Description:

This project is part of a series that believes deeply in the power of sharing space. From the community owned arts venue oneonesix in Whangārei to the co-working and events hub two/fiftyseven in Pōneke, experiments in prototyping ways places can be shared resources, community enablers, and platforms for shared time.

oneonethree takes that kaupapa a step further by bringing private living into the mix. It’s a home, workplace, venue, and third space. What happens when we radically layer more public functions together in a private space? Can we reduce carbon and construction waste through sharing, while also making places that are more connected, creative, and caring?
We started by moving in. A makeshift kitchen, second-hand desks, filing cabinets for room dividers, and borrowed speakers. Gigs, dinners, workshops, sleeping, office work and indoor playgrounds. We live-prototyped the functions, explored use cases, found out what worked, and what didn’t, and moved a lot of stuff around.

The main intervention sits on a single level, wrapped in cnc cut artwork by the Dreamgirls Art Collective. The artwork doesn’t just decorate the walls, it is the walls, telling a story of welcoming and connection: The Sun rises in the east and offers warmth; the Wahine in the west returns water, and life grows in between. The Taniwha wraps around doorways, cycling through water, wind and land, guiding the flow toward the Moon Atua where night brings dreams, music and play, while maunga rise behind her and Kite carries visitors into the warmth of shared kai and hui.

The kitchen is a test case for Goodbones, a modular low-carbon system co-developed by Christina Mackay and Hedge Furniture. It replaces the typical MDF box kitchen with aluminium bones and a benchtop, reducing embodied carbon by up to 90%, and increasing recyclability.

The maximisation of one space into multiple functions reduces the need for more spaces to be built, saving embodied carbon emissions and densifying activity within the city. Across its two levels, oneonethree turns 180m² of footprint into 430m² of functional area through an approach that sees social systems as part of a building's design philosophy.

The impact is practical and cultural. We’ve hosted international artists, food sovereignty workshops, and entire collectives. A six-year-old runs their own daycare. It’s scootered through, swung from, and danced in. The space has been a workspace for Cuba Dupa, Fringe, Verb, Twisted Frequency, Measina. Our gig space has hosted leading lights of Aotearoa electronic music and Taonga Pūoro including MrMeatyBoy, Keepsakes, Mauri Aura, Wear Pounamu, Ngahere Wafer, Rob Thorne, Junus Orca, Stacey Lee, Nife Flip, Pārārū and many more.

Hundreds were invited into the design process, to move things, test ideas, give feedback, and make decisions. Shaped together with its community, the result is more than a built outcome, it’s a living third space grounded in radical sharing. A public home that is a miniature experiment of co-owned and inclusive city, made through collaborative design and rejecting the hard lines of ownership - we are all in these walls.