Perspective: performing in the land.
Mihi
Hi there! I am a 20 year old spatial design student based in Te Whanganui a Tara with a huge interest in how the earth moves. My grandmother is a seismologist and I always love listening to her describing how earthquakes and tsunamis have shaped the land. I could spend hours scouring coastlines and looking at cliff-sides to find interesting rocks.
Earthly forces such as earthquakes both destroy as well as create with each shift. In my recent research into the potentiality of earthquakes, I have noticed the importance of the Māori atua Rūaumoko to the narrative of land movement in Aotearoa. Thinking speculatively, I have been wondering how earthquakes can alter a future Wellington into a city that might need to live more fluidly with the ground. Having lived here for three years, and with family originating here, this place is so close to my heart that I feel that there needs to be a bit more understanding of Rūaumoko’s influence on this land.
Scenario
The land of Te Whanganui a Tara is constantly changing. In the next 100 years, there is a 10% chance of a magnitude 8 or above earthquake on the Wellington Fault. In the next 50 years, there is a 26% chance of an earthquake over 8 magnitude along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone. This project is a response to one of these earthquakes occurring.
Position Statement
This proposal is situated as a draft to bring forth in discussion and collaboration with mana whenua.
What if a post-earthquake performance space revitalised fractured relationships to whenua through the storytelling potential of rubble?
Te Ngākau Civic Square is the location of several earthquake-prone buildings, the heart of the city surrounded in potential ruins. I propose that in a disastrous earthquake, the underground car park beneath the square caves in. Through adapting the remains of structures, a spiral structure descends into the earth, creating a space for performance and display. The walls of the twisting slopes will be a collage of rubble that explores the narrative of Rūaumoko, and his relationship with the inhabitants of the land. The adapted ruins will also address and respect the mauri of matter, and their ability to reflect on us as we reflect on them.
Te Ngākau will be a space where connectedness between the city, the people and the land occurs - bringing forth a sense of both respect and comfort after adversity.
(Semester 2, 2023 - Spatial Studio)
