Civic welcome | Architecture Now

Te Iwitahi is a brand new civic centre for Whangārei that brings collectively council places of work, buyer companies and council chambers beneath one roof. 

The title, gifted by Ngā Hapū o Whangārei, acknowledges certainly one of their principal tupuna, Te Iwitahi, and interprets as ‘for everybody’, capturing the intention for this to be a spot the place everybody within the district feels welcome.

In early 2019, Staff Architects Auckland, as a part of a design-build consortium, was engaged to develop the practical transient for the constructing. By means of a sequence of workshops with shopper stakeholders, a posh set of spatial, operational and environmental necessities was recognized. Throughout this section, a web site was chosen adjoining to the Whangārei Central Library and Discussion board North Leisure Centre, with the intention of creating a single civic precinct for the metropolis.

The design-build course of was fast-tracked to fulfill a good building deadline so, when Aotearoa entered its first COVID-19 lockdown someday after the preliminary design stage had formally commenced, the architects had no selection however to proceed on at full tempo, collaborating with a workforce of 15 consultants through Zoom from their newly established dwelling places of work.

As world lockdowns started to affect provide chains, the choice was made to order structural metal, based mostly on bulk and site drawings, earlier than developed design had even begun. Ultimately, a complete of 4 staged constructing consents have been granted to allow the development to proceed in parallel with design growth. Paradoxically, the factor that precipitated the largest delay to the schedule was the council RFI (request for info) course of.

What can be most architects’ worst nightmare was, to Kerry Avery of Staff Architects, simply one other problem in a protracted profession spent delivering advanced initiatives with tight time frames and restricted budgets. Along with a talented workforce of consultants and contractors, Avery and his colleagues pulled it off.

A latest recipient of a Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZIA Native Structure Award, this 8300sqm, four-storey public constructing has a powerful avenue presence, welcoming guests through a double-height porch linked to a big ātea area, which hyperlinks to the adjoining library. The shopper is happy with the end result and is already reaping the advantages of a fit-for-purpose constructing, housing all council employees in a single location. Workspaces and assembly rooms are embedded with the newest know-how for efficient workforce collaboration, and employees well-being and accessibility have been prioritised. The constructing has been designed for operational vitality effectivity and with future adaptability in thoughts, and it’s exhausting to not be impressed with the shear enormity of what has been achieved by the mission workforce.

It might be doable to fill a number of pages with an in depth rundown of the design-build course of, the continuing affect of supply-chain disruptions, rising materials prices and a restricted finances, and but my curiosity within the mission lies elsewhere.

After I learn on the council web site that the constructing was designed with a Māori ‘cultural narrative’, I instantly wished to know extra: to grasp who was engaged in offering this narrative, when and the way their enter was sought, and what affect this engagement had on the design of the constructing and surrounding panorama.

These questions are vital as a result of it issues who’s telling the story and whether or not it’s their story to inform. Timing makes a distinction to how deeply a narrative can embed itself; whether or not it turns into foundational or a thinly utilized veneer.

I found it was close to the top of the preliminary design stage, as soon as the positioning had been chosen and massing, orientation, positioning and normal constructing type determined upon, that Matakohe Structure + Urbanism joined the design workforce to offer steering on tikanga and the suitable use of cultural ideas inside the design.

Across the identical time, Landform Consulting ready a cultural affect evaluation, with one of many key suggestions being the necessity for formal mana whenua engagement within the design course of.

A number of hapū and iwi determine as mana whenua of the positioning, because it was once a spot the place kai was grown alongside the awa, and totally different tāngata would come and go, in accordance with the seasons. Due to this, mana whenua felt that every one hapū of the Whangārei area ought to be concerned within the engagement course of, beginning with a hui at Terenga Paraoa Marae, at which cultural aspirations for the mission have been agreed. Throughout this hui, a Rōpū Kaumātua was fashioned to symbolize hapū, together with mana whenua, in all future engagements.

This transfer simplified the method for the design workforce whereas, importantly, making certain that these with the required authority to make selections on behalf of hapū have been concerned in all subsequent levels of the mission.

The affect of hapū engagement is most evident within the ātea area and inside the primary entrance foyer. An axis of arrival is delineated within the paving design, main guests to the entrance entrance alongside a route historically taken throughout pōwhiri. A kāpehu inlaid into this path factors to surrounding pā that have been as soon as linked through pathways converging on the web site.

A Corten metal and timber display between the ātea and automobile park provided a possibility to symbolize the range of people that reside in Whangārei. It was initially proposed to inscribe symbols from every tradition onto the panels, however this didn’t sit comfortably with the Rōpū Kaumātua, who have been understandably all too accustomed to the misappropriation of cultural symbolism. As an alternative, Hope Pūriri from Matakohe proposed that every tradition was represented by the constellations which are most distinguished within the sky at its location of origin. This design transfer is refined but feels respectful and applicable, celebrating variety whereas, on the identical time, signifying that we’re all linked beneath one sky.

The imagined ātea extends contained in the constructing in direction of a central atrium. A dark-grey pathway inlaid with native volcanic stones references the murky waters of colonialism and a time when there was a lot misunderstanding and separation between individuals. Floating in these waters are summary timber types, representing Māori waka and logs harvested by Pākehā colonisers.

The pathway terminates with a circle, representing a spot to come back collectively in peace, earlier than individuals transfer by way of to council chambers and places of work. Star-like perforations within the ceiling straight overhead are one other reminder of the celestial realm that connects us all collectively.

Hapū imagined that this area of neutrality could also be used for civic ceremonies as a substitute of holding them inside the politicised area of the chambers.

In an extra try and decolonise the area, a devoted hapū assembly room has been offered on the bottom flooring; it may be entered through the primary foyer in addition to by way of a separate exterior, all-hours entry door.

Previous to my go to, I had anticipated that the atrium can be an area wherein it might be doable to learn the overarching idea reported on the council web site — that the constructing symbolises the Māori creation narrative, with every flooring stage representing a special realm of the pure world. As an alternative, on account of a constrained finances, that is indicated subtly by way of altering color schemes on every of the three workplace ranges, and using natural world as names for assembly rooms, which is helpful for wayfinding in such a big constructing however not essentially the most efficiently embedded idea.

Regardless of the plain successes that got here from together with hapū within the design course of, it’s exhausting to not really feel that there was a missed alternative within the timing of this engagement. If it had began earlier than the positioning was chosen or constructing type agreed upon, maybe, a extra radical design answer may need introduced itself. And that is the place I circle again to the design-build course of and contemplate the constraints this procurement methodology locations on design groups.

Te Iwitahi is a superb instance of collaborative design processes in motion inside a colonial framework for mission supply. Now could be the time to contemplate methods wherein we are able to start to decolonise the method of designing our most public buildings. Maybe we begin by welcoming in a slower tempo: one that permits for extra whakawhanaungatanga so we are able to share our tales and perceive each other higher earlier than we put pen to paper. Te ao Māori has a lot extra to supply than fantastically adorned surfaces, so let’s advocate for processes that permit that potential to be expressed extra absolutely, inside our constructed setting, for the advantage of all.