Naomi Vallis - M O N S T E R S in Architecture

Aotearoa has not always been a land of inclusivity, as it is today.

The history of New Zealand’s immigration policies and attitudes towards the South Asian community is a highly controversial chapter in Aotearoa’s history. The narratives and presence of early South Asian immigrants have been trivialized and dismissed within local historical texts. This manipulation of historical occurrences is linked to the existence of several problematic immigration policies, particularly ‘New Zealand’s ‘White Policy,’ and the formation of ‘the New Zealand White League.’ These actions have been carried out as a deliberate means of erasing the South Asian presence in Aotearoa’s history. It is here this thesis begins to challenge the deliberate disconnection made between migrants and place, within Aotearoa’s narrative of nation building.

Thus, my thesis question is: What may be the architectural representation of South Asian migration, in Aotearoa? And what forms could this take?

This study resulted in formulating a historical narrative that establishes an intertwined understanding of people and place, through the methodology of collage and crossing, seen in architectural theorist Marco Frascari’s concept of the ‘Architectural Monster.’

Marco Frascari’s vision of the environment we exist within is understood as a monster, a hybrid which is a form assembled from several pieces, shaped by socio-political, cultural, and environmental contexts that derive from cultural flows. The etymological origins and representation of the architectural monster is used to demonstrate the cultural diversity that exists in our environment, through re-establishing relationships between architectures that previously were assumed separate and view them as being intertwined.

This is a design project that understands how the global circulation of architecture, concerning the Bungalow, the Mughal style, and the Indo-Gothic style, have developed in India, and migrated to New Zealand resulting in transformations in the built environment. This thesis is to show hybridism should be the way of designing for the future, as followed by the architectural styles studied in this thesis. The strategized design aims to formulate a representation that reflects the movement of architecture, people, cultures in the form of an arts centre for Sandringham Road. However, allowing these practices to migrate to other areas of Auckland in the forms of smaller interventions is also equally important.

Link to more thesis work: https://modos.ac.nz/projects/monsters-in-architecture-a-quest-for-the-architectural-representation-of-south-asian-migration-in-aotearoa