Students Jack and Philip challenge Aucklanders to think both in and outside of The Box

08 Dec 2020

Artweek Auckland is an annual week-long festival celebrating the city’s diverse and vibrant contemporary visual arts scene. It’s an event that’s known for its many activations and installations that pop up in private and public spaces, both indoors and out.

This year, University of Auckland architecture students Jack Wu and Philip Lee collaborated to design and build an interactive street installation that carried a strong message.

“Both of us wanted to design something that responded to lockdown, and to have an outcome that could be an interactive message for the public to remind and exhibit the diversity of Auckland’s public voice,” explains Jack.

“We came up with the first phase of the design during the first lockdown, which was also when many of the Black Lives Matter movements and marches were happening – and these things impacted everyone in one way or another. We wanted to address, through architecture, these major changes that the world had to go through in a sensible and sensitive approach. Our broader concept was to encourage the public to reconnect, to say, ‘hey, how are you Auckland?’ – so, the main driver for our design was the public.”

With a 2.4m by 1.7m footprint and standing 2.4m tall, Jack and Philip’s project (titled ‘The Box’) was constructed with minimal timber framing and two doors all painted in Resene White. The public was able to interact with it on O’Connell Street in Auckland CBD during Artweek Auckland 2020.

“As students, we were very limited with funding and initially struggled a lot to obtain the materials required for the build, but Philip and I never gave up and strived to make it work. It meant adjusting and designing many different simplified phases of The Box, running around to different businesses and sending many emails with the hope that we would get more affordable options or potential sponsorships.”

“Given that both of us are third year architecture students and less experienced in the ‘real world’ compared to others who took part of Artweek 2020, there was a lot of learning on the spot, taking any advice that we could get, adapting and putting the extra work in to make sure that we had everything we needed. Luckily Resene, Carters and IPS came forward to provide us with the best option of materials to make our design come to life.”

“We watched our materials getting delivered by a big truck with a crane on the back, and we looked at each other with a nervous yet excited face, like, ‘this is actually happening…The Box is actually happening.’”

Jack says that he and Philip completed the majority of the build in the UoA Architecture Workshop. “We spent a huge chunk of our time there, learning how to use many unfamiliar tools, machines, tips and tricks.

“One of the riskiest parts was designing and creating our main function that gives The Box its character. The four 360-degree pivoting doors that reached a height of 2.7m tall. The pivots consisted of bearings, rods and metal plates all welded and screwed together to give seamless yet strong load bearing points to these doors. The joinery was custom designed specifically for The Box; the structure, walls, ceiling, very heavy floor and doors were all built as individual components, and our first test installation was a huge success. We over-compensated in terms of structure, which was important to us because The Box was almost 3m tall and since our site was on O'Connell Street, we had to adapt to the slope of the road as well.

“A lot of people interacted with the structure at once, so it was definitely worth the extra layer of safety.”

Resene provided the Resene White paint for coating the structure of ‘The Box’ as well as a collection of testpots and paintbrushes for visitors to get creative with.

Jack says that the build was definitely more difficult than he imagined it would be. “Throughout architecture school, we have been limited to modelling on CAD and making much smaller scale physical models. The Box, being our first built 1:1 structure, definitely took a lot of time to complete – but it was well worth it because both of us learnt a heap of important skills that might not have otherwise.”

“The main challenge was really standing it up on site. It took about 4-5 people to help rotate it 90-degrees as we assembled it sideways on site in order to attach the ceiling.”

“You should have seen our faces when the initial structure was lifted up,” he laughs. “We were so stoked, because prior to this point, we just had our fingers crossed. But the fact that it all worked out in the end was magical.”

When the lights and sounds of nearby installations came on was the most exciting moment for Jack and Philip. “We knew it was go time. We saw hundreds after hundreds of people approaching us with curiosity, and then their excitement when they discovered all the colourful Resene testpots.”

Jack and Philip welcomed participants to pick a card, each with its own question or instruction that the visitor could paint, draw, write or express on The Box’s Resene White pivoting doors with whatever Resene colours they were drawn to use.

One of Jack and Philip’s cards invites the participate to paint someone they miss.

“We saw people of all ages, walking through, stopping by, slowly adding more colour and messages. Later on in the night, people who didn’t want to paint would stop by just to read and appreciate other people's messages, answers and voices,” says Jack.

Jack says that he loved every single Resene testpot colour they had on offer. “They gave life to The Box and created a beautiful spectrum of answers, drawings and paintings.”

A rainbow of Resene testpots and brushes were on hand for visitors to add colour and messages to The Box.

“I think the most important thing we learnt during this project was that we need to encourage more designers, architects, artists – anyone, really – to design and make these kind of public interactive projects, adding these little bits of colour, lightness and fun to slow down our tense and dense urban lifestyles. They give moments of breathability within the city and help people feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves.

“For us, capturing the diversity of Auckland and these kind of moments was such a special and inspiring learning opportunity. The number of smiles we saw was well worth the time we put in.”

Artists of all ages contributed paintings and messages to The Box during Artweek Auckland 2020.

Jack Wu (right) and Philip Lee (centre) pose with their friend Peter (left) just prior to The Box opening to the public.

imagesArtweek Auckland, Philip Lee, Sacha Stekjo, Jack Wu

Published: 08 Dec 2020