Strengthening the multi-generational community through local heritage engagement

During the initial site visit to Raglan, my tutor told me we were to design an art installation for the site, one that was inspired by a specific observation we made during the visit. There were two things that stuck out to me most: 1) the Castle towers and their thick, inhabitable walls, with alcoves that act as additional spaces, and 2) the lack of communal spaces for Raglan’s population to gather. From these observations, I decided to design a communal space that would sit at the centre of this housing project. Its design was to reflect the dynamic nature of the Castle by taking the hexagonal shape of its towers and their poches, to create a range of seating areas that would appeal to different demographics, thus creating one big, inclusive social space. I was so inspired by this concept of inhabited walls, especially those that reflected the nature of the Castle, that I decided to incorporate this idea into my housing units, effectively communicating a consistent and coherent narrative for my project.