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activ(e)ation
Author: Georgia White
Supervisors: Graeme Campbell Tobias Danielmeier
27 February 2026
White, G. (2025). activ(e)ation [Master's thesis, Otago Polytechnic]. Research Bank. https://doi.org/10.34074/thes.7355
Abstract
In an age of increasing inactivity and widespread digital seclusion, health and wellbeing metrics are consequentially on a rapid decline. This thesis examines how architecture can play a role in activating communities for an increase in community wellbeing. It does so by investigating how a new type of sports and recreation facility in Ōtara, South Auckland, can foster voluntary participation in sport, movement, and wellbeing to support equal access to health-supporting spaces for its community. This project challenges the conventional model of performance-based sports facilities by proposing an alternate solution that is flexible, inclusive, and culturally embedded to activate its community from the ground up.
Ōtara forms a vibrant and culturally rich fabric within South Auckland, distinguished by its multicultural identity and strong Māori and Pasifika presence, it is celebrated for its resilience, creativity, and community spirit. Yet, beneath this vibrancy lie persistent inequalities of health disparities, social fragmentation, and sparse access to quality sport and recreational infrastructure, that shape the everyday realities of its people. Rather than designing for elite sport and scheduled programming, this thesis reimagines a typology centered around participation beyond performance and creating spaces where people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can move, gather, heal, and connect in a safe third space. By embedding architecture into the everyday journeys of local residents, the thesis proposes sports facilities as catalysts for meaningful connection, healthier lifestyles, and strengthened community resilience.
The project is guided by a new design framework built on nine initiatives and grouped into three pillars of: Empowered Infrastructure, Inclusive Social Fabric, and Embedded Identity and Access. These principles support architecture that is future-proofed, community-led, intergenerational, and reflective of local cultural narratives. Particularly through inspiration from the Fonofale model and the Pasifika concept of archipelago’s, where individual buildings act as unique yet connected ‘islands’ of activity and identity, yet combine to strengthen each other when necessary. All aspects that traditional sports and recreation facilities stray away from, as they prioritise economic exchange and performance, which have failed to deeply engage the neighbouring community and remain highly underutilised.
This research advances a reconceptualisation of sports architecture through a human-centred lens, foregrounding principles of connection, inclusivity, and community identity. Departing from traditional paradigms that prioritise high-performance and competitive imperatives, the study argues for a design method that centres the lived experiences and diverse needs of the communities these facilities serve. By embedded principles of care, cultural responsiveness, and universal accessibility, sports environments can function as socially generative spaces facilitating cohesion, amplifying local narratives, and reinforcing communal bonds. Such an approach not only enhances participation and physical health outcomes but also contributes to a more robust sense of belonging and collective wellbeing. These findings suggest that when architectural design is attuned to socio-cultural dynamics, it can transcend their utilitarian function to become vital community infrastructure.
Keywords
community wellbeing, inclusive architecture, cultural identity, activating communities, participation, social infrastructure, sports facility architecture, Ōtara
Licence
A copy of the thesis is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. This licence applies except where otherwise indicated, especially for images.
