flood event, the existance of which is denied by local government. Opportunities for recreation and ecological revitilisation are ripe on this site with plenty of Maori cultural cues to work with.
Design Process and Methodologies Waiohine River and Gorge
Existing Values
Potential Values
Ecological values Recreation values Spiritual values Mental values
In its current state the Waiohine river offers a lot of potential on top of its existing state. It has some strong ecological potential but its cultural possibilities and meaning has been squandered and cast aside, namely in the name of flood protection. It is currently heavily used by locals during summer for swimming, kayaking and other such recreational uses. Unfortunately the treatment of the physical state of the river will eventually make such uses unviable; making this an issue for everyone and not just Maori.
The Framework Three sites will be investigated on the landscape to set up a series of “servers� or processing nodes. These points instigate a series of processes atop of the processes inherent in the landscape; collecting, storing, refining and distributing.
Fishing Server - Collecting This particular component of the framework was chosen to develop due to the sites incredible topography. The Waiohine Gorge has been carved deep by the river course over millennia creating something breathtaking. Whilst the other sites were special in their own right, neither can stand shoulder to shoulder with this.
Form Investigations
Majority of the eel remains hidden
Cantilever? No, rubbish.
Design Moves Emerging Early on some design moves or typologies began to emerge, most coming from the traditional means of fishing for Maori and the forms associated with it. These moves were: •Mesh/Net •Stacks/Stacking •Vault/Cage The fishing methods were ones that did not require constant human attention like a fishing rod. Instead they are largely set-and-forget type devices. This drove the idea that the form should not be an active participant in the landscape, it shouldn’t provide the mechanics for eeling or fishing. Instead it should just be there, and with the right mindset and tools it can be used food collection.
Hinaki becoming apparent The hinaki (eel pot) began to emerge as the most ideal form to continue investigating. It’s form is both metaphorical and pragmatic; cultural and structural. This move changed the direction of the formal investigation entirely; it had previously been largely concerned with the vertical plane, now shifting to an almost entirely horizontal conversation with a vertical landscape.
Section
Halve
Topo
Trim
Abstract
Hinaki Investigation The hinaki derived form continued to be investigated, now testing how the program can be instigated on the design. This lead to a long period of confusion and stalemate where no move made sense. By removing any inherent way for the form to directly, obviously provide for the program it left the door open for the form to sink back into itself and start to become what it desires to be and nothing else.
The Shift
The single most important moment in this design process. This diagram was the point at which this design became more than just a fishing platform. It became (continues its becoming still) something much more.
Eel Experience; Feeling the Eeling In the lead up to this diagram I had been trying to think like an eell; they’re the stars of this show after all. I had been called mad, crazy and probably just a little fishing for trying to understand the mindset of such a creature. But it is this mindset, this metaphorical vector that I now fully embraced and intended for the people inhabiting this design to also embrace. Becoming an eel.
Eel finds safety in the landsape
Eel senses something out in the landscape
Eel moves in and through the landscape
Eel is caught in the landscape
A One, A Two, A Three.... Momentum begins to build. Now that every line, every bit of shading, every single move made is driven and dictated by the previous diagram a design begins to unfold itself. The hinaki platform now extends down the hillside, accompanied by a bridge crossing the river and alterations to the pre-existing path on site leading to the river.
Sensing
Movement
Capture
Sensing - Arrival Sequence The start of this design begins just like an eel’s capture does; unassumingly. Coming from the carparking area, there is nothing to hint at what happens ahead. With humble beginnings the path starts of with a long concrete bench displayed in full sunlight in stark contrast to the heavily shaded forest. The path begins to cut down into the earth, held back by corten panels either side. From this point of safety and enclosure, like the eel smelling meat, glimpses of the river and the design upon it can be stolen as one goes down the path. A simple corten seat is all that signifies this change. The path eventually erupts out onto the riverside where a slightly raised corten path tracks across the forest edge, as if it were afraid of what lay across the river, to the bridge ahead.
Movement - Suspended Bridge Stepping through the angled concrete walls, like a gate into oblivion, the steps only become ever increasingly uncertain. The suspension bridge knods its head to its older brother looking over it from high above in the valley. The carved pou erupt out of the ground as if they’re the fingers of Ruamoko; the bridge and its occupant about to pulled down into the rapids. The bridge sways in the wind, unstable in its own brash and bold behaviour. Slightly unnerved, the desire to move through this uncertain space is strong; and the only way to go is forward; to apparent safety.
Capture - Fishing Platform Out of the panic inducing situation of the swing bridge, the stability and apparent safety of the platform is a welcome. But it doesn’t take long to feel the true purpose of this structure. It traps you. It holds you. You’re still a part of this landscape, you feel its air, see its water, can touch its leaves; but you are not part of it. You are trapped. But the same structure that has trapped you offers you the opportunity to trap something else. The platform brings you to the very points where eel live along the rivers edge, perfect for dropping down a hinaki. Fortunately for the occupants, being trapped is not the end for all organisms; for some there is a release. Stepping off the platform at the end reveals a deep cut through the hillside deep up into the Tararuas. Eel live there and they come down here. On the other side of the river is where you came from; and it is time for you to go back.
Thank you to...
Bruno Marques; Ashleigh Hunter; Elvina Quartermain; Rawiri Smith; May Jan MacIntyre; Nathan Lark; Peter Connolly; Land400 Class; Alex Carter.