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LOST ARTS AND CRAFTS LEARNING CENTRE

(FINAL PROPOSED DESIGN CONCEPT)

The Lost Arts and Crafts Learning Centre was a project that allows students to gain and develop knowledge and skills regarding strategic methods to approach and understand complex structural and enclosure systems.

 

The chosen site for this project is located in the heart of New Brighton at the corner of Marine Parade and Beresford Street. Thorough site investigation was done in order to incorporate aspects of design that would correspond to the existing surrounding environmental factors.

 

The chosen Arts and Crafts to be incorporated in the programme are traditional Maori Arts and Crafts. The chosen programmes includes wood carving, bone carving, stone carving and weaving.

 

As for the design of the architecture itself, the shape of the building was inspired by the Manaia. The Manaia is a guardian of spiritual energy, has the head of a Bird, body of a Man and a tail of a Fish creating a balance of Sky, Earth and Sea.

 

This form was also widely used in Maori designs and architectural features. The Manaia is a useful motif in carving, as it can be distorted to fit any shape and blended into many different designs.

 

The idea behind the concept of the design is to incorporate traditional forms in an attempt to reinterpret the flow of the design while maintaining a sense of fluidity.

 

At the same time, the architecture has to incorporate the flow into architectural design forms of the structure, which then shapes the fluidity of spaces and the actual design itself.

 

The design of the curves also takes into account allowing as much direct sunlight to enter the spaces as possible while at the same time blocking direct sunlight.

 

The way the curves are created is in order to allow the strong south-easterly coming from the beach to simply sweep onto the curved surface and move gently pass the building towards the back, avoiding the central courtyard.

 

How the flow of the building which curves around a central courtyard towards the main entrance was inspired by the traditional Maori Marae. The traditional Marae incorporates the aspect of; 1. waiting before you enter a marae, 2. the journey towards the building, and 3. the feeling as you enter.

 

Therefore in this design, a green area is incorporated in the front of the building representing the waiting area; the curve from the waiting area towards the main entrance creates a journey for the users of the space and a huge central courtyard directly infront of the main entrance creates a different feel as the user enters the building.

 

Timber was used throughout the building as the structure in order to reflect the Maori culture's relationship with nature and the environment. The main timber shell structure is the cladded with insulated polycarbonate panels in order to allow as much filtered light into the building and at the same time allowing the architecture to glow at night.

 

The final architecture was able to express all the aspects of the design by incorporating traditional forms of Maori culture into a more modern contemporary architecture.

 

 

 

 

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