DESIGN GOAL
The Tale of Two Waters: Conceptualising the Pōwhiri in Architecture.
Within New Zealand, the Māori people (indigenous population) have a unique welcoming to those who wish to enter their marae (sacred communal space.) This welcoming ceremony is referred to as a Pōwhiri and takes place in several stages; Karanga (being called onto the grounds), Whaikōrero (welcoming speeches), Waiata (song singing), Koha (exchange of gift), Hongi (greeting by pressing their noses together, Kai (eating together.)
This design explored how a sacred ceremony that typically takes place on the ground may take place, and travel up to the 29th storey of a commercial council building in Auckland city. The surrounding site context refers to the passage of time and transformations of the land the building now exists within.
The narratives of the coming together of two people (the Māori and the visitors) have been conceptualized through the meeting of two waters. The groundwater that lives with Papatūānuku (mother earth) and the sacred rainwater that lives with Rangi (the sky father.) Here the groundwater is conceptualized through traveling up the skyscraper to converge with the rainwater in the rain catcher tank on level 29 of the building.
This convergence is also symbolic of Rangi and Papa becoming reunited with one another after being separated in Māori myth by their son Maui.
CONCEPT SKETCHES
CONCEPT SKETCHES
CONCEPT SKETCHES
CONCEPT SKETCHES
CONCEPT SKETCHES
CONCEPT SKETCHES
CONCEPT RENDERS
CONCEPT RENDERS
CONCEPT RENDERS
CONCEPT RENDERS
CONCEPT RENDERS
CONCEPT RENDERS
CONCEPT SPATIAL PAINTINGS
FORM CONCEPT FINDING
CONCEPT FORM RENDER
STAR MAP OF SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
MOON POOL CONCEPT RENDER
DETAIL RENDER OF STARWAY
CONCEPT FORM RENDER OF RAMP
CONCEPT MODELS
CONCEPT MODELS
CONCEPT MODELS
CONCEPT MODELS
