.OLIVIA FONG.
Bachelor of Architecture
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand
Seismic Design.
Architectural Design Paper_Third Year
Bachelor of Architecture
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand
Seismic Design.
Architectural Design Paper_Third Year
In February 2011, our beloved southern city of Christchurch suffered severe destruction caused by a powerful earthquake, killing 185 people. This called for buildings to have higher regulated structural design for earthquakes, especially with New Zealand sitting on a major fault line between the Australian and Pacific Plates. Our nation is indeed very much prone to earthquakes.
The brief asked us to design a centre on Wellington's waterfront that would serve three purposes -
1) a memorial
2) an exhibition gallery
3) and an education space to prepare people for future strikes
And it must be earthquake-proof, with an appropriate structural make up, testing our ability to integrate this within design aesthetics.The form of 'EPI.CENTRE' (my project) is derived from the observation of seismic wave patterns, whereby waves are distributed outwards from the source point of a quake. Each wave 'ring' defines a new space, starting from the memorial, the first and smallest of the three spaces.