Week 5 - Thickness of Thresholds
This week we were asked to make a waharoa (an opening and/or pathway)
These are quick models made out of scratch paper - each model explores the notion of a walkway and also light and dark. The models also interrelate back to our initial idea of movement. However, we want the developed models to have a different approach, maybe even incorporating several aspects of these models together.
What we want to explore for the developments and final model is the notion of ‘no entry’. Usually, waharoas are entryways and openings but relating this back to arataki and the current rahui, we definitely want to play with the idea of a closing gap. We still want to create interesting visuals for future visitors, welcoming them to the area but also prohibiting them to go through the tracks as protection for the kauris and letting them heal.
The next thing we would have to do is be able to find a way to combine such opposing aspects, welcoming and prohibition, and be able to make it effective. We also have to keep the ‘barrier’ space interesting. Things that we need to consider:
- are we going to direct visitors towards the track and then come to an abrupt stop? or are we going to create a space in between?
- the positioning of said waharoa. Where is it going to be? Have we considered topography, the existing visitors centre? is everything still accessible for everyone?
- scale - how big will it be? will it affect surrounding buildings and foliage?
- are we going to make it so that it blends with the current visitors centre? or will we create a contrasting structure?
- what materials are we going to use?
We incorporated aspects from the first iteration of our structure to make the overall structure of our proposed waharoa
All though it may look significantly different from the quick models made, it still expresses the idea of movement as each individual piece moves and can be changed. What we might consider later on is the idea of it being interactive - people being able to crawl through and also manipulate the structure overall. We also wanted to play with the idea of it constantly changing and always looking different.
