Renewal of the Abject; Manure-facturing in the Horowhenua District
Authors:   , Rofe Rebecca 
Published: November 2021

<p>Two prominent issues are affecting the vitality of regional settlements in the New Zealand context. Firstly, urbanisation has meant the migration of young workers and professionals to creative and economic urban centres, leaving demographic gaps in the regions and a dwindling population. Secondly, the exploitation of regional landscapes by cities has led to severe degradation of extensive wetland ecosystems. Wetlands drained for farming, large-scale deforestation and industrial settlements established to support agriculture and forestry contribute to the artificial landscape morphology. New Zealand’s waterways and lakes now suffer from eutrophication; an enrichment of nutrients caused by dairy run-off and increased sediments, characterised by a build-up of organic matter producing toxic algae bloom. Titled ‘Renewal of the Abject’, this project is a speculative design that aims to reconcile the problematic relationship between the dairy industry and the environment. Architectural infrastructure and landscape renewal present an opportunity to challenge current urban planning tendencies in the Horowhenua District. The project proposes to reinvigorate small towns with a self-sufficient and forward planning urban framework. Levin, a prominent industrial town at the centre of the Horowhenua District, clings to the vital transport connection between Wellington and Auckland, feeding off the economic lifeline of passing traffic. With the proposed changes by NZTA to create a State Highway One Bypass east of Levin, the CBD may suffer economically leading to population decline. Lake Horowhenua, west of the town centre, was once the heart of the District with an abundance of food and natural resources. It is now considered one of the worst lakes in New Zealand based on its poor condition. Integrating infrastructure and megastructure challenges modernist attempts to zone cities by function and aims to build clean infrastructure integrated into compact urban areas. Architecture as infrastructure challenges the public understanding of production and manufacturing and their natural consequences. A redefinition of industry for the twenty-first century could improve its detrimental relationship with the environment. Clean infrastructure eliminates the need to build industries on remote brown sites, focusing on the prevention of adverse effects on the landscape and the population’s health and wellbeing. The concept of using manure-loam composite as a structural building material provides new opportunities for cost-effective architecture for towns that are economically struggling. The material is renewable and easily accessed in New Zealand, while rammed earth construction enables future growth and expansion. Using an artistic approach in constructing manure-loam buildings has the potential to produce an aesthetic distinctive of rural New Zealand. ‘Renewal of the Abject’ proposes a Megastructure to enforce a powerful urban connection between the hills and the lake with a self-sufficient spine making use of dairy waste and sewage as a building material. The reimagining of this abject materiality forms a critical discourse throughout the project influencing additional design explorations. This thesis explores current thinking around urban planning, Material production and reuse, and architectural detailing through design-led research. Perhaps, presenting an issue of scope where design exploration entered different academic fields, touching upon charged lines of research, rather than solely interrogating the architectural discipline. Proposing a megastructure in the Horowhenua district would seem counterproductive in this degraded landscape. However, compacting urban sprawl into a dense core along the eastwest axis sets out a development framework that conserves land and maximises public activity at the centre of a currently sleepy town. The megastructure can expand along this line, servicing the functions of Levin in a self-sufficient manner, unlike a typical New Zealand strip town that feeds off services along the main highway. Integrating infrastructure and megastructure challenges modernist attempts to zone cities by function and aims to build clean infrastructure integrated into compact urban areas. Architecture as infrastructure challenges the public understanding of production and manufacturing and their natural consequences. A redefinition of industry for the twenty-first century could improve its detrimental relationship with the environment. Clean infrastructure eliminates the need to build industries on remote brown sites, focusing on the prevention of adverse effects on the landscape and the population’s health and wellbeing. The concept of using manure-loam composite as a structural building material provides new opportunities for cost-effective architecture for towns that are economically struggling. The material is renewable and easily accessed in New Zealand, while rammed earth construction enables future growth and expansion. Using an artistic approach in constructing manure-loam buildings has the potential to produce an aesthetic distinctive of rural New Zealand.</p>