3D installation a hit with visitors to Urbis Design Day

^{11 April 2012}

Using 1.8 tonnes of steel and 1,300 small cardboard boxes, an enterprising team of Unitec Architecture students created a 3D installation that filled the entire mezzanine floor of the Cloud on the Auckland waterfront.

The project was part of Urbis Design Day on 24 March, a yearly event held to celebrate design in all its forms. Design professionals from areas including fashion, furniture, landscaping, engineering and interiors put together installations across 12 showrooms around Auckland showcasing the best in design.

Using data collected from activity taking place around the waterfront, the team created a three dimensional representation that included high and low tides, phases of the moon, cargo shipping, cruise liners and ferry timetables. It was viewed by around 2,500 people, who were able to wander through the installation, as well as viewing waterfront time lapse cameras and graph representations of the activity data.

It was the only project created by students at the event.

The architecture students – Anna Teo, Scott Manning, Warren Nichols and Nick Parks – participated in their free time over summer, spending more than 45 hours each on the project. A student army of architecture students then helped the team paint and set up the installation on the day, a massive effort that took around 20 hours.

Team leader and Unitec lecturer Lester Mismash says it was an amazing experience. “It was possibly the best thing that has ever happened to me in teaching. I can’t even tell you how many valuable lessons these students learned. They went on a journey from naïve student designers to professional designers, and were able to get a taste for what it is like to be an architect with real world constraints.” 

The installation was so successful that the Waterfront Authority and Resene are now fighting over who gets to display it first.