In Critical Theory, Theory and Practice are to some extent conflated, or at least mutually reciprocal. Their combined movement is usually termed Praxis. This usually refers to the relationship of mutual dependency and how they inform each other. Both Gramsci and Freire have theorised extensively about the relationship between theory and action. Gramsci spoke of the relationship between the feeling masses and the thinking elite, and the need for them to work in close co-operation with each other towards their mutual emancipation - of the need for an integration of both thinking and feeling in the development of a transformative process. But change comes not simply by either thinking or feeling or through their combination, but through a relationship between theory and practice - praxis: Freire put it this way:
In my own terms and experience, praxis has involved mostly working from the Community Design Studio at the University of Auckland and engaging in the real world of everyday life with groups and individuals who have building, design or environmental problems, but who have not had the resources to pay professional fees for the work they need. This has involved praxis at two different levels and in two different overlapping spheres - the sphere of architectural education and the sphere of social and political struggle. It is commonplace in our education system and in the broader realm of educational philosophy to suggest that these two realms should be kept apart - that knowledge must not be "contaminated" by ideology or political motivation. Any attempt to integrate them therefore inevitably attracts criticism and condemnation. Within my own field, it was common for my colleagues at the School of Architecture to say that what I did was "not architecture". By this, they generally meant that helping people to shape their own world in their own way by their own efforts somehow conflicted with the perceived role of the architect an an expert in aesthetics or more precisely, design. As I continually reminded them, Architecture is not a given - like gravity. It is a contested site of meanings and conceptualisations, in which both they and I were struggling to lay claim to the definition of our field of knowledge. In this sense, Architecture is war - intellectual war, class war, cultural war over the right and the space to make decisions about the arrangement of the physical environment, about who controls the shaping of the built world..
For most of the time, this war is a cold war - that is, it continues unnoticed as the design professions ply their trade of expertise in the traditional manner. Conflating the realms of critical education and critical practice brings the struggle into high relief and calls the normative definitions of professionalism, service, public good and so on into question. The question, of course, is who decides? It is a question that highlights the issue of rights. Who has the right to shape the public domain? How did they acquire that right? How do they exercise it? Do they use it for greater social equity and justice or to feather their own nests and to maintain the professional status quo power. Asking these questions and attempting to answer them is, of course, the stuff of real education. It is about the education of public intellectuals who champion the cause of the dispossessed, the poor, the marginalised in everyday life, and who attempt to exercise this role not by further disempowerment - by doing it for the public but by a process of empowerment - by helping the public to do it for themselves. This role of the public intellectual is one that has sadly been elided from our everyday experience. Those who would speak truth to power are thin on the ground. (For a related news item on this issue click here)
As noted already, the bulk of my own work in Critical Practice took place in the Community Design Studio that I operated for 20 years at the University of Auckland. It is perhaps worth putting on the record, the extent of the work completed by students in the Studio over this period.
Extended descriptions any of these projects are available on PDF.
To view these simply click on the highlighted projects.
The Design of a Youth Support Facility for the Kerr Taylor Trust: (1984)
Fifteen Third year students developed design proposals for a Youth Village on land owned by the Anglican Church and administered by the Kerr Taylor Trust. The eventual outcome of the project was the building of a facility for Youth at Risk under the auspices of the Rev, Felix Donnelly.
Perhaps the most widely publicised project carried out in the subschool was the Alternative Aotea Centre for the Performing Arts. This comprised a 3 week, 50 person consensus design process for a Performing Art Centre for Auckland. The project was televised by Television New Zealand, exhibited in Auckland, and widely reported and discussed in magazines and newspapers. The project has been published in two international design magazines, and has been included as a chapter in a book on design participation.(see exhibitions).
The Birkenhead Business Association commissioned the Community Design Studio to do a major Urban Design Study for Birkenhead City. (pop.40,000) Students produced a Pattern Language for the Town, and the studio design proposals were later partially integrated into the Birkenhead City Council's District Scheme.
The Viaduct Basin Study: (1986)
An environmental study of Auckland's waterfront commissioned by the Auckland Civic Trust; the intention being the development of Design Guidelines to be presented to a public seminar at Auckland's Custom House May 1Oth 1986 opened by the Minister of the Environment, the Hon. Phil Goff. The Guidelines later formed the bulk of the Auckland Civic Trust's own landmark report The Viaduct Basin.
