How Do You Begin a Thesis? Part 03
Undertaking a thesis from any professional background comes with its own set of hurdles that range from mastering academic stalking, avoiding motivational clichés, making font decisions, becoming a citation ninja, and most importantly getting over regular bouts of ‘mid-thesis crises’ – the mid-semester holidays being a beacon for the onset of the very same. Regardless of the time, it might still seem appropriate to ask, “How did you start your thesis” for we can all agree that the first few months are really all about going down every path but the one that you need to be walking on. This week we will catch up with Cam, Pedro, Marisha, Edward, and Harry from Unitec to gain insight and nod in agreements over undoubtedly common struggles.
CAMERON MCLEOD: Although I have had my research question – How can the soon to be defunct Huntly Power station be repurposed to provide for the positive growth of the community’ - mulling around in my head since mid last year, my programme had been unclear till about a few days ago. The gap in between the two has been a time to explore what the problem really is. ‘HOW does one re-use spaces?’ being the primary question. However, the scale of the project is so ginormous that to begin contemplating ‘how’, I had to first understand the sheer size of the ‘what’.
Exploring the vast volumes and sizes has been my first point of experimentation. This is done through photography, atmospheric sketching on site, but most effectively through repeatedly drawing sections of various existing volumes and dividing them into smaller spaces to a scale I can comprehend occupying. These visual explorations have become a means of not only dwelling on the possible functions that could inhabit the boundaries drawn, or exploring human scale; but a means of generating a conscious understanding of how these superimposed boundaries within the total volume could exaggerate and communicate the power this piece of existing architecture holds in understanding the history of an NZ industry.
Image: Sectional explorations of Huntly Power station, Cameron McLeod.
PEDRO WEBER: Conducting research has not at all been the linear process I would have thought it would be. I began with reading screeds about my topic: Incremental housing to promote economic and social development. That became very complicated early on as there was so much content, and so many sub-topics; politics, urban design, approach variations, housing protocols, law etc. It was overwhelming to think about everything at once.
Very quickly I began translating this information into words – following a disciplined reflection period every time something new was learnt or a new connection to the topic made. This reflection was then translated into a mode I could understand, diagrams and visual mind maps connecting all the dots together- an exercise to quickly recap everything I had learnt so far at a glance which I know will help me in developing a methodology by which I aim to approach designing my explorations.
Image: Diagrammtical reflections of design stratergies; Pedro Weber
MARISHA AYA: My design project, which looks at how urban infrastructure is implemented into what we may call ‘developing’ countries in order to ‘modernize them’, started off with analyzing screeds of council regulatory and requirement documentations to do with facilitating water infrastructure in India. This got very cumbersome and boring ridiculously fast, within the first few weeks actually. In order to take my mind off the draining pattern of recording statistics and methodologies, I started collaging and diagramming existing water towers from around the world whenever I found myself twiddling my thumbs at my desk - a method of pure collection and reflection to help develop focus on the topic and nothing else. All of them put together side by side actually generated something surprisingly engaging, triggering new channels of thought and inspiration every time it is revisited.
Image: Two tone documentation of existing water towers - volume + structure; Marisha Aya
EDWARD NIDDRIE: My first step in addressing my thesis -‘Taking into consideration its fundamental principles, how can the quarter acre be adapted to suit the current architecture situation (of housing) in New Zealand?’ – was to develop an experiment of sorts which would allow me to analyze a set of systems I am interested in comparing. Deciding on changing variables, fixed constraints, and most importantly being completely clear about what it was that I was testing against these variables was the first step, after which the mode of testing became relatively clear. It can be broken down like this:
What am I testing: • Developer point of view • Environmental point of view • A happy medium between Developer and Environment • Natural progression (Where no active intervention is made in the industry)
Fixed constraints: • Size of plot – Quarter Acre • Dwelling compartments: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom etc.
Changing variables: • Density • Outdoor space • Green space
Turn that into a table and document each iteration and you have a thesis in your hands.
Image: Precedent Experiment documentation typology vs. self directed iterative visual experimentation, Edward Niddrie
HARRY ZHAO: Mapping and reading is all I have done these last few months. My research question falls along the lines of how architecture can occupy the urban void help Auckland to grow up (pun intended). A lot of the anxiety of finding the reason for why I wanted to do what I wanted to do was exhausted in developing the research question itself. I developed a theoretical basis first, reading and reflecting on why radical utopian projects always seem to fail when it comes to translating them into the real built fabric we occupy. This first step triggered interest in analysing how Auckland CBD is actually formed and where it has left room for radical insertions. This analysis was done through extensive statistic hunting and charting the findings across a crazy number of maps, in turn generating comparisons between one pocket of the CBD to another. The most fascinating conclusion drawn from these visuals was how similar to the suburbs our CBD is, when comparing occupancy levels. Can we even call it a CBD?
Image: Mapping of residential occupation levels in Auckland CBD, Harry Zhao.
