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These are two images showing the contours on my site, it is in three "layers" so to speak. The Old Railway station building, the street between it and the wall, a steep drop and then a flat carpark area.
An interesting tool I discovered on the GIS viewer was it's ability to map out "impervious surfaces" - ("Impervious surfaces are mainly artificial structures--such as pavements (roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots) that are covered by impenetrable materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick, and stone--and rooftops. Soils compacted by urban development are also highly impervious.") These surfaces could be called "immune" to a majority of weathering effects, perhaps it would be interesting to see whether or not this is really true?
Here are some general site photos about where I will place my design, taken today:
I hope to base my design on/around this ledge, as it will allow it to occupy more space on the road as well as utilizing an existing, unused piece of architecture, which would improve the current appearance of the site.
A list of materials I found used in the site are as follows: concrete, brick, steel, wood and granite. However, other materials such as moss, fungus and rust were filtering into these, "weathering" them, here are some photos showing examples of weathering specific to my site:
In terms of lighting, it was very hard to ascertain which direction it was coming from, as the day was overcast. However, when I returned to the site at night, I paid attention to the artificial light. There were 12 street lamps, 8 panel lights and 2 spotlights outside the entrance. Overall they had an orange hue which made the Old Railway Station look very melancholy:
The prevailing wind was coming in from the south, however, it was hardly noticable in front of the train station itself, but upon seeing a flag on top of a crane a little further down the site, I saw that the wind was in fact, quite impressive, the location is therefore quite sheltered from any harsh winds.
In terms of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic, there were precious few cars, even though the car parking spaces could accomodate up to 172 cars. Over half an hour, I counted 25 people walking past, 21 of whom were coming from the direction of Vector Arena (perhaps migrating from the more "social" park, or returning from the shopping district/countdown area) The source of noise was therefore concentrated from the North, where Vector Arena and Mahuhu Crescent are located.
Annual precipitation levels in Auckland helped give me some idea of rainfall on the site, as I would be unable to generate this information myself at this time (it was not a rainy day today.) Annual rainfall (recorded in seasons) is as follows:
Spring - 100mm
Winter - 135mm
Summer - 77mm
Autumn - 101mm
Other facts about the area include that it is part of a liquor ban area, belongs to the Waitemata and Gulf Ward Boundary and is in an "urban residential" area, all the surrounding buildings are apartment complexes, one of which includes a tennis court.
This white line shows where my tram track will run through, going on the outside of the existing raised ledge. It utilizes the ledge I saw previously, and would not disrupt the already present traffic by "cramping" the curb. As well as this, there are 172 parking spaces in the lot, by extending this tram track outwards, it would only occupy a small margin (23 spaces) in comparison to the new transport it would bring to the area, improving it.
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