Unfold the Folds

Jessica Long.
Tutors: Jeremy Smith, Chris Barton.

Located on Princes Street in Auckland CBD, the final design functions as a communal library. The strategy revolves around change as folding modules form around the existing tree on site as a focal point. Each module unfolds in different ways to create various spatial connections between the occupants. By utilizing the folding system, new bridges are made between previously disjointed entities, bringing in sunlight towards the voids of the conjoint high-rise properties. The buildings portray an ambiguous atmosphere with the contrast of off-white steel structure to the multi-colored library fit out. In this context, with the preservation of the existing plants, it establishes a vivid, intimate, and welcoming atmosphere to add to the experiential quality of the street.

The folding system challenges the conception of a ‘finished’ architecture through transformable modules. Instead of having a definitive fixed geometry, the volume is able to provide possibilities to repurpose, develop and adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of today’s context. Space is not only read as simultaneous dialogue between the context, but also a device to articulate new relationships, thereby breaking up the conventions of boundaries.