‘Model Citizens’ is an annual competition held as part of the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ Aotearoa Festival of Architecture. The event brings together teams from architecture and design studios around Auckland to creatively respond to a particular brief using limited materials under timed conditions.

This year’s competition responded to the application to remove Wellington’s iconic Gordon Wilson Flats from the heritage schedule, which some councilors felt was paving the way for “sledgehammers, wrecking balls and climate change issues”. Judges invited teams to reimagine the condemned flats, using only found materials the teams brought with them from their own workplaces, which they filled into three empty Resene paint pails.

The exercise was inspired by a quote by architect and author Carl Elefante, “The greenest building is the building that is already built,” and invited teams to come up with brave and radical ideas to reinvigorate the site, responding to Wellington’s climactic and topographic challenges, and its local reputation as New Zealand’s creative capital.

From the Auckland studio, the Woods Bagot team comprised designer Jihwan Jeon, interior designer Charlotte Smith, architect Arfa Yasin, graduate Libby Hutt, architect Aimee Lin, and graduate Robinson Yang. Armed with only Woolworths recyclable paper bags, the team devised a creative and considered response incorporating a kinetic façade designed to generate the building’s energy.

“We relied on the context of the building: it’s surrounding environment and its role in the community,” says Yasin. “Our approach went into the history of the building and its uses by the local community and university. We wanted to go back in time and see what purpose it served, and strip away what was aged and unnecessary, and then reinvent it in a way that gave back to the public as a student hub and community gathering space.”

“Our team looked back in time where the other teams focused on what the flats could do in the future,” Yasin continues. “Some of the responses were more interventionist, more radical, and focused on the social aspect. But many involved a lot of demolition. For us, it was about minimising demo, using what we had, and making the most of our material.”

The Woods Bagot scheme removing the outer shell while retaining the core, and in its place cladding the building in a kinetic façade that moved with Wellington’s wind. Borrowing from the traditional korowai cloak – made from hardy materials with a soft, tactile feel –the façade combined hard and soft, replicating the tāniko weaving technique in the tessellated triangle forms.

“We took the boxy form of the paper bags to generate the triangle façade, and from the paper bag handles we made an intricately woven roof structure that cast detailed shadows through the space,” says Yasin.

“The exercise helped us to understand the value of retaining this piece of architecture that has provided value to so many people for years,” she continues. “To be able to carry that on and give something back to the building was a nice way of understanding the context, history and social impact. It changes your understanding of what can be done with what you have – demolition isn’t always the answer.”

Yasin adds that by using only the paper bags, the team understood what it meant to use a material to its maximum capacity, while generating the least possible waste.

The project was awarded “best consideration of matauranga Māori principles in its design”, with a special award for “most likely to be impacted by Wellington’s wind”.

This year’s Model Citizens jury included Francisco Carbajal (Life Cycle Assessment specialist), Rachel MacIntyre (Strategic Sustainability advisor to Te Kāhui Whaihanga) and Amanda Harkness (Deputy editor Architecture NZ).  Model Citizens was created by AGM with support from host ECC and event partner Resene, run as part of the Aotearoa Festival of Architecture.

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