Description:

This project imagines the return of Aotearoa’s architectural education to a grounding in Māori principles.

Te Kura Hoahoa Whare o Maungataketake is a whare wānanga where people from various disciplines and backgrounds learn to design and make regenerative architecture collectively.

The campus design aims to welcome and care for tauira, build reciprocal community relationships, increase connections between education and practice, enhance the natural environment, and reprioritise te taiao in the minds of our future designers. Students will be empowered to lead within their communities and professional worlds, becoming advocates for culturally significant design and regenerative practice.

The campus is located within the quarried bowl of Maungataketake, a volcano which once stood 70m tall on the coastline of Ihumātao. Maungataketake is a significant pā site that was confiscated from mana whenua through raupatu and has now been significantly degraded and quarried to below sea level. The surrounding whenua continues to be polluted by poor waterway management and large industry and airport developments. This design imagines the reclamation of this extracted landscape and recommends its return from a site of desecration to one that radiates positive benefits to the community.

Tauira will grow and plant a large native forest on the southern side of Maungataketake, consisting of species used as customary Māori building materials. These forests encourage students to think ahead and plan for the next generations, growing and tending to trees that future students and communities will use.

Recycled, organic, local, renewable, and low-carbon building materials are used to construct education and support spaces. These are carefully arranged around a central pond with a wetland water filtration system. The capture, treatment, storage, and use of water will remain visible to ensure students retain a connection to the health of the water. Stored water irrigates the surrounding māra kai, contributing to food security for mana whenua and the wider community.

Entry to the campus is through an active waharoa. The thatched form resembles a pākē, or rain cloak, to symbolise the welcoming in and protection of manuhiri. The campus and community wellness centre reception is shared to ensure tauira and kaiako feel welcomed, healthy, and supported in their learning and teaching journey. The journey down into the campus bowl is the reverse of the path that once led up to the peak of Maungataketake.

The studios are open spaces protected by large, tensioned, lashed timber frames covered by a waxed canvas canopy. These are places of experimentation where tauira are encouraged to build their own learning spaces using materials harvested from the site or recycled through the demolition warehouse. A shared community workshop and tool library provide support and resources for tauira to learn through practice.

This project aspires to return Maungataketake to an asset for future generations and uplift mana whenua by enabling ecosystems to return this whenua to a site of harvest, cultivation, and gathering of kaimoana whilst nurturing tauira as they navigate architectural education.