Window to the world | Architecture Now

Te matapihi ki te ao nui, Wellington’s Central Library, is a constructing of tensions: each bodily and metaphorically. The title, which could be translated to ‘the window by which to view the broader world’, implies a course of that’s concurrently outward-looking and introspective, asking us to analyse and critique ourselves within the strategy of casting our view to the broader world.

The unique constructing was designed by Athfield Architects and opened in 1991. It sits as a part of a wider civic precinct that features Te Ngākau Civic Sq., Metropolis Gallery Wellington, Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington City Corridor, Te Aho o Māui and the Metropolis to Sea Bridge. The constructing was closed in 2019 because of structural vulnerabilities. The requirement to endure seismic strengthening was the impetus for the venture but in addition offered a possibility for a elementary rethink of libraries and civic house, greater than 30 years after the unique venture was conceived.

Whereas standing on the bottom ground of the newly reopened constructing, it rapidly turns into obvious that this can be a much-loved house. Each nook of the constructing is meaningfully occupied, and a variety of ages and folks of varied ethnicities and cultural backgrounds could be seen utilizing the areas. Youngsters and younger persons are prioritised, with low areas within the north-eastern nook of the bottom ground that younger youngsters could make their very own. For older youngsters and youths, a partnership with Nōku te Ao Capital E sees devoted play house, maker house and recording rooms within the north-western nook on the mezzanine, first and second flooring. These areas are additionally out there for using the broader neighborhood.

For the workforce at Athfields, the agency liable for the design of the unique constructing, the chance to be engaged as architects for the redesign was a form of homecoming, a form of coming full circle. The design workforce for the 1991 venture included Ian Athfield, Clare Athfield, Carin Wilson (Ngāti Awa, Tuhourangi), Paratene Matchitt (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Te Whakatōhea), John W. Scott (Ngāi Tahu), and mana whenua who labored alongside the design workforce and gifted the title Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui, in addition to wider contributors throughout the precinct that included John Grey, Rewi Thompson (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga) and Matt Pine (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa).

A lot of the unique design workforce had handed away or retired within the intervening years however Ian Athfield’s concepts and philosophies have been stamped on the venture and, for the follow, the whakapapa and legacy of this contribution was vital. The workforce at Tihei, led by Rangi Kipa (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa), was introduced onto the venture workforce, partly, in fulfilment of Wellington Metropolis Council’s dedication to mana whenua, and was liable for embedding mātauranga Māori and facilitating its sensible expression inside the constructing. Collectively, Athfield Architects and Tihei have been key collaborators in a course of that sought to rethink and re-imagine civic house critically and to recentre Māori once more within the civic coronary heart of the metropolis.

The collaboration initially noticed a conflict of views, and a strategy of whanaungatanga and discovery of each widespread and contrasting themes. The constructing, unusually, is listed as a class 1 historic place by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, regardless of being constructed within the early Nineties. Discussions round how we outline and decide heritage worth, and choices relating to whose heritage the venture should protect was a course of that, at occasions, concerned listening, testing and debate. There was a transparent contest of concepts: between a need to retain parts of the constructing due to its heritage itemizing and postmodern architectural expression, and the views of mana whenua who’ve repeatedly occupied Te Whanganui-a-Tara for 1000 years however have been systemically invisibilised in their very own panorama.

For instance: the much-loved copper-clad nīkau that kind a colonnade alongside Harris Road and on the entrance on Victoria Road have been initially positioned on rectilinear concrete plinths with terracotta tile banding. For Ian Athfield and the unique design workforce, the nīkau palms have been a deliberate subversion of classical columns, looking for to re-imagine the rules of Western structure in a uniquely Aotearoa New Zealand context. For Tihei, the nīkau have been a possibility to take care of a connection to te taiao in an city website with very restricted bodily embodiments; nonetheless, the plinths themselves have been a reminder of Western establishments that search to put our taonga Māori in Western packing containers and disconnect us from our pure world.

The architectural response was to aim to dismantle these bodily and metaphorical constructions by reconnecting the nīkau on the Harris Road edge to the bottom aircraft and changing the rectilinear plinths on the Victoria Road entrance with a extra natural kind that utilises bluestone repurposed from the Wellington City Corridor, which connects conceptually to the coastal geography of the Wellington area.

