Revisiting the Hillside: Organic, Aggregative Medium Density Housing in a Wellington Hillside Environment

The ‘Conzen School’ of Urban Morphology identified by Kostof in his book The City Shaped, is a western way of looking at parcels of land, lots, and the street grid from above in a geometric manner imposed on the land, then analysing this in terms of land use pattern, town plan, and building form. This model of analysis and development lends itself to flat sites, and separated, isolated developments, and forms the basis for the existing model of development in western colonial nations. This thesis investigates whether an alternate development approach based on aggregative design can provide a viable alternative to the standard model of Medium Density Housing found in New Zealand. Investigation in the frame of Christopher Alexander’s New Theory of Urban Design, Lucien Kroll, and The New Urbanists addresses a new way of approaching these sites through the use of organic geometries and accumulative principals. Accompanying and informing this approach is a case study of vernacular Cycladic Architecture.  In balance with the Cycladic case study the thesis addresses the acceptance of this model of development in a New Zealand context. In particular, with reference to the physical aspects of privacy, view, shared space as well as perceptions of ownership, individuality and identity in a higher density environment. The aggregative approach is similar to that explored through Ian Athfield’s Home in Khandallah; Athfield House. This housing and office complex is an early experiment into the same principles that this thesis addresses. The thesis develops a methodological approach to testing the aggregative nature of development and simulates this through the use of in studio design exercises. These exercises will be a combination of external input from other designers and internal; single author input. The final design outcome will be addressing the results of this simulation, the design principals, guidelines and rules, rather than producing a stand-alone design artifact.