A development proposal, coupled with an $80M bid through one of Auckland's foremost development companies for development rights to a 5 acre block of Council-owned land. The proposal included residential, commercial and recreational facilities on multiple levels. The proposal was short-listed by the City Council with two others (out of 21 applications), but failed to win the contract.
What distinguishes each of these student projects is that each took the from of a group design process, unique in the world of Architectural Education. This process, the Integrated Group Design Process represents a significant development and achievement in Architectural Design research, and was developed to specifically complement the philosophy of the Integrated Design Subschool. It has been published extensively in international design magazines. (See publications) In 1987 the Department of Architecture was the subject of an external Review. The outcome was a substantial change in the Departmental curriculum. The Integrated Design Sub-School was dismantled, and much of its programme was used as the basis for the new curriculum in the Community Design Studio. Within the current academic programme, its successor continues to develop real-world projects. The first of these being the Whakatane Report.
The development of a pattern language for the town of Whakatane (population 35,000) in New Zealand. A joint-venture with Development Management Resources, an international management consulting firm. The project included facilitation of public meetings, presentation to Council and to the local Maori tribe, the Ngati Awa, and culminated in the production of design proposals and a 100 page professional report for the re-planning of the entire CBD. This work has been published internationally and has been acclaimed for its attempt to deal realistically with issues of biculturalism in a design context. (see publications) The development plan for the town was approved by consensus at a large public meeting, facilitated by the University team.. The Mayor, Ed. Byrne referred to this consensus as “a historical turning point in the race relations of the town”. The current District Planner for the Whakatane District Council is also on record (ten years later) as saying that the Council has the best relations with Iwi of any Local Authority in New Zealand.
The Hamilton City Council (pop. 100,00) requested that the Community Design Studio conduct a similar study for the downtown area of Hamilton. 15 students were involved for a total of 10 weeks. They conducted surveys and interviews amongst the townspeople and facilitated 5 public meetings through which a community development plan was achieved. This was presented to the city in a professional report, together with a 5 metre x 2 metre 1/500th scale model of the central area of the city. The proposal was later displayed at the Waikato Art Museum in Hamilton as the centre-piece of an exhibition on the town's revitalisation programme. Its report recommendations have since been adopted by the Hamilton City Council into the zoning and design guidelines for the District Scheme (Town Plan).
House for Richard Haine. (1990) (First Year project)
Twelve First Year students undertook the design and technical specifications of a house for Richard Haine in Birkenhead. The house was modest (1400 sq. ft.) on a steeply South-facing bush-covered site. The construction form was of light timber frame on pole-platform. Students were entirely responsible for developing a brief and, in consultation with the client, the production of a single group design. The project ran for 10 weeks
The final term of the 1990 academic year was brief - only time enough for a 5 week project. Yet it was probably the most exciting and effective programme run to date. The Ngati Awa tribe of Whakatane, with whom the Community Design Studio had developed a very good rapport in the previous Whakatane Study, decided to plan their own Whare Wananga (a Maori University / Polytech based upon traditional Maori values and experience in which instruction would be conducted entirely in the Maori language). Their chosen site was the old Whakatane Board Mills - a group of recently-vacated industrial buildings about 2 kilometres outside the township of Whakatane. Eight Third and Fourth Year students and 4 tutors working intensively with the Ngati Awa to produce a comprehensive Development Plan for the Whare Wananga, and took the proposal up to statutory Planning Application stage. The students produced a model of the proposal. Later, thye4y formed a Consultancy firm The Community Design Co-Operative, to produce a 210 page pattern language - all of which broke entirely new ground in New Zealand education, and was lauded by the Ngati Awa themselves as a fine example of biculturalism in action. Development proposals were stalled by the 1990 parliamentary elections that saw a change of government and policies in tertiary education. However, the project did not die, and much of the research conducted in the class was later incorporated into the design of New Zealand’s second Whare Wananga – Awanui Arangi at Whakatane. Maori students involved in the earlier proposal have been major designers in this latest project which has now been operational for four years.
In 1990, the Community Design Studio was approached by Housing New Zealand and asked to develop designs for four townhouses on Franklin Rd. in the inner Auckland suburb of Freemans Bay/Ponsonby. The programme ran for ten weeks and produced a range of design options which were presented to Housing New Zealand staff and to the Minister of Housing, Helen Clark, who is now the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The houses that were built followed closely the generic prototypes designed in the programme.
