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Shifting Grounds: Conceptions of the Homeland and the Journey to Emergence F R O M  B E AU X- A R T S  T O  B I M

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Postgraduate Creative
Design Research
Project

LUCY VETE

NZIA Student Design Awards Winner, 2017

Shifting Grounds: 
Conceptions of the 
Homeland and the Journey 
to Emergence

Shifting Grounds explores the convergence of the past and present, and of the 
physical and social worlds in a journey through the emergent possibilities of 
Tonga and its people. As a “home”, “homeland”, and “imaginary homeland”, 
Tonga exists as a malleable construction of ideas, stories, traditions, and his-
tory. This thesis draws from these numerous “conceptions” and presents a 
projective imagining of how architecture can be used to stimulate progres-
sion and movement in the everyday social realm.

The project imagines a trajectory of composed social spaces along the 
north-eastern axis of Tupoulahi Road, within the heart of Nuku’alofa. 
Binding across the “homeland” from one body of water to another, the pro-
ject responds to the expansive conception of Tonga; integrating expressions 
of cosmological stories and domains as a way to reimagine social space and 
create an architecture of emergence. The act of journeying becomes an 
inherent and necessary process for the formation of the scheme, taking prec-
edent from the dynamic history of exchange between islands in and outside 
Tonga’s archipelago. This active and constantly shifting network of islands 
mirrors the emergence and dissipation of its people. As contemporary 
way-finders, Tongan communities have grown and developed “oceans” away 
in new lands and surroundings. Central to the core of this thesis research is 
the exploration of a contemporary Tongan condition that actively seeks to 
encompass these communities of the growing diaspora. Here, architecture 
functions as a catalyst for the translation of these ideas and stories into spa-
tial and material expressions. As a reimagining and portrayal of social space, 
the project speculates on the nature of identity and perception on Tongan 
ground and asks, How can the various conceptions of Tonga help to inform 
an architecture for and about Tongans?



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