Metamorphosis - Rose Johnston

View in Full Screen

Located just over an hour north of Dunedin, Macraes Flat is home to New Zealand’s largest gold mine. Employing modern technology to enable an economically viable operation, 191 tons of rock is removed from the Hyde- Macraes shear zone to yield 2 teaspoons of gold. The extent of landscape change is overwhelming.

The operating company, OceanaGold, has a legally binding environmental responsibility to return the land to the same or better condition. The intense level of change means this modified landscape cannot return to what it once was: in the mine’s eventual closure lies opportunity.

This project assumes mining will cease in 2020 and is focused on a transitional phase following mining operation to its new use as an experimental and experiential landscape.

VIsion: This project is set in the initial phase following mining cessation. The site is to become part experimental landscape (which will be operating in the wider mine area) and part experiential landscape. Due to existing landscape modification, Macraes mine provides numerous opportunities for research and an unusual experience for the visitor. This experience is to be enhanced through design interventions that capitalize on existing site conditions, using phenomenology as a theoretical framework for decision making.