Birkdale Primary School Playground (1991)
The Principal of Birkdale Primary School contacted the Community Design Studio at the beginning of 1990 to ask whether it was possible for the students to design and build a playground for a school of approximately 300 children. The school supports the only bilingual unit (Maori/English) in North City. The project ran for 10 weeks, the first 5 weeks involved contact with the client - (the children, teachers and parents). During this time students helped the parents and staff in organising a School Fair to raise the necessary funds for the playground. $10,000 was raised. Separate designs were then prepared, leading eventually to one final design. The second five week period was devoted to the construction of the playground - a multi-use, multi-structured environment complete with slide, flying fox, track slide and tyre swing. Over 60 cubic metres of earth were shaped into landscaped mounds, and on the last week children and students planted 200 native trees. These are now tended by the children. Cost estimates indicate that the playground was constructed for approximately one quarter of its commercial value
In September 1991, the Community Design Studio were approached by the Onehunga Community House Committee. The Onehunga Community House, a building of some historic significance located in a 1900 Onehunga Primary School was both under-utilised and under some threat of demolition. The Committee wished to develop plans to remodel the Community House such as to in¬crease its usage and to instigate moves towards the building’s historic preservation. Fourteen first and two second year students undertook the project over a six week period. During this time they conducted the neces¬sary historical research to lodge a formal ‘C’ Classification Application with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. They also investigated the needs of the citizens of Onehunga (an Auckland suburb), conducting ran¬dom interviews and facilitating four public meetings (advertised in English, Maori and Samoan lan¬guages), making design rec¬ommen¬dations for the eventual re¬furbish¬ment of the Community House. Their recommendations were condensed into a comprehensive 176 page report, “The Onehunga Community House” in November 1991, containing the Historic Trust Application, a struc¬tural report, to¬gether with a Pattern Language of design guidelines for the refurbishment of the Community House. The report was very critical of the workings of the Trust Board, and the students found it difficult to facilitate a design process which was continuously at the mercy of internal warring factions. A major consequence of the study was the complete restructuring of the Community House Trust Board and the replacement of its members by others who more accuratelty represented to interests of the wider community.
In February of 1992, it seemed that the New Zealand contestant in the America’s Cup yachting race off San Diego might succeed in bringing the trophy back to New Zealand. Should this have occurred, substantial preparations and modifications would have been necessary for Auckland’s waterfront area in preparation for a cup defence. During the first term, beginning in March, twenty-two senior students embarked upon a research and planning process to investigate the feasibility of holding the America’s Cup in Auckland. Over a period of ten weeks, the students systematically and critically investigated issues of waterfront access, public transportation, recreational vs industrial uses of the waterfront, pre-colonial occupation and land uses, and myriad other aspects of the waterfront. They also conducted research into waterfront developments in other countries and cities. The research involved extensive reading, on-site study and extensive community interviews. What evolved from this study was an understanding of the possible role which the waterfront area might play in the revitalisation of the urban centre, particularly as an urban recreational -residential high density development. In the first term, the students produced a 6m x 2m model of the entire inner city waterfront area at 1:200 scale, and this was displayed in numerous public exhibitions where follow-up questionnaires solicited public reaction to the proposals. The final urban design proposal included a multi-level transportation interchange (Later to become known as The Britomart Project), a Maori cultural centre on one of the inner-city wharves, design proposals for two inner city urban villages at high densities and catering for energy efficiency and conservation, embracing the city core and linked by a green belt parkway which extended beyond the city centre to waterfront suburbs to the East and West. One of these villages, located on a previously toxic chemical storage facility was the subject of a thorough cost analysis, to demonstrate the economic feasibility of high-density canal housing in an urban setting.
The design exhibition of the scheme was visited by the Mayor of Auckland, Les Mills, the Chief Executive, Bruce Anderson, the Director of Works, Davis Stubbs, the Chair of the Planning Committee Patricia Thorpe and the Chief Planner, John Betts, together with staff from the waterfront development team.
As a result of the breadth and depth of the study, a great many of the student proposals were later taken up by the Auckland City Council, (who paid for the 340 page design report) and incorporated into their redevelopment proposals for the city’s waterfront. Necessary zoning changes and property transactions to facilitate the proposals have been completed and many of the recommendations have been integrated into the built environment that has since been developed along the waterfront. The project was concluded by the publication of the detailed design report, in full colour, articulating the different research conclusions and the resulting design proposals. The design and its report were chosen, along with 28 out of 196 other international projects as exemplifying the very best aspects of Socially Responsible Design at an international competition and exhibition at New York’s Pratt Institute in March 1993.
