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In 2018, the government published the report of its inquiry into mental health and addiction in Aotearoa New Zealand, which called for a ‘paradigm shift’ in the country’s approach to mental wellbeing. This research portfolio explores the role architecture has to play in this shift, acknowledging the problematic historical associations of architecture and mental health. In doing so, the work aims to establish principles for a new architectural typology of mental health care, outside of conventional institutions. It explores contemporary approaches to wellness, and integrates research from several bodies of theoretical and evidence-based research into a new creative practice within architecture. Specifically, the research draws on theory around nonrepresentational therapeutic landscapes, third place and evidence based design. These inform creative explorations of the therapeutically affective qualities of naturally-sourced materials. The findings of this explorations are transferred to spatial design using a ‘multiplicity’ approach based on nonrepresentational theory and Māori health models, which is then applied to a specific site in Wellington, New Zealand. Finally, architectural applications for this research are proposed in the form of a community-based third place to support mental health and wellbeing.

This thesis seeks to position ‘guerrilla architecture’ as an alternative approach to conventional architectural practice, in an attempt to shift architecture to be more inclusive and collaborative, less exclusive and prescribed. It looks to build upon the understanding of key questions: ‘how to be a guerrilla architect? ’and ‘how to do guerrilla architecture?’. More specifically, this research project seeks to understand how guerrilla tactics such as temporary architecture, can be used to transform existing urban spaces into true public spaces which invite collaboration and sharing, using the idea of ‘commoning.’ Employing an auto-ethnographic form of qualitative methodology, this research aims to develop a more democratic architectural process. Using the city of Wellington as the testing ground, selected urban spaces are activated by employing guerilla tactics through a series of experiments. Wellington was selected as it lacks well-utilised shared spaces where people can socialise, connect and engage through shaping their environment. The guerrilla strategies use urban commoning, an ever-developing collaborative process of social practices, to temporarily transform underutilised public spaces in Wellington. These social practices, such as dancing, art and commensality (the act of eating together), were used as activators to empower people to revitalise public space in a collaborative and inclusive way. The guerrilla method included D-I-Y performance interventions to construct temporary situations. Each experiment was recorded through observations, videos, photographs, drawing, reflexive learning and doing, and conversations with participants and collaborators. This project draws upon contemporary discourse questioning the role of the architect, and architecture’s engagement and relationship with activism and social justice. The research aims to add to the growing body of knowledge which shifts the practice of the architect and architecture from the traditional and

Collective and biased perceptions constantly reinforce social stigmas surrounding the naked body. Bodies of difference, those that deviate from societal norms are often considered ‘othered’ and as a result of this, judged or shamed. Today, the topic of body image is even more prevalent within mainstream conversations, with calls to see more diversity represented in mass media. This work investigates how the built environment has both the power to reinforce these societal norms and negative paradigms or to support changes in social behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and bias. Drawing from the contemporary discourse of nudity and stigma, safe spaces and New Materialism, this research will investigate how architecture might contribute to the reduction of stigmas around the naked body, normalize bodily difference and generate more inclusive social attitudes towards acceptance and belonging. This thesis argues that by designing a space for individuals to express their nakedness and be exposed to naked bodies a shift towards the redefining of perceived norms and a challenge, to what this study asserts are outmoded stigmas, can be mounted. This research argues that the bathhouse is seen as a poignant space to challenge stigma due to the obvious relationship between the space and the body, but also as a site of heightened sensual experiences within an atmosphere that differs greatly from everyday domestic and commercial spaces we inhabit. A design-led research methodology coupled with participatory research approaches will be employed to direct the design through a series of stages. These being social, the interaction of people with people, spatial, the interaction of people with space and material the interaction of people with materiality. The combination of these approaches will enable on-site engagement as well as human engagement as a means of investigation and reflection. Implications of this research will contribute to discourse and knowledge in three key areas: arch

