Te Aro Primary came up as a possible site for our design build studio. At the moment part of the school (the area I’ve labeled “site”) has been borrowed by the team constructing the new artificial playing field in front of Te Puni. Once the new field has been completed the site will be flattened and turned into a (irregularly shaped) soccer field while the school decides on its future.
As I work part time at the school I’ve managed to have a few chats with the principal, Bryce, and gage his interest in the kind of project we would be doing if the studio were to go ahead. He described the site as a ‘blank canvas’, and seemed fairly excited about the possibility of us being able to provide a genuinely useful service to the school through some sort of intervention. He said probably the most useful thing we could provide would be seating or shelters – however as no real plans for the site have been made, he suggested we come up with a proposal for the site and have the school consider it.
One of the most interesting things Bryce said was that for most school playground upgrades he tries to let the kids have what they want. At some stage he’ll go through a process of collecting student ideas for the site, and then will do the best he can to implement them. As a fun experiment at work the other day I got a few of the young kids (5-6year olds) to draw a play area they’d like to have at the school. There were some pretty rad proposals…the highlights being a drawing clearly influenced by Lebbeus Woods and some sort of animal health care centre/ sci-fi zoo. If this studio went ahead it would be awesome for us to incorporate the students in some way…. not just as one of the ways to fulfill the ‘research’ components to the paper, but to ultimately create a more successful project.
I recommend anyone who’s interested to come and check out the site, it’s really quite cool. The walkway next to it is a node of foot traffic where two or three pathways converge into one, and now that the site is being flattened (it was once elevated) it will make it the same elevation as both the walkway and the new artificial field. This makes the site quite a public area, at least, more publicly visible than any other area of the school. The only thing separating the kids from the uni students / adults walking past is flimsy waist high wire mesh fence. I’m not saying I think that’s a bad thing, it just creates an interesting atmosphere. It’s a boundary that could be addressed by any intervention we made.
Small primary schools, such as Te Aro, generally suffer from a lack of funding. They don’t have a lot of money to spend on maintenance, let alone construction projects and especially designers. Te Aro is distinct from other school’s I’ve been involved with in that the range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds the kids come from is SO diverse. It’s a community in itself, and it embodies a lot of the ‘struggling minority’ aspects that have been addressed by Rural Studio type projects. In that sense I can’t think of a more perfect candidate for a design-build studio.
Next steps anyone?
I reckon a site visit on a sunny day needs to happen,
and probably another meeting / chat with whoever to make this actually happen.
I am so keen for a site visit on a sunny day (metservice says Monday 14th and Tuesday 13th look promising). I did walk past there daily on the downhill commute from Kelburn to Vivian St last year and am pretty familiar with the spot. You're right - quite exposed to pedestrian traffic, like walking past an aviary filled with children. Should we try for a meeting some time this week, it's been a while since we've all touched base, I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this site. I also think there's plenty of research potential here.
ReplyDeletep.s. Ben, I would love to see the kids' drawings, if you still have them, scan em in and stick em up
Love this Ben
ReplyDeleteI am keen to be on board.
You have basically written the brief above.
The next step could be as simple as proposing this to Diane as an independent research paper. If that all goes a head and works it will make it easy to do other projects in the future.
Lets do it
I don't know if someone has posted on this yet but in yesterdays 352 pacific lecture we had Rau Hosking, from design tribe, come and talk to us about the build projects they have been doing up at Unitec in Auckland (mostly for the Maori Community). It might be helpful to email him and ask him for any tips or guidance on setting this up. He mentioned OSH regulations etc which would be a potential challenge!
ReplyDeleteAmanda - I didn't actually keep the drawings but im sure we could do something similar again and see what comes up. Maybe even a modelling session.
ReplyDeleteWeather forecast is looking terrible til tues / weds... I will be working at the school on weds from 3pm onwards so if people wanted to come check out the site / generally check out the school then that could be a good time for a synchronised visit. Otherwise go up anytime and see what you think, it's worth a look.
Jae - definitely - has Spencer spoken to Diane at all?
Alex - gutted that I missed the lecture! Would be good to be in touch with someone who has experience like that. I think we decided that anything we build would be under 10m^2 to negate the building consent requirements. OSH regulations still could be lame though.
No, I haven't spoken to Diane.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the OSH restrictions or requirements are. I will try and look in to that unless someone already knows?
Let's schedule a site visit for when the weather clears, say around Decemeber :-)
Well there's a set of government standards that exist specifically dealing with playgrounds / general school equipment..not sure if that would include seating / shelters. The current one is called NZS 5828:2004 - I have a family friend who designs playgrounds (ha ha dream job much) and she always complains about it.
ReplyDeleteThere's probably a copy in the library or something but it might not even be relevant - i guess it just depends on what gets designed. Anyway you can probably tell exactly whats in it just by looking at any new kids playground. Apparently now days play grounds are designed to teach kids that no matter what they do / how high they climb they can never get hurt.
Just like in real life!
ReplyDeleteI'd defiantly second Alex's suggestion to get in touch with Rau Hoskins if you can. I've seen him talk a couple of times now, and he seems really open to giving advice to people who will listen and learn.
Also, unless things have changed since I went there (about 15 years ago :P), Te Aro has a pretty solid range of cultures (including Maori) in attendance. So it would be a good idea to get Rau to pitch in with some advice. He has worked on quite a few schools in the past, and probably understands how to integrate a cultural focus into the design process.
His email is rau@designtribe.co.nz.
Starting to wish I wasn't heading to France in November, I'd love to get involved!
Hey guys im coming in on this semi late but im real keen to get involved. Ben like Jae said you have pretty much got the brief sorted its just a matter of doing a few concepts. Sounds like it could be a really cool project with heaps of possibilities especially with that relationship between the uni, public and school kids.
ReplyDeleteAlso is it possible for this to become an independent study paper in 2011?
ReplyDeleteHi All
ReplyDeleteI would recommend building in plans for an archeological survey of this site if you plan to build on it. The site was part of the old Wellington (Terrace) Gaol and a number of prisoners who were hanged there were buried on the site. I have not been able to track the exact location of their graves but they may well be on this site as it was this end of the gaol complex they were buried.
Regards
Martin Read 8038282