Under one roof : hybrid architecture for Auckland

Abstract

This project is an attempt to answer the question: How can the design of a mixed-use high-rise building provide a solution to urban sprawl and increase sustainability?

The exponential growth of the human population globally has directly resulted in urban sprawl in many cities around the world. Trying to accommodate this ever-increasing growth gives rise to an unsustainable living solution. A shortage of obtainable land for expansion and an escalation in real estate prices has steered planners to mixed-use buildings to solve multiple issues currently faced by the 21st-century city. In architecture, the mixed-use building is a typology that existed since the formation of the city-states. With the utilization of zoning plans in the 19th century, due to the beginning of the industrial era and the introduction of modern town planning, the mixed-use building was used to supplement the limitations of an indisputably limited land base. The thought behind it was that the vertical expansion would help in saving energy resources, support the ever-increasing population and prevent the further eradication of farmlands, nature, and recreation thereby ensuring sustainability.

The development of mixed-use buildings gave rise to an exploration of the potential and the opportunities that these types of structures can provide in relation to their placed context. This research, therefore, investigates the process of hybrid typology analysis in the context of the city as a first principle aid to produce mixed-use architecture. Through the research of related literature and precedents, a defined methodology with a focus on analysis and synthesis will assist in the development of a series of mixed-use interventions that go beyond the current understanding of mixed-use building development and how it can be sustainable. Hence this proposition of a productive and powerful mixed-use development is a beneficial point of research. However, this unification of variety as far as "form and function" should be situated in a comprehension of history, hypotheses, and points of reference of pertinent typologies. The aims and objectives, the philosophy and eventually the exploration question, which will be outlined in this explanatory document.

The project can technically be located in any definitive urban area in the world facing this issue, but an area of downtown in Auckland. New Zealand was chosen as the site for this research. Ultimately this research provides insights into how a productive and powerful mixed-use development with a focus on sustainability can contribute to the urban fabric of contemporary 21st-century cities.