DESIGN TYPE: Architecture
BUILDING TYPE: Mixed-use camping facility for children
PROJECT DETAILS: Design Studio 2A 2007
PROJECT LOCATION: Tapapakanga, South of Orere Point, New Zealand
PROJECT TUTOR: David Chaplin
BRIEF: Design a children's camp to house 80 children and 20 adults. Focus on Spacial relationships and integration within the surroundings. Included within the camp should be a dinning hall, sleeping areas, amphitheater, climbing wall, flying fox, library, camp fire, first aid room and a hard surface court
FINAL PROJECT GRADE: A
This project is one of the stand out Design Studio projects from second year. It has proven to be a favorite with it being published in the Unitec ScALA End of Year Magazine for 2007 as well as images of the model being printed on posters and displayed around the school. It is also currently featured on page three of the 2010 Unitec School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture prospectus.
When first visiting the Pohutakawa framed coastal site, there was an instant connection with the location as it reflected many of the iconic and intriguing qualities of New Zealand's unique coastline that many Kiwi's relate to on a personal level.
The key focus of the design was designing it with the unique users in mind; the children. By recalling experiences and relationships shared with architecture and structures as a child, the obvious avenue was to explore a more "playground" feel to the arrangement of space and spatial connections but interpreted with an architectural aesthetic.
This was achieved by incorporating bridges, stairs, climbing walls, flying foxes, ramps, maze-like spatial connections and such in to the actual architecture, instead of them being individual, stand alone, destinations. The outcome was a very complex structure that tied most of the programme in to a small corner of the site over looking the ocean above the edge of a cliff. The location of the camp hub took on the qualities of an ancient Maori Pa, with the only entry for visitors to the camp being through a hole in the large south facing wall, which hid the camp activities and was created to protect it's inhabitants.
The secondary building is the library, located adjacent to the camp hub. The strategy behind the positioning of the structures was adopted from the "Fish and Egg" analogy by the Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto.
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