This thesis investigates the current representation of the Latin American identity in mainstream media cinematic posters. While in recent years, the film industry has begun to acknowledge issues in cultural representation, current Latin American portrayals continue to lack depth and rely on ill-informed historical stereotypes. Cinematic promotional posters were once considered an art form, but recent technological developments and the Hollywood culture has led them to become formulaic, unoriginal, and lifeless. In an attempt to enrich the conversation around diversity, and reinterpret the power of the film poster, the visual portrayal of the Latin American identity in film posters will be analysed and redressed to present complex, multidimensional characters and narratives that embrace and emphasise their current cultural identity. This research portfolio presents a visual analysis of 120 film posters, identifying and categorising key themes, tropes, and elements that form stereotypical representations. This analysis informs an iterative design process. It utilises Latin American visual design language to reinterpret the possibilities that film posters have in creating elaborate narratives that treat audiences with respect and complexity. The resulting designs were used as prompts for discussion and critique with relevant stakeholders, to further inform conversations about cultural representation through design and inform further iterations. This process ultimately suggests a method of culturally embedded film promotion design. By re-imaging film posters through Latin American design traditions, I will offer an alternative perspective on Latin American characters that challenge dominant stereotypes.

Indonesia is a developing country in which the majority of the population that is 225 million people identified as Muslim. As a part of that phenomenon and in conjunction with Indonesia’s recent cultural and economic development, Muslim women in Indonesia are becoming increasingly aware of external cultural trends and as a result of this are seeking opportunities to express themselves of their culture and beliefs as a part of their own personal fashion statements. For many Muslim women the Muslim veil, often referred to as Hijab, is perhaps the most salient of their clothing items worn to show obligation to their religious law. Although the hijab has been called into question by some within the Muslim community, and others outside of it, this research does not address that discourse. This research presents the hijab as a piece of clothing that creates a ‘sense of cultural space’. As an Indonesian woman wearing the hijab, through this research I aim to consider how wearing the hijab can both respectfully and creatively express both faith and culture within a contemporary context. In parallel, this research asks how the traditional Indonesian technique of batik can be used to signify, identify and celebrate Indonesian Muslim women in the 21st century. Batik was officially recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in October 2009 as an Intangible Heritage of Indonesia. Although examples of the authentic batik technique have been overrun by mass-produced printed versions, undeniably batik still does not only hold an important place in Indonesia’s history but also in Indonesia’s global identity. The inseparable connection between the symbolism and the significance of the meanings and narratives expressed within batik has existed for centuries. As a part of a larger and historically established visual language, this research seeks to design contemporary symbols that represent the values, characteristics and beliefs of Indo

Progress is the first instinct for humans, with innovation and problem-solving driving forces within every generation. Sadly, as a part of this process, there has been a lack of recognition or interest in age-old, indigenous, local or place-based knowledge. In contrast to this belief of globalisation, this thesis advocates Indigenous Wisdom as a bridge to solving ‘wicked problems’ of our modern society. Horst Rittel describes wicked problems as interconnected and networked by nature, existing on multiple scales. This research identifies one such a wicked problem of textile pollution. One of the factors contributing to textile pollution is the resulting landfill. Connected to, contributing to or more abruptly put, causing this problem is fast fashion. In 2011 the United Nation Environment Program estimated that without intervention, the rate of consumption for fast fashion would continue to grow up to three-fold by the year 2050. The research explores the need for a durable, economical and more sustainable textile option that can both minimise production waste and is affordable for consumers. Paralleling Transition Design with local placed -based knowledge this research identifies a raw material that is the vetiver grass, a sustainable and straightforward production method, a community that is the inmates of Bhopal Central Jail, and a scalable circular economic model and connect them to make fabric based items for their use or sale and trade beyond their community.

There is a need for large-scale, societal, systems-level transition to a better and more sustainable future (Transition Design, 2018) promoting prosperity for all and protecting the planet; addressing challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice (United Nations SDGs, 2018). Creating change in a world defined by increasing complexity is difficult, and we face an array of these complex ‘wicked’ problems (Conway et al. 2017). In Aotearoa, New Zealand, we need to address these and other ‘wicked’ problems; particularly in their disparity for women, solo-parent families, Māori, Pasifika peoples and people with disabilities (UNESCO Report, 2018). Especially as a bi-cultural nation with indigenous peoples with significant disparities between Māori and Pākehā and growing gaps in most social indi- cators (Durie, 1999). Given the scale and complexity of these challenges, we need to find different ways of thinking, being and doing (Innovate Change, n.d) to address them; in achieving integrative, sustainable and equitable approaches to ‘wicked’ problems we require multiple disciplines and ways of knowing, seeing, being and acting (Adams, et al., 2019). The central enquiry in this research is in these ways of thinking, being and doing across the disciplines and theories of social innovation, systems theory and thinking, participatory and co-design, and complexity theory and sensemaking. It considers how they are and may contribute to radical, systemic forms of social change and the conditions, these may require, within ourselves as practitioners as well as the systems we are looking to change. This research started with and was shaped by insights from interviews held with Aotearoa practitioners operating in spaces of systemic change; including social innovators, participatory and system designers, and public policy and wellbeing economy experts. It provides the research direction for evidence, literature and dis

