Te Raranga Tamaki a Te Manawa (Weaving Auckland & Westgate)

Abstract

Weaving Tamaki & Te Manawa is a design-led research inquiry into Tamaki Makaurau’s dynamic rhythms in the city. It shows how rhythm analysis investigation can be a critical tool for remediating our arrhythmic urban fabrics. Through this Lens and crucial engagement with Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), the intended research aims to understand the outcomes of Te Manawa’s conflicting rhythms and how TOD can serve as a stakeholder for transforming its synergy into a cohesive, eurythmic urban environment. By taking the research application into a dominant car-dependent setting, we can better understand its conflicts and how Rhythm transformation is applied through design.

Through the examination of historical, current, and future planning ideologies, the design project critiques the fragmented urbanism that has shaped Tamaki Makaurau and proposes an alternative planning trajectory that addresses the arrhythmia of sprawl, ecological degradation, and social disconnection. The design process employs adaptive planning-scenario strategies and interventions to explore how the rhythms of the urban fabric in Te Manawa could be altered through TOD implementation.

Through this design speculation, the study will help argue whether coordinated and interdisciplinary approaches, such as those from rhythm analysis through the vessel of TOD in Te Manawa and Tamaki Makaurau, are appropriate substitutes for fostering ecological and social regeneration (Eurymia). Instead of proposing an alternative strategic master plan for site intervention, the final output will demonstrate how rhythm analysis can be combined with Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) principles to interpret and reshape the temporal and spatial rhythms of urban life. This approach illustrates that a coordinated design framework for combating arrhythmia in Tamaki Makaurau can be both effective locally and serve as a model for broader applications across Aotearoa.