Stitches of a watery influence

Auckland is uniquely bordered by two bodies of water – the Hauraki Gulf and Waitemata Harbour to the North and the Manukau Harbour to the South. We sought to investigate the extent to which the coast line acts beyond being solely a marker of Auckland’s boundary to dictating the value we place on residential properties based on their proximity to it. This map consists of eighteen stitches of interrogation along roads throughout Auckland which lead to the harbor. Each three kilometer long stitch is threaded with properties that were for rent, for sale or sold within the past two years. The marketing emphasis of water on each property is scrutinized via photos and descriptions realtors have provided. Aligned comparatively next to land value and age of buildings, we are therefore able to establish the extent of influence water has on Auckland.

By Shelley Lin and Joanna Wong

Another detail

In making our final map we found that it would also be useful for comparisons to include properties proceeding further inland than just those that reference the water in their property profiles. This allows for comparison between land value/square area and also the age of the property.

Examples of mapping

Books:

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward R. Tufte

Hyper Adriatica - Pepe Barbieri

 Highlighting sections of area of a map for further analysis

Selecting portions of land by the sea. We liked how the satellite map stops leaving continuing only with the main roads.

We liked the clarity and simplicity of this. 

It compares types of cars, year and trouble spots.

Mapping out data to find distances

One of the most important factors that we wanted to find in this mapping project was how far the influence of water was. After collecting our data we mapped out the properties and found out how far each property was from the water. This was a crucial part of our mapping process. In our final presentation we wanted to display our data comparatively according distance from the water.

Stitches

Collecting Final Data

The final data consists of 18 stitches taken from roads leading to the coast along Auckland. Properties were chosen along or near these roads. 

Twelve stitches along the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf and six along the Manukau Harbour.

1. Brighton Tce – Beach Road – Sunrise Ave – Eastcoast Road – Rose Dale Rd

2. Hinemoa Street – Rugby Road – Le Roy Tce – Birkenhead Ave – Glenfield Road

3. Attwood Road – Chatham Ave – Ridge Road 

4. Pt Chevalier Road

5. Garnet Road - Old Mill Road - Surrey Cres

6. Hamilton Road

7. Orakei Road

8. Tamaki Drive - Kohimarama Road

9. Waitara Road - Riddel Road - Maskell Street

10. West Tamaki Road

11. Point England Road - Swainston Road

12. Hattaway Avenue - Bucklands Beach Road

13. South Titirangi Road - Titirangi Road

14. Blockhouse Bay Road

15. Cape Horn Road - Dominion Road Extension

16. Frederick Street - Carlton Street - Hillsborough Road

17. Shortt Ave

18. Burundi Ave

We decided to collect more data on properties than in the first trial to give a greater overview of the value of property. 

1. Image. The selling image. We flicked through the advertising images available to find the one that placed value on water.

2. Property Address

3. Age of property

4. Land Value

5. Land Area

6. The land value per square meter

7. Floor Area

8. Property Description 

We thought it was just as important to see how a property was marketed through its description as well as it's image. Whether it was a real selling point that was elaborated on or if it was a mere mention. It was in these descriptions you could really find out if a property was near a popular beach that was worth mentioning or not. We highlighted the parts that mentioned sea views/ accessibility to beach via walking or a short drive etc. 

Decisions

From the previous trial we decided we wanted to compare "stitches" of properties along the two harbours. 
We chose roads leading towards the sea. 
We obtain data from houses around the chosen roads.
We would only select properties that had was marketed with some association to water. eg. the image advertising the property had a view of the harbour or it mentions water in the property description.
We neglected the CBD because we soley only wanted private residential properties.
We chose properties that have an advertising image.
     Due to the above requirement this limits our data to properties sold, rented or for sale in the last 2 years.

Trial One

Here is our first attempt at mapping the data we collected on residential properties in relation to their proximity to water. 

From this trial we realised that we wanted to compare how far inland water influences property value rather than only comparing data from properties in close proximity around the coast. Also, this test made us aware of how  particular  symbols and methods of representation are read and that we need to be careful.  For example the line coming out of the each property represents the land value per square meter but may indicate to a reader of the map the view that property may have.

Collecting Data - Trial One

We collected data for a test map. Data was collected about property's along the coast. For each property we obtained several pieces of information

1. An image used to advertise the property
2. Address
3. Land Value
4. Land Area
5. Floor Area

Eg.

Development

Our project took has made quite a progression in terms of what we wanted to pursue for this mapping exercise.

