Attunement approaches Ōwhiro Bay as a space of transition, offering opportunities for attunement to our environment through spatial interventions. This project considers the hydro-social relations of coastal communities and ecologies of Wellington’s South Coast. Mana Whenua and the vibrant recreational community of the south coast and in the Ōwhiro Bay neighbourhood are the communities that this project interacts with. The relationship between water and recreation has long been present at Ōwhiro Bay, a community of around 3,000 people, engaging in many water-based activities all year round. However, the Ōwhiro stream is polluted by the un-consented earthworks from the landfill near spilling contaminants and spills straight into the Taputeranga Marine Reserve.
Ōwhiro Bay consists of low-lying contours, making the effects of sea levels rising evident on their shores. Informed by considerations of recreation, hydrological interactions and more than human theory, the project responds to the changing landscape of Ōwhiro Bay. This project looks to the coastline and lower-lying catchment areas of Ōwhiro Bay, a site centred upon the mouth of the valley, currently marked by Happy Valley Rd and a radius of around 1 km. If coastal communities are not able to inhabit the exposed coast with threats of climate change, could we live in space differently? Spatial intervention strategies are employed that move away from disrupting the environment and instead, let the terrain and natural awa paths inform the design of the structures and the experiences within them. The space will be an inclusive, equitable and universal design to host our last inhibitable years in the space, creating a sense of place, connection and nurture for all.
The speculative design proposes four sunken pavilions, scattered across the site, hosting transitional experiences of the water as it flows from Brooklyn into Taputeranga Marine Reserve. The first structure hosts a dynamic entrance to the site, situated to allow the prevailing wind to blow through the space, brushing the tussock along your skin. The second pavilion harvests rainwater, mixing it with high concentrations of salt to enable one’s body to float. Third space encompasses the evaporation phase of water, in low visibility steam will bead on the skin and fill the structure. The final structure will be semi-submerged into the shoreline, one can sit and listen to the rhythmic lapping of the tide. The material and surfaces of the structures are able to host and nurture ecologies in the site once flooded.
This research develops a deeper understanding of non-human perspectives and designing in response to this, to help regenerate wetland ecologies. The relationships of existing communities are considered in this speculative design, offering ways to connect and visit the space as it transitions between zones of access as the sea level rises. This design considers how we can look at expansive recreation as a framework to aspire and facilitate both new and old relationships to the site in response to the changing nature of the environment as a result of climate change and sea level rise.
