Spring Workshop Abstracts

 Ahlia-Mei Ta’ala

The Fires of Ambition: Te Awa Tupua 2040

Since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi the Whanganui river has actively been destroyed through legislative acts by the Crown. The Highways and Watercourses Diversions Act 1858, the Wanganui River Trust Act 1891, and the Coal Mines Act amendment in 1891 have all undermined the Treaty and the ability for Whanganui uri (descendants of the river) to care, protect, manage and use the river. This has diminished the mauri of the river and resulted in the loss of ancestral knowledge around tīkanga towards the river. 

The Te Awa Tupua Act that was passed in 2017 represents a significant turning point. A point where we acknowledge the people who championed the longest running legal battle in New Zealand’s history, through imagining the future of the river and its people through their eyes. Now that the river is legislated as a legal person through Westminster law, Whanganui uri can shift efforts towards restoring the mauri of the awa and rebuilding their relationship with the river to be what it once was. 

This research follows a process of decolonisation towards re-indigenisation within Kaupapa Māori Rangahau, specifically through Whanganuitanga and Te Awa Tupua. Within landscape architecture, this research situates itself within the context of tūpuna (ancestral) landscape mapping - as the researcher is a descendent of the river, and the river is her tūpuna (ancestor). This follows a site investigative process of visualising the socio-cultural layers of histories of the site of Pākaitore and its context within the Whanganui river and to Whanganui uri, in order to reimagine the future of the urban site of Pākaitore to be a site that reflects its people and its history, through the rebuilding of the indigenous knowledges that reside within the landscape. 

The site of Pākaitore was chosen through the expression of Whanganui uri at He Waka Pakoko - a pathways to 2040 symposium (March 2020) - to rebuild waka knowledge and practises. Pākaitore was once a fishing kāinga, and trading hub for Whanganui uri. In 1995 it became the site for Whanganui uri to reassert their Whanganuitanga in opposition to the Crown’s Treaty settlement processes. Rob Small 

Rob Small

What Design of a māra kai and māra rongoā will best reflect the ambitions, values (Mātāpono) and needs of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei today?

The return of Lands to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, alienated from their rightful and plural ownership for decades, has been a significant event for this Iwi. The return of lands on the Bastion Point area on the Waitematā harbour near central Auckland, along with their traditional lands at Okahu Bay and Pourewa restored their mana (standing and pride).

This project involves the return to Orākei of their rightful ownership of Pourewa Reserve and the reoccupation of this land as recently as 2018. It involves the establishment of gardens that reflect the Ōrākei world view. The question began as, ‘How to establish an Ethnobotanic garden to meet the Māori world view.’ However, this project has adopted the methodology of Kaupapa Māori Rangahau (research by Māori, with Māori, for Maori). The question therefore evolved into the current research proposition as an adaptation to fit the methodology.

The recent pandemic exacerbated the needs of many of the members of the hapū and refocused the Trust and its service providing entity, Whai Maia, on their kaupapa about members’ health and wellbeing. During the epidemic many of the members were provided with the support of weekly food parcels by Whai Maia. The focus now is to produce good wholesome vegetables in a Community vegetable and fruit garden as a priority. The focus of the Hapū has always been around respecting Papatuanuku (the earth Mother) and healthy living through Hua Parakore (a concept of organic land management and “slow Food”)

Both the Ōrākei Visual Framework and the Pourewa Master Plan have given guidance and a hapū endorsement of this development. The proposal is to develop a Community vegetable garden (māra kai), a traditional pre-colonial Māori vegetable garden and a garden for rongoā plants (māra rongoā ngahere.) to assist in rongoā remedies and education.

The project examines the best design of these gardens on the site along with other infrastructure and functions that are also to be located on the land. The final test is to see how the design meets the values, principles, and needs of the hapū today.

Key words: Māra kai, Māra rongoā ngahere, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Hua Parakore, Mātāpono, Kaupapa Māori Rangahau

Raheleh Jahanbani

Safer Cycling Networks in Auckland

High-density cities around the world are trying to reduce the amount of usage of motorized transportation mode and use a sustainable alternative such as cycling. It is quite clear that how cycling affect significantly on enhancing environmental, financial and health benefits. Apart from greenhouse gas emissions and economic advantages, “bring back the bike” could provide more physical, psychological and social pleasures.