We found that we needed to really figure out it what information we wanted to  find.  We have gone off on a bit of a tangent from what we originally was heading towards as we discovered collecting memories from people about places would be quite difficult to first obtain, then translate into data that we could analyse and map carefully. 

Rather than collecting stories/memories to show how a place with/by a body of water becomes significant by its telling we have decided to collect data to show how proximity to a body water can give more significance to property's value.


This idea came from discussions concerning the value of water and questioning this in terms of how it is valued in Auckland.

Previous post : "Auckland can be characterized in many ways with water. It is predominately surrounded by water and it is an area uniquely situated in between two main bodies of water:  Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean." 

We decided to collect some data along these two bodies of water. 

Collaborations

I was talking to Shelley about undertaking this mapping process together. The scope of the project could potentially become quite large and the 3d map installation could also be a big undertaking. We got talking about the texts she had read and how they have relevance. She also could identify with this topic and could see the data collected being presented in a hanging installation to represent the ephermal quality that memories have.

This could be a interesting direction. Perhaps the hanging installation could reveal particular places/memories from different viewpoints.

This discussion reminded me of an artist, Claire Morgan, that I have admired over the years and the beautiful moments she captures in her work:

Seminar Mapping

So from the reading I'm quite interested in the idea of the stories/memories of a place that come about by its telling and it is these personal relationships that give places a particular significance. People make a place. 

Auckland can be characterized in many ways with water. It is predominately surrounded by water and it is an area uniquely situated in between two main bodies of water:  Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean.

Cities are nothing without people, and Auckland would not be Auckland without its waters. I want to find out the relationships the city has with its people through its key/defining element of water. I want to map physical bodies of water in Auckland that people identify/encounter/associate with by collecting a selection of stories/memories revealed about different places.

Methodology:

I want to collect data by asking fellow Aucklanders to list places say five* physical bodies in Auckland and why. This might be an informal discussion with people in person, using social media or via a survey. I hope to find reasons that invoke a particular memory, significance or reputation, and if they have been there. The number of places asked for may vary depending on initial findings. *(Subject to change: The more places required increases the likeliness of naming a place purely for reputational reasons)

This research gives situational data as well as personal/intangible data that could encompass a number of different categories for how Aucklanders might identify themselves with a place; culturally, social, spiritually.

Test example: I asked my mum to 'name 6 bodies of water in Auckland and why did she named those places.'

1) Jellicoe Park fountain-  Where Jane(her sister) had her first house.

2) Mission Bay fountain - Where her sisters and her always went to when they were little.

3) Albert Park fountain - City place to rest and where she would go when she would sometimes pick me up from uni.

4) Buckland's Beach - Where Cindy (her sister) lives and where we would sometimes have big family gatherings.

5) Devonport - famous place for its beautiful sunset and view of Auckland Central City.

6) Museum fountain - Where she took her wedding photos.

Forms of representation that you might employ in making the mapping:

At the moment I'm quite keen on creating a 3D map or an installation of some kind.

Example: Map Installation - Melbourne Museum - 2007

The array of columns that greet the visitor to the Melbourne Museum are manufactured from specially punched and folded perforated aluminium and 6mm thick aluminium flanges. The columns are finished with automotive paint which have been mounted permanently on heavy steel plinths that are able to be moved by forklift to create space in the Museum Foyer when needed for private functions.
Inside each column is a range of acrylic formed display boxes that house samples of site specific goods from various parts of Victoria. This installation job presented it's own challenges owing to the size and weight of the objects that needed to be moved on an occasional basis. When the viewer stands in a specific place in the entrance foyer, perspective joins all of the columns up to create a map of Victoria.

I like how the map is revealed from a certain perspective. Like a place is revealed from a person's own memories.

Janice Caswell

I was researching how one might map memories because I'm quite interested in how you could map something so intangible and ephemeral. Janice Caswell has an interesting methods of mapping memories.

She says her work arises out of a desire to capture experience and an impulse to locate, arrange and secure the past. Her work also embraces the mind’s faulty processes in trying to accomplish this. She creates her mental maps in the form of large scale wall drawings and works on paper. She connects a system of color coded circular points with drawn lines or threads to define a space and re-create a past experience using an organizational map constructed from her own memories. She admits that there is no way for her to accurately chart these memories, but she is more interested in the process of how the mind organizes information and how that can play out visually. When you look at her work you get a sense of how memories can be so intertwined, that making them fixed points on a timeline could be impossible to sort out.