This thesis explores ‘couch surfing’ as it becomes more prevalent within the tertiary student experience. In recent years, there has been a significant decline in the availability of housing in all major cities in New Zealand. Rental accommodations been particularly hard hit with the number of properties available for occupation under increasing demand. Despite this shortage universities have continued to expand, offering an increased number of positions to students. This dichotomy has impacted university students looking for ‘affordable accommodation.’ This has led to a recent surge in students undertaking studies without fixed abodes for either short time periods or in some cases for the duration of the university trimesters or year, commonly referred to as ‘student homelessness.’ The students are faced with a new reality; a reality of relying on short term peer support for accommodation, known as couch-surfing. This research considers the impact of accommodation uncertainty within the tertiary student experience and specifically asks what impact the current global phenomenon of couch surfing is having on either alleviation or amplification of the physical and/or emotional stresses and strains associated with attending university. This study interviews students who have experienced uncertainty around their accommodation arrangements and as a result have engaged in couch surfing practices. The aim of this study is to gain a holistic overview of the impact this experience of uncertainty and temporary accommodation has on a student’s life and uses photography as a tool within human-centred and participatory design approaches to assist in the expression and interpretation of the couch surfing experience during university study. At the outset, more portrait photography approaches such as model headshots are used to illustrate the student couch surfer and their accommodation experience and surroundings with the purpose of capturing the couch surfers in the moment in min

As museums develop their roles as social and political forces, the role of the exhibition designer has evolved and become more complex. The new role demands increased consideration as new technologies impact the demand for recreational learning experiences (Lake-Hammond & White, 2015). Nearly thirty years ago Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stephen Greenblatt introduced the terms ‘resonance and wonder’ to describe the viewer’s experience and connection to the exhibits. Greenblatt asserted both ‘resonance and wonder’ as essential to an exhibition experience but stressed the need for a balance between the two (1991). The significance of Greenblatt’s perspective has become more prominent with the current shift in museum exhibitions that engage technological forms of representation. This study asserts that Greenblatt’s argument continues to be relevant today, as museum professionals arbitrate the balances and imbalances posed between resonance, now interpreted as worth, and wonder. The terms were first defined through thematic analysis to identify consistent elements that produce the concepts and further applied to the narrative analysis on perspectives of technological integration in museums. Using the broader contemporary definitions of ‘wonder and worth’ this research then applied what was learned from the literature to a physical context by analysing use of wonder and worth in two current exhibitions; Te Papa’s 2015 “Gallipoli: Scale of Our War” and Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s 2014 interactive pen design. In doing so the main finding suggested that the balance of wonder and worth can be achieved through encouraging a human connection and empathy which can be extended with the use of new technologies that are appropriate for the intent of the exhibit. These findings were delivered in the form of a manifesto to facilitate the exhibition design process, encourage consideration for the balance between wonder and worth and lessen the stigma around technological represent

This research will address American gender theorist Butler's assertion of third wave feminism and gender ethics and advocate that despite education and modernization, a duplicity still exists in the way gender has been depicted in western culture as well as in indigenous culture. This investigation seeks to acknowledge this duplicity by performing a comparative study of the western superhero Wonder Woman and the indigenous Indian Goddess Durga. Ultimately, this study challenges the contemporary terminologies and the interpretations concerning gender roles within the society to show the duplicity inherent in these contrasting renditions. Through a theoretical and practical framework and with the help of academic works and social media, the study conveys more visually empathetic ways to define the feminine gender as being powerful and multifaceted. These investigations will include traditional and contemporary examples of visual illustrations that contain their own social and cultural narratives and offer visual evidence of the perceptions and preconceptions that Butler refers to in her ‘Undoing Gender’ as “social and sexual constraints” (Butler, 2004, p. 10-15). The findings include visual responses that explore the personal counter-reaction towards duplicity that I argue is rife within social constructions of the feminine gender in both the Western and Eastern cultures. The illustration techniques in this research will provide more in-depth representations of the multifarious feminine characteristics. The study concludes that the sense of gender inequality still exists in contemporary society and only acceptance of this fact can resolve the issue.

