David Walsh, finalist
David Walsh
Photo by Simon Wilson
David Walsh, from Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Architecture and Design, was a finalist for his project ‘A Point of Change’.
Project description
The project proposes a possible re-use for one of the redundant onshore oil and gas facilities established over the past few decades in Taranaki. Energy could potentially be harnessed from the site to supply neighbouring communities, and the facility itself could be re-purposed into a habitable environment, in this case, an educational institution for the energy industry.
Citation
The proposal posits an imaginative re-use for the soon-to-be derelict industrial sites that pepper-pot the Taranaki landscape. Why not use one of these hydrocarbon industry relics as a geo-thermal plant and educational institute? And why not, at the same time, acknowledge an important part of Taranaki’s industrial heritage? The re-worked facility would be re-oriented to the province’s biggest landmark of them all – Mt Taranaki, itself a smokestack in its volcanic days.
