Directed by Matt Liggins from Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning, Urban Art Village will take place on Thursday 30 and Friday 31 October, from 10am to 10pm, giving architecture students and graduates from the University of Auckland, AUT, Unitec and Victoria University of Wellington the opportunity to design, build and exhibit their work.

Now in its tenth year, this is the first time Urban Art Village has included students and graduates from cohorts outside of the University of Auckland. “I’ve always thought that we need to come together as different schools,” says Liggins. “Instead of competing in student design awards, why don’t we just hang out and enjoy each other’s company… it doesn’t need to be a competition.”

Liggins says the theme this year is about bringing people together to create something bigger than themselves. “It’s a village – a group of people, all different, contributing something unique. I normally say, ‘What are you frustrated about or what ideas would you like to share with the public?’ and we go from there.”

Urban Art Village
Takutai Square
Britomart, Auckland
Thursday 30 and Friday 31 October – 10am to 10pm

The nine interactive installations will be:

The Hotbox
By Cale Hooper, Oliver Aikawa, Benjamin Yeoman and Samantha Senior
An interactive installation where users collaboratively shift the architecture from a collapsed envelope to a composed enclosure. The hand-controlled pulley mechanisms mean this transformation depends entirely on human engagement; when the gates are released, the walls gradually collapse back to their untouched position.

Mawhitiwhiti: Jumping From Feathers to Leaves
By Dirk Encela, Yusef Patel, Gina Hochstein, Carl Salas and Vaughan Shepherd, with supporting team Rong Tian, Ranudi Samaratunge, Youlin Qi and Harry Gobbie
This installation is shaped around the timeless archetype of the treehouse roof. Its delicate leaves, carefully crafted through 3D printing, bring the installation to life, catching light and shadow, stirring curiosity and awakening delight.

More Than a Roof Over Your Head
By James Holyoake
James’ thesis is a breakdown of the experiences found through the inhabitation of back-country huts. The furniture can be packed up, carried into new and uncharted sites, and then easily assembled to play host to a unique interaction, between people, furniture and environment.

Wind Table
By Eugene Kim van Dalen and Micheal McCabe
Wind Table takes inspiration from the idea of the Korean ‘pyeongsang’, which is a small-scale timber architecture that facilitates a variety of collective and individual outdoor activities. The structure frames an ephemeral sky of gossamer fabrics, which gently move with the wind on site like the willow tree silently with the breeze.

Claycore Canopy
By Tessa Forde, Simon Glaister, Leonard Hobbins & Ollie Brockie | pre:fab platform
pre:fab wants to bring the power of natural building materials to the concrete jungle of the city centre with Urban Art Village’s first biodegradable installation: a large net of clay, hemp hurd and paper pulp suspended over a block of raw material that can be sculpted by people willing to get their hands a little dirty.

What Hides Behind the Curtain? And what’s that music?
By Madison Edgecombe
The room will host temporal performances but as soon as the performers are alerted, the curtains are shut. Abruptly ending the music. Back into hiding. Exploring quick pack downs and set ups. Enabling an easy change between performance.

Circular Studio
By Pat Diswat and Benjamin Everitt
Circular Studio invites patrons to play a series of games and workshops through reused plastic containers, with prizes to be won. The collected plastic from these games is then transformed into architectural composite plastic panels and many more wonderful products.

A Failed Roof
By Calvin Feng, Philip Lee, Oliver Ray-Chaudhuri, Jack Wu | Bypass Journal 
A Failed Roof imagines a reading room in the city, constructed from fragments of the existing. Memories of previous attempted shelters, bamboo from a suburban garden, a grid of basalt rocks and scaffolding connections are recomposed into a space to read, gather and consider the shelter’s making and its future possibilities.

Double Poutama
By Matt Liggins Studio and Dr Foothead
The double poutama portal to experience another world by a VR world created by Dr Foothead and Matt Liggins Studio.