Melissa Knight
Check out fourth year UNITEC student Melissa Knight’s portfolio! You can see more of her here!
Kia Ora, Melissa! Thanks for coming on to share your work!
I like to think I'm punkrock but usually everything I do is very pretty! But also sustainable/regenerative because I think it's irresponsible to not be designing from that platform. I also love good floor plans so I tend to design function before form.
Your portfolio features a good mix of analogue and digital techniques - how would you describe your process when choosing what media works for your project?
Generally it was what I was learning at the time and what was the fastest, but I usually make a physical model. I come from a background of clothes making and find physical model making easy and fun. So that made it easier to work through the night instead of fighting with Revit and Photoshop, and luckily in group work I could do that because my friends were so good at the other stuff. For drawing I like using digital for accuracy and then hand drawing over the top - there's nothing like hand drawn line weights and the character that pencil sketching can add.
What has been your favourite project to date? What was the brief about? How did you approach it?
It's usually whatever was the last one because I've managed to do something that was a big struggle or impossible on the project before - like drawing something in Revit. So that was the end of 3rd year. The brief was a 10-20 story highrise mixed use apartment complex with office, retail and hospo.
My design was based around an inner city secret garden sanctuary and was also super green with a Xlam structure of course! I approached it by trying to consider how I could bring backyard greenness into apartment living. I also love spaces like laneways and atriums and wanted it to be an oxymoronic discovery that people would like to walk through to refresh from the greyness that a city can be.
Do you have any precedents or specific inspirations that push your work?
Yes - an indoor skate park called Skateistan. Built by a charity that started in Afghanistan and enabled girls to learn to skate which they weren't allowed to do outside. I loved that it was a humble building but a powerful space.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
You're so funny! Before I was an architecture student - skiing, making clothes and being with my friends. But I've made school friends - they're ok.
What are you looking forward to next?
Getting experience in an office and having time to decide what to do for my Research Project/Thesis.
What advice do you have for those coming into their Masters?
Consider part-time if you're feeling frazzled, but I do encourage people to do it. I had some Starchitects tell me they only hire people who have their masters - that suggested to me it's next level competency. It's also an opportunity to do a passion project, something you might never get to do once you're working.
