Amber Haussmann
Let’s meet Amber Haussmann, 4th year at Victoria University of Wellington!
This week, we are looking at some of her projects from her years at university.
Victoria St Vertical Village.
Explores the adaptive reuse of an existing carpark building. This project seeks to aid the transition between the city and sea, and the commercial and residential.
The village seeks to reimagine inner city living in Wellington CBD. As the car park is situated along Wellington's waterfront, our waterfront framework was a huge influence throughout the design process. Victoria St village has a mixed program - the ground floor acts as a transport hub for the proposed light rail, the middle section utilises co-working and workshop spaces to create a creative hub, and a mixture of 1,2, and 3 bedroom apartments can be found up top.
This project is just about halfway there - I've just wrapped up the concept design phase and will be moving into developed design in the coming days. I'm super interested in exploring how the apartment spaces may be tailored to different clients/needs. I think it's super important to consider the fact that everyone has different needs - what may be comfortable to one person may be super uncomfortable to the next, and I feel as though this can get a bit lost sometimes which is unfortunate.
Your briefs sound spectacular! How do you break down a brief and how would you describe your design process?
One of the first things I do is go through and highlight the key points in the brief (site, programme, output). Brainstorming different opportunities and issues is probably the main way I start a project. My process is predominantly digital, although I tend to switch back and forth to sketching when working through problems. It's a super circular process, I think the most important thing is to keep moving and testing ideas.
You utilize a mix of different mediums - realistic renders, model making etc What medium speaks to you the most? How do you decide to convey ideas?
It really depends on the project. I've done curvilinear projects where it was way easier to create quick physical models to test ideas, and I've done more rigid projects that required digital modelling for accuracy.
I feel like there's no one right way to convey an idea so I try to keep myself open switching between mediums throughout a project.
The house of movement.
This project seeks to radicalise the house & home through abstracting people's movements. Whilst movement of the individual may be easily recognisable, I feel that it is the overlap of people's everyday movements that create the home.
Long exposure photography was a huge influence throughout this project. I love Alexey Titarenkos 'city of shadows' work and wanted to capture the idea of layering people/movement over one another. I love photography so I knew I had to bring this into my work somehow!
Undertaking my bachelors through covid meant that I rarely had the opportunity to build physical models as most of the projects that were meant to involve them got cancelled or briefs changed. Coming into this year I was stoked that physical models were back on the table - it's great to step away from the computer.
What was the experience of studying architecture during lockdown? How was the transition back to in-person learning?
Studying during lockdown was pretty rough, to be honest. It's such a hands-on industry so it was super difficult being separated from the cohort. Even once we were out of lockdown a huge chunk of our classes ran online, so we've essentially completed our bachelors from our bedrooms.
The transition back to in-person learning was strange but great. There were so many new faces around but being able to talk through ideas and get help from others in the studio has been immensely beneficial.
What would be your favourite project so far? What stood out to you?
Probably the Victoria St Village project. It's been a great combination of speculative and technical design - there's been heaps of freedom to explore how we occupy spaces and the urban environment.
At the moment we're working through adding 'construction' details into our drawing set so that's super fun - we haven't had opportunities to do so before.
What advice would you provide to students?
Have fun with your projects! It's super easy to get tied up in tailoring projects to suit your tutors' style but breaking away from that is so important. Having confidence in what you're producing is crucial, so stick to what you enjoy.
Thank you so much for sharing, Amber! Ka kite
Images and text supplied by Amber Haussmann
Compiled by Sakina Ali
