‘Streets in the sky’

2023, URBDES Studio 1

Severin Soder.

Tutors: Dr I-Ting Chuang (Course Coordinator), Prof. Diane Brand

The project proposes a transformation of Dominion Road Junction in Auckland. The current situation with underpass and flyover is changed to an on-grade intersection.
In the north-western quadrant, the redundant flyover is complemented by an inhabited wall – a housing project inspired by the projects like the Byker Wall, Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill; these housing projects have deck access circulation, which was promoted as ‘streets in the sky’. The plan of the ‘inhabited wall’ echoes the flyover’s elegant plan. The now redundant flyover is repurposed into a ‘street in the sky’ for pedestrians and cyclists and provides access to the ‘inhabited wall’.

In the south-eastern quadrant a ‘hotel industriel’ (modelled on Parisian examples) provides spaces for production, which have been lost in the course of the construction of the CRL tunnel and Maungawhau/Mt Eden station

In the north-eastern quadrant a shared exhibition space provides the front-of-house for the multitude of small businesses operation from the ‘hotel industriel’. Other smaller buildings complete the street wall and make use of ‘lost space’ (Roger Trancik).