The Togetherness Of Strangers

New Zealand is a progressively ethnic diverse yet individualistic country. The population is constantly increasing and among this is cohort of people belonging to collectivist cultures, with forecasts of these cultures such as Asians said to be rising 120 percent to 600,000 by 2021. The current social patterns in individualistic societies such as New Zealand suggest that the dominant style of living is singular in nature, meaning small clusters of individuals. However, in collectivist societies people live in a more integrated manner with others and their surroundings, contributing to an arguably healthier lifestyle and greater acceptance. This shift in the identity of New Zealand demands for a change in the way that different cultures can live with each other, to better reflect the needs of these different groups while increasing the social aspects within them.

This thesis investigates how medium density architecture can address the problem of housing different cultures within the same space, along with finding ways to increase the sociability among dwellers in New Zealand. Adopting Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism to aid in designing for different societies, Newtown in Wellington was used as testing grounds to identify ways that people can live integrated among themselves as well as different groups and styles of living, forming a more ‘cohesive’ culture overall. Coupling conventional medium density housing techniques and specialized ‘social’ design in a semi-urban setting; this thesis aimed to find ways to create a model that allows for facilitating the togetherness of strangers without forcing them to fully assimilate. The research challenges how contemporary architecture can create an environment where people of different ages or backgrounds can be housed together to form a ‘living community’. It finds that flexible inclusive design that adapts to the existing fabric and allows for integration with the wider community as well as the examined groups can offer a successful model for the togetherness of strangers.