Abstract:
Since the early years of colonisation, rural settlements
in New Zealand have undergone much change. The
built infrastructure that once supported close-knit rural
communities has become largely obsolete, degenerating into
disrepair. Within this context of rural decline, my thesis
explores the relation between rural buildings and communal
living. In so doing, I offer a conceptualisation of a new rural
facility, as an incubator for new communal experience,
appropriate for bringing rural and urban dwellers together.
My focus is specifically community centred on rural halls
within Taranaki's Stratford District. In offering a critical
analysis of their demise, I contend that rural halls in New
Zealand have undergone this change through processes
of urbanisation. Urban dwelling has given rise to a lack of
agricultural knowledge, providing a disassociation between
urban residents and their earlier ties to the landscape and
farm practices. The development of new forms of social life
has aided an increase in the degree of physical separation
between individuals and their neighbors. The traditional
physical sense of belonging to a close-knit rural community
has been transformed if not destroyed.
Belonging to a community is, I contend, a vital psychological
requirement for humans. My theoretical stance is that
buildings can and do support a sense of community. From
a regenerative perspective, there is arguably a trend of
moving back to rural environments as people seek out
alternative ways of dealing with the overbearing issue of
contemporary urban living. The built rural infrastructure
may be of importance to New Zealand's current and
future generations. This thesis explores the possibility for a
reinterpretation/adaptation of rural New Zealand halls in
expressing physical rural 'communal life' in a contemporary
context.
Critical Regionalist and Adaptive Reuse architecture
theories are utilised to test this contention. The design
ventures a new archetype, a new hub for a rural settlement
that will include new facilities, whilst extending and
reworking the traditional social roles of rural halls. Through
fostering a renewed form of communal life and providing
an environment that fuses rural and urban skill-sets, this
facility is intended to breath new life into these former rural
communities and in particular, the abandoned rural halls.