Guided by both my own journey as a Pasifika student and the ideology of Tongan academic Dr. Hūfanga Okustino Māhina, this research seeks to identify ways in which indigenous knowledge can become an integral component within education, specifically design education in New Zealand. This research focuses on the struggles Pasifika students face within an aesthetic education that has within its history, a proud claim for the removal of cultural, religious and historic references from its aesthetic vocabulary. I will argue that the absence of indigenous culture, initiated by the early modernists to embrace the universal, is no longer an appropriate model within design education as it struggles to address cultural diversity in both its content and delivery. The solution, I suggest is not an “either or” scenario but a recognition that knowledge comes from many cultures and contexts. This thesis explores the indigenous beliefs of tā, time and vā, space. It identifies the relevance these and ideologies derived from them, offer design pedagogy. Using visual ethnography, indigenous research methods and photography, I investigate and document traditional indigenous ceremonies and undertake talanoa, oral histories, in order to discover the opportunities and relevance they offer design education. Having compared and contrasted Eurocentric models and indigenous practices I identify and illustrate current initiatives that attempt to change the status quo. This thesis endeavours to tell the story of Pasifika students through a personal lens and identifies Moana ideologies that can be introduced to design curriculum that establish beneficial pathways forward for not only Maori and Pasifika students in design education but design education and thinking as a larger context. As a nexus to this research, I have designed and curated a selection of five photographs to illustrate the journey of indigenous knowledge, practice and language through design education. These photographs pay homage

“Oceania is vast, Oceania is expanding, Oceania is hospitable and generous, Oceania is humanity rising from the depths of brine and regions of fire deeper still, Oceania is us.”¹ ­‐ Epeli Hau’ofa This research investigates how indigenous visual spatial strategies can be used to assist in the definition of a framework that helps characterise Oceanic perspectives and methods of creative practice. Cultural diversity in the New Zealand context holds important potential for explaining expressions of use and continuing the development of Oceanic creative practice. I will assert that the indigenous spatial strategy known as vā (space) holds important potential to help understand the significance of collective relationships within the Oceanic creative community. Vā is an indigenous spatial strategy that captures the process of engaging with and nurturing connections that, I argue, should be at the forefront of the definition for Oceanic creative practice. By comparing established Eurocentric understandings of creative disciplines and processes to indigenous understandings and methodologies, this research will posit indigenous spatial strategies as not only relevant but pivotal to 21st-century creative exploration and practice. This research will contribute to the outlining of a framework that helps to define the authentic values held within Oceanic creative practice. ¹ Epeli Hau'ofa, "Our Sea of Islands," The Contemporary Pacific 6, no. 1 (1994): 160.

This study investigates the roots of interdisciplinary architectural and design education and methodology in Europe and the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. In particular this thesis is concerned with the establishment of the principles of a universal visual language within this context. Walter Gropius' (1883‐1969) efforts to propagate a universal understanding of architecture, art and design at the Bauhaus is a central focus of this study along with the use of a universal visual language to facilitate such an ideal. This thesis argues that the instigation of the Bauhaus preliminary course, the Vorkurs, developed by Johannes Itten (1888–1967) and matured by Bauhaüslers Lázsló Moholy‐Nagy (1895‐1946) and Josef Albers (1888‐1976) offered vitality, integrity, creativity and longevity to Bauhaus pedagogy and posits that the beliefs and practices of the Vorkurs contributed significantly to the translation of European modern design education in the United States. Although Bauhaus pedagogical translations were refuted by some and misunderstood by others in the wholly different economic context of the United States, this study proposes that the translations of the Vorkurs methodology, by the émigré Bauhaüslers, Moholy‐Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, Albers at Black Mountain College and Yale and Gropius at Harvard contributed to the codification of modern twentieth‐century design education, and as such continues to offer relevance in current architectural and design pedagogical environments.