The decolonial agenda for the constructing is specific, and far of the work led by Tihei centres on making seen what has beforehand been invisibilised. Tihei’s work utilises narrative expression to offer context and integrity to mana whenuatanga, kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga, in a spot the place these have been systematically dismantled. The work is two-fold; in making an attempt to reconstruct significant expressions of mana whenua id and presence within the city panorama, the work additionally goals to fulfil vital cultural capabilities for mana whenua, who proceed to reside in, and maintain accountability for, town and the land on which it sits.

Thresholds and motion by the bottom and mezzanine flooring are essential elements of the expertise of the constructing. The concept of the civic avenue was a part of a core plan for the design workforce, offering a full of life extension of the streets and civic sq. outdoors the constructing. The civic avenue, which runs from Te Ngākau Civic Sq. entrance to the south-east of the constructing diagonally throughout to the Harris Road entrance to the north-western nook, supplies a backbone: an orienting axis. The opposite entries intersect: the primary Victoria Road entrance and the north-eastern nook entrance, which supplies an entry level on the mezzanine stage.

Every of the 4 most important thresholds performs a vital position in eradicating boundaries to entry, looking for to minimise threshold nervousness for elements of the inhabitants who, traditionally have been, and proceed to be, marginalised and institutionalised. The redesign of the constructing ran parallel to the redesign of providers, with consideration given to the methods by which these areas are used and by whom. The Māori assortment has intentionally been recentred, together with customized show models that includes work by Hamiria Doorbar (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Maru). Te reo Māori signage is privileged over English language signage, which was additionally a function of the unique constructing.

Commissioned visible and audio works by ringatoi Māori, who embrace Ngahina Hohaia (Taranaki iwi, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Moeahu, Ngāti Haupoto, Parihaka) and Wiremu Barriball (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Rarawa), occupy every of the thresholds or tomokanga, creating a way of surprise and sensory delight. The time period ‘rawa’ was intentionally utilised by the design workforce to confer with all types of cultural expression inside the constructing. The phrase has connotations of each abundance and materials assets, elevating the standing of cultural manifestations past paintings as commodity or non-essential parts that may be value-engineered out, and, as an alternative, encompasses each tangible and intangible dimensions, and working as cultural equipment.

The journey by the constructing is meandering and the circulation areas are outsized, intentionally inviting guests to take a seat and linger, and to occupy nooks and crannies, together with beneficiant touchdown areas. Massive voids have been punched by the constructing, opening connections between every of the 4 most important public ranges (floor ground, mezzanine, first ground and second ground). Furnishings designed and crafted by Carin Wilson (Ngāti Awa, Tūhourangi) has been refurbished from the unique constructing and supplies considerate alternatives to pause all through the constructing’s circulation areas.

Ngā Pou Ruahine is a projection jutting out from the second ground and perching above the pedestrian passage alongside the southern fringe of the constructing. The one new a part of the constructing, Ngā Pou Ruahine is an area of calm, reverence and personal quiet reflection or, conversely, an area for group exercise and shared power. The glazing and distinctive outlook present connections to the broader panorama, wanting outward, in distinction to a constructing that’s largely inward wanting. A placing color palette and work by Darcy Nicholas (Te Āti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Hauā) traverses wall and ceiling, creating a totally immersive surroundings.

On the adjoining exterior of the constructing, a poem by Jacquie Sturm (Taranaki, Te Āti Awa, Ngati Ruanui, Te Pakakohi, Te Whakatōhea) holds a spot of prominence. The poem, titled ‘Brown Optimism’, was written when Sturm was 19 and printed one yr later, in 1947; Sturm later went on to construct the Māori assortment of the library throughout her 27-year tenure. By way of its content material and tone, its bodily location and scale, the poem serves to imbue the constructing with Sturm’s character and spirit.

Inside Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui, there’s a layering of concepts and influences, previous and current. In presenting these, at occasions, conflicting concepts and laying the tensions naked — on a philosophical stage the constructing seeks to confront our shared previous squarely with a watch in direction of the long run — the design can also be deliberately optimistic. Sturm’s poem is emblematic of those tensions; the poem, just like the constructing, is starkly political and difficult, and its illustration is a daring transfer in direction of contending with our colonial previous (and arguably, current) to think about a shared, extra optimistic future.