In the first term of 1993, the Community Design Studio was approached by the Board of Trustees of the Hoani Waititi Marae in West Auckland to design New Zealand’s very first Maori secondary school, in which the language of instruction and the pedagogical practice would be Maori. Twelve students, all but one of whom was Maori, from all years of the Department of Architecture, and including two Maori students from Engineering, participated in a collective design for the kura, in association with the Ministry of Education’s own design consultants. The students were completely responsible for the development of the brief, the conceptual design and the developed design stages, prior to working drawings. The project took 10 weeks and was carried to a most successful conclusion. Students who had worked on the project in studio went on to work on the production drawing stages of the project. With very minor modifications the design has now been completed and occupied for six years, and has become the template by which the Ministry of Education now addresses Kura Kaupapa Schools. Some of the students who worked on this project have gone on to design other Kura Kaupapa Schools for Iwi in co-operation with the Ministry of Education
For the second term of 1993, the Community Design Studio was invited by the Board of Trustees of the Epsom Girl’s Grammar School to develop a comprehensive development plan for the school. Since its inception almost a century ago, EGGS has developed in a haphazard and random way, with little forethought or future planning. In the last five years, the school role has increased by 50 percent, and the extra space has been provided by a series of temporary prefabricated classroom units that both locationally and integrally are less than adequate to the needs of the school community. The Studio’s brief was to develop a rationalised programme of development for the school’s physical resources and to include into this proposals for a new Creative Arts complex, a purpose-built teaching block, and improved administration and recreational facilities. The project took sixteen weeks to take to developed design stage - including cost analyses, detailed building specifications and acoustic studies. It culminated in the production of a 1:200 scale model of the entire campus, showing details of the design proposals which could be interchanged with model components “as existing” to allow for the client group, the Board of Trustees, to fully grasp the “before” and “after” quality of the design as it might be implemented on a phased development programme.
The Development Plan has been the guiding document for the School for the last eight years, and has shaped new buildings such as the new Music Faculty, the Technology Building and the redevelopment of the residential Hostel. Currently, the Board of Trustees are developing proposals for a Creative Arts centre with which members of the Community Design Studio have continued to play a major role.
Otara is a suburb of South Auckland inhabited predominantly by Pacific Island and Maori people. The township is satellite to Aucvkland and comprises a swath of often-neglected State housing clustered around an outdated shopping centre, much tagged by the local youth whose opposed gangs divide along ethnic lines and are modelled on the Cripps and Bloods. of Los Angeles. Otara provided the location for the renowned New Zealand film, Once Were Warriors. Its statistics are depressing. It boasts the highest truancy, unemployment and crime rates in the Auckland region, and has the greatest number of disaffected young people of any area of New Zealand. Its public image is very poor. In an attempt to “turn around” the Otara economy, and to attract investment into the community, a group of local business, civic and church leaders in 1993 formed Enterprise Otara - an organisation whose mission statement was to “turn around” the social, econonmic and spiritual image of the town by building upon the rich and colourful resources and talents of the people of Otara themselves. An essential part of this revitalisation process was the production of refurbishment and redevelopment proposals for the existing shopping centre which is the heart of the community. The Community Design Studio at the Department of Architecture was commissioned by the Manukau City Council (Otara’s legislative body) to do this work. The project ran for 24 weeks and involved some major advances to community design theory and practice. Two aspects were significant:
The studio was established in the shopping centre itself and was located in a shop in the heart of the complex. Students maintained an open-door policy, encouraging members of the local community to “drop in” at any time to see how the project was progressing and to offer their advice and design ideas. Continual surveys were conducted in English, Maori, Samoan, Tongan and Nueian and design ideas contributed from the community were modelled on a developing 1:200 scale model of the area.
Eight long-term unemployed youth from the local community (Maori, Tongan, Samoan and Nueian) were employed, through government subsidised work training schemes as equal members of the design team. They, together with the twenty university students enrolled in the course, produced a design which was justly acclaimed by the Manukau Council as well as by Enterprise Otara.The Otaran members of the design team worked on an equal basis with the university students and, by the end of the project were producing design drawings which were indistinguishable from students who had had two or three previous years of design tuition. At the conclusion of the project, four of the eight were accepted into tertiary education while a fifth now works as a member of Primitive Nature, a Pacific Island design consultancy working full-time for the Auckland City Council.
The design guidelines developed in the class have helped to shape the later design of a new Recreational complex designed by Jasmax.
