Description:

Waiaroha invites you to discover the wonder of water in a sustainable green space built around a state-of-the art drinking water treatment plant. This award-winning facility in the heart of Hastings was co-developed with Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga.

The client Hastings District Council, had three ambitious aims:
To build a safe new drinking-water treatment system for the district.
To regain trust after the Havelock North contamination crisis 2016.
To educate the public – young people in particular – about how water systems work.

Ultimately, our brief was to turn distrust into delight. A huge challenge.

Outdoor space: I uta ki tai

In this zone visitors follow water through a ‘mountains to sea’ journey. Follow the colourful signs to learn about the water cycle. Pump, spray and twist at hands-on water stations. Look into the treatment plant and watch animations explaining how it works.

Indoor space: Te Whare Waiaroha

Here visitors can play games, watch films, have a say or snuggle up with a book. Discover the atua of Heretaunga through carved and woven arts and large-scale graphics. The space can be reconfigured from exhibition to classroom or venue for hire creating a vibrant hub for everything water.

Stitchbird was engaged to work with the client, stakeholders and community to deliver the education and visitor experience design package. We knew we would have to use all our creative skills to engage the target audience: school groups and families.

Our big idea was to create a ‘discovery centre’ like no other – a seamless outdoor and indoor experience and exhibition that would reveal Heretaunga’s largely unseen world of water.

Look and feel

We had to create a playful yet complementary visitor experience to lay over the base infrastructure on site. Art, carvings, sculpture, interpretive content and the two water tanks and treatment plant had to all feel unified.

Many elements were shaped to reflect the organic movement of water. All materials were considered for their low environmental impact, from permeable concrete to untreated timber.

Challenges and opportunities

The outdoor technical challenges were huge. We worked closely with engineers, 3D designers, fabricators and installers, while weaving iwi, community and council input into the designs.

Highlights included:

Creating ‘cloud canopy’ seating and a hands-on water-pumping station that mimics rain.
Reticulating and re-using onsite water through hands-on water features.
Designing robust story panels that distilled complex science and mātauranga into bite-sized stories and tactile elements.

Graphic approach

A vibrant graphics palette tied everything together, from wayfinding signs to stunning ‘cathedral’ windows featuring atua and kaitiaki. We created bold graphic novel-style illustrations to engage our young audience and reflect water’s life-giving mauri and energy.

Flexible furniture

Indoors, we developed mobile, reconfigurable furniture that could be moved aside for school groups or events. Table-tops were made from recycled plastic.

Waiaroha has become an urban oasis and a bicultural learning hub for the people of Hastings.

It has transformed the council’s reputation. Its sustainable design sets a new benchmark for visitor experiences in Hawke’s Bay and Aotearoa.