Cities and Memory

Something that has lingered from our class discussions and readings is an excerpt we read from Invisible Cities: 'The city consists of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of the past... As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands.... The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand.'  

The story of a place/event that comes about by its telling and which in somecases precede or overshadow a place. Connections that can exist even through a foreigner, for example knowing the stories through the media. This can give an really finely tuned sense and perception of what a place might be.  
eg The nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, or the bakery from Sex and the City in New York.

Magnolia Bakery in Manhattan, New York

Could be an area worth investigating for mapping?? The stories that might precede a place of water.

Wynard Quarter

Today, Auckland's Wynard Quarter just opened. An important transformation of Auckland's waterfront just in time for the Rugby World Cup.

Len Brown, Supercity Mayor, "Auckland's most significant connection is with its water's edge, and at last we have a natural physical link."


Video Link of Opening: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/5399720/Wynyard-Quarter-opens-today

Animation of Wynards Quarter
http://www.waterfrontauckland.co.nz/Areas/Wynyard-Quarter/Image-Gallery/Animations.aspx:

Queen Street - The Waihorotiu Stream

I've heard many references and stories about how Queen Street used to be an old stream. The tiles on Queen St are oftened reminders of this stream. So I decided to find out a bit more about it...


The Waihorutiu Stream (or sometimes Wai Horotiu Stream) also refered to as the 'Queen Street River', is a former stream in the downtown region of Auckland City, New Zealand, which has long since been covered over and made to disappear by the increasing urbanisation of the area. Originally, it was an open strem starting out in a gully before flowing through a swampy area and then down the centre of what was to become Queen St.Water percolating through the soil under Myers Park still runs into the old sewers under Queen Street to the sea, discharging under the Ferry Building.

Myers Park, Auckland

Video : http://www.qwiki.com/q/#!/Waihorotiu_Stream  

HISTORY: 


[When Hobson, the Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand, visited the Waitemata, what is now Queen Street valley was nothing more than a fern covered swamp. But it was a swamp that Hobson saw potential in - describing the harbour as being the "best harbour on the whole of the western coast of New Zealand," and he chose Auckland as the site for the country's capital


The Wai Horotiu was the original stream that drained the Queen Street valley. It was channelled and named the Ligar Canal before it was culverted beneath the pavements. As a reference to this once-pristine stream, white tile motifs will be placed in the new basalt paving to denote the whitebait that once made the creek their home.]


http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/projects/cbdproject/queensthistory.asp

The Waihorotiu Stream - now channeled into brick sewers underneath Queen Street done in the 19th C.

 

Aotea Square was originally the location of a swamp fed and drained by the Waihorotiu Stream. The stream was turned into an open sewer canal and eventually bricked over and the swampy area drained. A three-story underground parking garage accessible from Mayoral Drive and Greys Avenue was constructed in the 1970s.


The sculpture that has remained in Aotea even after its renovation includes Hone Tuwhare's (1922-2008) haiku which was changed slightly when used in an Auckland City Council sculpture project on the footpath just up from the Civic Theatre, to celebrate the (now) hidden Wai Horotiu, Queen Street's stream turned into brick-lined sewer in the 19th century. (http://timespanner.blogspot.com/2010/10/adding-colour-to-auckland-gateway.html)


 In Maori mythology, the stream is the home of Horotiu, a local Taniwha (roughly speaking, a local nature spirit).

Rain Forest Express

I never knew about this, could be something to check out, although it looks to be aimed at the younger generations. Visual experience of where Auckland's water comes from... 

Its been going since 1998 and receives 12,000 visitors a year. It offers a unique and upclose experience through the Waitakere Ranges. You travel into the Waitakere Catchment area and experience of :

•   Ten pipeline tunnels and nine bridges, including the dramatic Quinn’s Viaduct
•   The historic and tranquil Upper Nihotupu dam - a working water supply dam
•   Personalised commentary on local history, flora and fauna
•   Close-up views of glow-worms and cave wetas
•   Scenic picnic spot with tables and barbecue

View to the Manukau Harbour

The bridge and pipeline

During the journey your train driver will tell the story of the Rain Forest Express from its role in building the dams which now help to sustain Auckland, through to its use today. After visiting the dam, take a stroll to Seaver's Camp, overlooking the Nihotupu Valley and Manukau Harbour. The train will collect you from the Camp for the return journey.

http://www.watercare.co.nz/community/rain-forest-express/Pages/default.aspx