Te Whare Hauora ki Makaurau Marae (Alternative Maori Health Centre) (1995)
The Tainui Makaurau Marae in Mangere have develoed a proposal for a new alternative Maori health Centre specifically to address the needs of the Maori community. These health needs are not confined to purely medical or surgical areas of knowledge but are more wholistic - taking in issues of unemployment, cultural alienation, raupatu land alienation and so on. Initially the project was slated for a corner site in the vicinity but slightly distant from the Marae's Whare Nui. This site proved to be spatially inadequate to the needs of the community and alternative range of proposals were developed, each of which required members of the tribe to relinquish privately-owned properties to the Marae in exchange for properties elsewhere. Extensive modelling of alternative proposals eventually led the the designation of a site immediately adjacent to the Whare Nui, on which an initial accommodation including a Whare Oranga (gymnasium), aerobics room, doctor's surgery, creche, cafe and ancillary changing rooms (together with an area designated for specific traditional Maori healing practices. Twenty students worked for ten weeks of the Second Term, and presented their final design at the Marae. The project involved the production of a comprehensive design report together with a cost breakdown for the development. The Hapu are currently using this document to seek funding for their proposals.
Freemans Bay Housing Project (1996)
In 1996, the Auckland City Council decided to sell its housing stock. This portfolio involved some 650 units of housing scattered throughout Auckland and mostly occupied by low-income single-parents, beneficiaries etc. A large number of these units were located in Freemans Bay on valuable inner-city land, and the City Council, motivated by the vision of a financial bonanza, decided to give the existing tenants notice, to individualise the titles and then to sell the individual units to young professionals. Freemans Bay was at this time a culturally diverse community, and some of the residents asked if the Community Design Studio might help save their community. I suggested the formation of New Zealand’s first Housing Association – the Auckland Housing Association Trust, of which I was the first Chair. The trust acquired $35,000 of Government funding to develop proposals and students in the Community Design Studio developed plans and models for the redevelopment of the Freemans Bay housing that would facilitate a tenant-buyout. The AHAT subsequently purchased a number of units, and the sale of the remainder was put on hold with the election of a new Council.
Parihaka Pa in Taranaki was the home of the two renowned Maori chiefs te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi. Te Whiti and Tohu were responsible, in the late 1870s, for developing a policy of civil disobedience and passive resistance to the colonisation and confiscation of their Taranaki home. They are justly famous, and their Marae at Parihaka Pa are places of great mana and respect throughout Maoridom. Te Pae Pae o Te Raukura is the house where a great many of the decisions of that time where made. It was the Council house of the main Whare Te Raukura, which burned down in 1960. Te Pae Pae is a place of great reverence, but looks deceptively informal and ad hoc - having been extended several times over the years with great love but few resources. In the Spring Semester of 1996, the Community design Studio was asked by the Trustees of Parihaka Pa to develop designs for the refurbishment and expansion of Te Pae Pae - a singular honour. Over twelve weeks, fifteen students from years 2, 3, 4 and 5 worked co-operatively to design the new and extended building, being careful to respect those aspects of Te Pae Pae of particular significance, and integrating these into a new design which would double the capacity of the Marae. We were proud, at the end of the project, to receive word from the Trustees of their delight in their new design, and inviting us to develop a long-term working relationship to our mutual satisfaction. In addition to the design for Te Pae Pae, the students produced a scale model of the 49 acre Pa to be used by the Trustees for future development planning. The model measured 4.8m x 2.4m. The whole project was the subject of a 15 minute documentary programme which ran on TVNZ.
Mangatangi Marae Project, Waikato (1998)
In March 1998, the Trustees of the Mangatangi Marae Trust Board South of Auckland approached the Community Design Studio and requested that we design for them a new Whare Hui or Meeting House. The Marae had been initiated earlier this Century by Princess Te Puia of the Tainui Kingitanga. The original house had fallen into disrepair and had been replaced by a series of “temporary” buildings from the local military establishment etc. Now the Marae Trust wished to see the construction of a new and permanent House. Our initial investigations uncovered deeper issues - significant amongst which was the economy of the Marae. As in many indigenous communities, younger members have migrated to the cities in search of work. This has left the Marae in the hands of the elders, with no younger members coming through to keep the cultural heart and language of the community alive. As in many other cases, the future existence of the Marae depended critically not only upon a new House - which would be a symbolic statement of purpose for the future, but in the development of a Marae economy - the creation of jobs, the reduction or elimination of running and maintenance costs etc.
