Urban Wetland: Dynamic exchange system between the city and the sea

• Main Author: Huang, Jiaying (Author)
• Other Authors: Gallagher, Sue (Contributor), Patel, Rafik (Contributor)
• Format: Others
• Published: Auckland University of Technology, 2011-07-03T22:24:09Z.
• Subjects: Urban wetland; City and sea; Exchange system; Thesis
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Urban Wetland is a design-led research project that explores the dynamic exchange system between the city and the sea. It proposes a redevelopment of Queen's Wharf in Auckland that includes a wetland park containing a water purification system and a series of public swimming pools, alongside the existing ferry service. The research project is a proposal for a wetland park to be constructed as a hybrid urban surface-scape that mediates and transitions people waiting for and disembarking from ferries. The structure will also be an active space for relaxation, physical exercise and environmental awareness. The research is largely process-driven, and has contributed to a perspective on reading the city that involves the flow of water, light and people in ways that blur boundaries of both natural and constructed objects, as well as the relationships between them. The concept of subnature, along with ideas on surface and subsurface, is utilised in order to conceptualise the functioning of the wetland. Considerations on indeterminacy also contribute to address the ambiguities of certain blurred features within this project. This project wonders whether such ambiguities can be reconciled.