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This thesis explores the intersection of painting and architecture, using Napier—a city rebuilt in the Art Deco style after the 1931 earthquake—as a site for inquiry. Painting shares parallels and historical ties with architecture, the two disciplines evolved from cave paintings adorning shelters to modernist buildings that integrate painting spatially rather than decoratively. Despite this foundational influence, painting has been largely abandoned by contemporary architects. Art Deco, a style born from Cubism with its geometric forms and materiality, makes painting one of Art Deco’s several roots, in a sense, this makes Napier a city born from painting. This provides context for exploring this spectrum; the building uses Napier’s link to painting as a foundation to examine the role of painting within architecture.
The central question, “Where does painting lead me?” drives this inquiry, guiding the design of a new combined museum, theatre, and gallery for Napier. My research uses painting as a generative tool, treating it as a method of analysis and design exploration to find out what else can be born from painting in a city born from painting. Painting serves as a generator to merge its creative freedom with architecture’s function through three design phases. Through site-responsive paintings, I distilled Napier’s architectural gestures into abstract forms that informed my design process, drawing on approaches from modernist architects such as Le Corbusier and Barragán.
I discovered that my use of space and colour are not separate but part of the same creative gesture, able to be formed into a unified expression. This project reveals colour as inherently spatial, not merely decorative. This transformed my perception of Napier from a city rooted in heritage to a place where creative disciplines can intersect, showcasing the potential of cross-disciplinary practices to shape its future.
