Geology, climate, weather and society all subtly inflect the sedimentations of Auckland’s urban architecture. Its topography derives from the mechanics of its volcanic geology, its weather is closely tied to the mechanics of the ocean and Auckland’s social formations derive from a complex, contested, colonial and post-colonial, historical mechanism. Between Maori settlement in Aotearoa in the thirteenth century and British colonisation, volcanic formations had sacred and mythic status; the geologic understanding of the archipelago of islands, of which Aotearoa is but one, was as a mirror of the stars. 7 Geology didn’t change with colonisation, but the emergence and the projected meaning of the geological did. Surveying and measuring soil-bearing capacity for architectural development scratches the geological surface while the volcanic landscapes dig deeper into our imagination. Although constructed urban towers, like a forest in a city becoming a forest of signs, might seem to have more in common with an arborescent model than the volcanic cones, these towers are also solar, thermal, aerodynamic and meteorological baffles and barriers; in their entirety a laminate upon the ground, a spongy layer of inconsistent smoothness, density and depth, rich in voids and openings. The city is sandwiched between a drifting volcanic field condition and multi-directional winds. Works of architecture in Auckland’s topography are, geo-philosophically, masses of porous stones, sponge-spaces, in brachiated coral reef configurations between street-channels. From plate tectonics to architectonics, these urban abstractions reframe architecture in a changing relation to site as depth-in-motion. The short term of urban development is a sharp contrast to the eternal geological time scale. The fast temporal mix of late- modern life in the geo-philosophical city of Auckland holds our attention, as does the quick construction of new architecture. This acceleration is always in dialogue with the manifold geological processes that serve as the bedrock to all architecture and urbanism. 8 Now, consider architecture in urban geologic terms – consider architecture as mass, as configuration, as flow and as density. Consider how and why settlement was consciously located where it is in the volcanic fields. From a topographical or aerodynamic model, the fabric of the city is differentiated along a spectrum from rough surface topographies to smooth field conditions, and is only partially determined by thought structures. However, the geo-philosophy of Auckland’s architecture is defined by the reciprocity between built structures, thought structures and geological structure.
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2013 Auckland, from Mt Eden to the harbour. Mount Eden was named after George Eden, First Earl of Auckland; before this it was named Maungawhau, terraced and used as a Maori defensive position until 1700.
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