Over 12 weeks, a group of 3rd and 4th Year students developed a Marae Development Plan for the Marae, taking into account important issues of Conservation, Sustainability, Energy Efficiency, and Sweat Equity possibilities. The work included proposals for a mini-hydro-electric system on the nearby stream, the production of adobe bricks for Marae and for commercial use, the introduction of composting toilets and solar heating etc. Students designed a new Whare Hui, a Whare Kai (dining house), a Whare Paku (toilet block) a Kohanga Reo (Preschool), a Whare Whakairo (carving school) and an Eco-Tourism facility. The work was taken to developed design stage, complete with cost estimates provided by a registered Quantity Surveyor. A Design Report was produced that is being used for fundraising and Grant applications. Construction of Phase 1 of the project (the solar-heated and sustainable Whare Paku) is due to begin construction in late 2001.
Ruapotaka Marae, Glen Innes (1999)
Ruapotaka Marae in Glen Innes functions as a multi-cultural urban Marae on the edge of a Reserve in a low economic suburb of Auckland. The Marae Committee determined that they needed to improve and extend their facilities and to try to internalise the economy of its users.
To this end, fifteen Third Year students developed four different group design alternatives for presentation to the Marae Committee. Shortly after the project, the Marae Committee changed and the proposals are currently in abeyance. They included the addition of a Kohanga Reo, a Kura Kaupapa Maori unit, a Communinty Hall and a new Whare Hui, all together with extensive site development proposals. Two design alternatives were produced for the client, each set in a large-scale model of the surrounding environment.
Design of an Affordable Maori Housing Alternative (1999) (First Year Project)
Shortly after the floods in Panguru in the Hokianga, the Community Design Studio turned its attention to Maori Housing. Extensive research into the available housing models indicated that current commercial prototypes were unafordable and unsustainable. A class of fifteen first year students therefore set out to design a house for rural Maoridom which would be both environmentally sustainable and economically affordable. The budget set after calculating average disposable incomes was $35,000. This was accomplished. It was important that sustainability issues were addressed since the disposable income of the target group would not allow for high maintenance or running costs. Since then (1999) the design has been through several transformations and improvements and it is hoped to construct a prototype for testing in late 2001.
Over a period of 15 months from March 2000 to June 2001, a series of classes developed a $20M redevelopment project at the Te Puia Springs Hospital on the East Coast. Two of these classes involved both Architecture and Planning students in the Joint Whaihanga Project. The process included a comprehensive survey of the Hospital and its environment, an environmental and energy audit of the facility, a series of facilitated workshops on the East Coast with staff and clients of the Hauora, and finally a comprehensive design for a 25 year development programme carried out in 6 independent phases. Many of the proposals involved “internalising the economy” of the hospital to generate capital for redevelopment works. Development proposals included:
- The design of a new thermal pool complex for recreational and therapeutic use, and operating as the basis of a start-up programme in Health Tourism.
- New Workshops and Maintenance facilities
- A New staff lunch room and kitchen
- A redeveloped maternity wing with its own birthing pool.
- A new Accident and Emergency wing with new garaging for two ambulances.
- A new Administration complex, centralised but separate from the main circulation of the hospital.
- New Main Entrance with an internal Atrium housing Child Care, a Cafeteria, a Whanau Room.
All of this was done with respect for Tikanga Maori issues and with the explicit requirement to create a truly Maori (as opposed to Pakeha) healing environment. Students who had developed the design proposals then went on to complete a Design Report, together with a cost analysis, and to convert the drawings to Archicad so that the client (or their eventual architects) can begin work with a pre-established electronic design medium.
Development Brief, Glenfield Community Centre (2001)
Glenfield Community Centre houses a number of community advocacy agencies, including a food bank, counselling services etc. These services have now outgrown the building envelope. The Board approached the Community Design Studio to design a comprehensive redevelopment proposal. In preparation, students undertook a site analysis and developed a design brief, preparatory to developing the design in a Summer School programme in 2002.
NOTE
In almost all of these projects, costs of extra tutoring, materials, transportation, document production and consumables have been paid for by the client groups involved. The Community Design Studio works on a cost-recovery basis with its clients. Local projects can usually be completed for about $10,000. More distant projects (such as those in Taranaki or the East Coast) cost about $15,000. Of the twenty or so projects that have been completed in the Community Design Studio over the last sixteen years, contributions from client groups to the School of Architecture budget can be estimated to total somewhere between $200,000 to $250,000. In all cases client satisfaction has been high, and the School of Architecture has many letters on file expressing the gratitude of community groups for the services they have been rendered.
To download a PDF analysis and description of the theoretical basis for Critical Practice (Praxis) click here.
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