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Welcome to Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation student work showcase. This site showcases our student's best architecture and design work in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation student work showcase

Using charcoal to study the movement of the body.

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Study of the human body

Within a Eurocentric perspective, the built environment is predominantly conceived to safeguard us from the outside natural environment. The mātauranga Māori worldview, in contrast, offers a more fluid understanding of our relationship with the wider contextual environment and one another. It avoids notions of separation, offering instead a blurring of boundaries between our built (inside), natural (outside), and cultural (within) 
environments.

This thesis' research began with two preliminary design sites being explored: urban Te Aro Pā, Wellington and rural Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne — sites representing Māori heritage in direct opposition, reflected in their urban versus rural environments and the inhabitant population. These sites offer critical terrain where inhabiting a mātauranga Māori worldview was explored through the contextual relationships, implied dynamics of cause and effect, and opposing dialogues represented by each site. The developed design site is situated at Ngāpuwaiwaha Marae, Taumarunui, the author’s marae. It is 
representative of an architectural context defined by the emotional and physical use of the immersive, interactive and habitable characteristics within pūrākau.

This design-led research investigation addresses the cultural reconnection of Māori youth by adopting an allegorical architecture framework that positions pūrākau at the forefront. 

To access the full thesis:
https://tewaharoa.victoria.ac.nz/permalink/64VUW_INST/k63216/alma99179830910202386

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Te Whare Atapō | The House Before Dawn

A series of curated formations that integrate rigidity and fluidity depict the relationship of foliage in the urban environment. Each iteration becomes progressively more resolute creating a nested form that challenges the boundaries of the exterior formation. 


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Nested 

For my final project for COMD241, I created a graphic novel. Here's the synopsis that I wrote which I think sums up the novel: After finding an old, shrivelled pea under her refrigerator, Aster realises that she’s hit rock bottom. She’s mid-late 20s, stuck in a dead-end job she hates, she’s lonely 98% of the time, she relies on her flawed coping mechanisms to get by, and she’s in love with her best friend. Confronted by all the things that are going wrong in her life, Aster comes across a flyer that might just help her take the first step to working out what she wants from life.

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Alex Pham

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Study of the human body

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Other Projects

Te Whare Atapō | The House Before Dawn

Nested

The Art of Finding Yourself

Other Projects

Te Whare Atapō | The House Before Dawn

Nested

The Art of Finding Yourself