Painting Architecture

<p><strong>This thesis explores the intersection of painting and architecture, using Napier as a site for inquiry. Despite a foundational influence, painting has been largely abandoned by contemporary architects. Art Deco, a style influenced partly by Cubism, with its geometric forms, traces one of its roots to painting. In this sense, Napier is a city shaped by many arts. This research uses Napier’s roots in painting as a vehicle to examine the role of painting within my creative processes and the potential painting has to enrich architecture.</strong></p><p>Where might my painting practice lead me? How might it play out in the design of a new combined museum, theatre, and gallery? What could it mean for the city? I have used painting as a generator to merge the creative freedom I find in painting with architecture’s function through three design phases. Through site-responsive paintings, I distilled some of Napier’s architectural gestures into a language of abstract forms that informed my design process, drawing on approaches from modernist architects such as Le Corbusier and Barragán. Building on this, I explored this visual language through elemental arrangements and bold blocks of colour, expanding my approach to include collage, sketching, and digital modelling as complementary methods.</p><p>I found 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, exploring the potential of cross-disciplinary practices to shape its future.</p>