Frank Kitts Park Re-Desgin

FRANK KITTS RE-DESIGN

I was part of a group of year 13 (17-18yrs) DVC students at Wellington High School. At the start of 2014, we set each set out seperately on a full-year design project, with a choice between doing spatial or product design.

The name and starting phrase for our projects this year was ‘Invisible Cities, Imaginary Worlds’, a phrase taken from Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. During the initial exploration stages we watched and drew to ‘Walking Cities’, a video that showed a humanoid shape walking slowly while morphing through a variety of forms / styles.

Throughout the entirety of my project, the phrase "Walking Cities" has been key. I tried to reverse engineer the phrase, instead of thinking of a 'walking city', I flipped it to, 'a city that people walk in'. This opened up a whole range of thinking and focused me on foot traffic in the area. Frank Kitts and the larger Waitangi park are the only substantial park spaces along Wellington's waterfront, and I wanted to preserve that. I flattened the majority site in order to provide maximum recreational space, and flipped the existing topography, placing a barrier on the city side in order to separate City and Sea, or Business and Leisure.

Elevated walkway entrance and cafe from the south side of the park (lagoon side)

Cafe and elevated walkway entrance from the Waterfront bridge (SE corner of the park)

Cafe and entrance to elevated walkway from SW corner

NW entrance to the site from TSB

Walking Along the waterfront side of the park towards the cafe and lagoon.

I placed 2 small structures in the corners of the main park. These elevated viewing platforms contain outdoor beanbags for people to come relax, eat their lunch, read a book, etc. Standing up, they provide views of the surrounding area, while sitting down limits your view to the canopy and clouds.

The iconic Frank Kitts playground and lighthouse was moved further towards the city than it's current resting place. A new playground area sheltered by trees was developed, and provides a relaxing environment to let young kids play.

NE entrance to the park from uptop TSB stairs

NE entrance to park from Fergs

View towards Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand) and Mt. Victoria from Jervois Quay carpark

The barrier between the city and sea was developed into an 'express walkway' of sorts. The structure flows like a wave down Jevois Quay, and at the lagoon end of the site, blends into a flowing curve that passes high overhead. This curve sinks into the ground before re emerging to form the cafe space that doubles as a hillside. A 'forest area' nearby provides another entrance to the site, with a covered pathway leading to the main path.

Overview of the park from the City

EXHIBITION

As part of the project I had to create an physical display for a end of year exhibition. My idea was to cut and paint 10 layers of 1x1.5m foam board, then slot them around a table covered tightly in fabric, with 8.3cm foam board spacers between the layers. Because of the complex shape and curves of the foam board I had to use a special freeform cutter, then re-cut along the same line with a craft knife to get a clean separation. I briefly sanded down the edges of the board to eliminate in scruffy areas that would prove difficult during painting.