Description:

The Te Horo Kilns site is a well-recognised and beloved community asset which Kapiti Coast locals have visited for generations to undertake creative hobbies, especially pottery classes and exhibitions held by the renowned Czechoslovakian ceramicist Mirek Smišek who lived on the site for 30 years between 1970 and 2000. The site includes a historic 100-year-old railway station, a pre-1900 timber-framed cottage, and Smišek’s iconic beehive kilns and timber canopy. After Smišek’s death, the site was abandoned and became derelict – it appeared inevitable that the magic of the place would be lost forever as the weeds reclaimed the buildings piece by piece and vandals stole from the unsecured site freely.

When the new Peka Peka to Ōtaki expressway (PP2Ō) was being designed, a new link road and cycleway which ran past the neglected Te Horo Kilns site was included in the scheme, and an opportunity to reclaim and refurbish the iconic landmark was seized by the local community in the form of the Mirek Smišek Arts Trust. Working together with NZTA and the Trust, the designers embarked on an ambitious restoration program which would revitalise the site and make it accessible once more for the local community as a creative arts hub with a new lease of life.

At the completion of the project, the site was inundated with visitors on its opening day and is now calling for applications for its’ second artist residency after the first was a resounding success. The project rescued and restored a local icon to its rightful place as a gem in the crown of the Kapiti Coast community.