Auckland is the largest urban region in New Zealand and has the challenges of growing population and accordingly, ongoing urban growth. A Snapshot of Cycling in Auckland (2016), released annually by Ministry of Transport, shows the rate of cycling on 2016 was only 2 percent, comparing to the other travel modes, such as motorized vehicles, public transport and so on. In a recent report, Stuff (2019) comments that Auckland riders had been raised by 8.9 percent for a year, compare to the previous 12 months. The increase trend in biking requires more facilities, safer cycleways and convenience routes. According this need, this project intends to provide a practical solution to enhance cycling by increasing safety. Reducing car dependency can preserve Auckland’s green network and help to keep future growth be ecofriendly and sustainable.

Project methods contains defining appropriate environmental, social and technical criteria. Five different case studies were investigated to test this approach. This paper promotes a safe bike network design in order to address future needs, through a set of criteria drawn from literature relating to New Urbanism and Human Scale. Andreas Dalsgaard (2012) in his film, The Human Scale, states “If you invite more cars, you’ll get more cars. If you make more streets, you’ll have more traffic. Same mechanism, if you invite more people to cycle and walk in open spaces, you’ll get more live in the city. You’ll get what you invite more”.

Faizan Javed

“Prescription for Nature: Making room for urban green spaces in highly dense city to combat stress “

The importance of land and personal space among individual signifies a lot to one’s overall being. It is one of the necessities of a single person to fully express its’ true nature. But in this modern Metro Manila, many resources that are indeed important for an individual has undergone in a quite shortage manner due to the rapid growth of urbanization and people migrations from different parts of the nation seeking for better opportunities. This is the reason for the enormous land scarcity and uneven distribution on properties. Creating a wide range crisis on lot entitlement on individuals who dreamt of having a valuable life in the city. Despite of being the nation’s major center for commerce, services, leisure and entertainment, the life’s value predominantly decreases. Causing a lot of problems on how the people respond to everyday life around, making them more stressed and deprived to the point that Metro manila is now one of the top 10 most stressful cities to live in the world. (Tom Connick, 2017)

The association between urban green space and well-being has been extensively studied and practiced in many parts of the world such as Australia, Europe and North America. However, in tropical countries, especially in developing countries such as Philippines there are few examples of such studies.

This research looks at the effects of urban densification on urban green space and its planning. The researcher will identify the problems, challenges and strategies of urban green space planning during densification processes. Furthermore, this research will also investigate the effect of urban green spaces in relation to public health.  

Princeton Motupalli

Water Reclamation.

This Dissertation aims to address a growing threat that remains unseen until it has reached the front lines, a water crisis. As our world continues through its Anthropocene, fresh clean drinking water is being abused and misused through negligence, the elixir of life itself is being depleted without repercussions. We see this in recent events as Auckland city broke its record of a 39-day drought early 2020 causing the front line of the water crisis to edge closer as the seasons’ pass. Auckland’s average rainfall per annum is around 1284mm which means that hypothetically, we get an average of 107mm if rainfall per month, now to be a city that is fortunate enough to get scattered rainfall throughout the year yet dumping that same water into our harbor is a huge waste. Through our highways and infrastructure, we have built yet utilized foundations.

This thesis will critiquing Aotearoa’s stormwater management system in terms of treatment and conservation, more specifically through our roading network and our rural medium to high-density housings. Auckland city already has the foundation laid to create a well-functioning stormwater circulation system; however, it is unfinished due to most of Auckland’s stormwater being dumped out into our harbour unfiltered, this is a huge waste, not to mention, very polluting. Auckland isn’t far away from becoming a well-functioning city of sails, with our public system and our transporting networks heading towards completion of its current stage a well productive city is looking promising, however during this process a lot of focus is being taken out of critical needs such as water mitigation and climate change, are we ready for the upcoming challenges that are heading towards our direction? 

Jon Davies 

The Parka Project. 

The purpose of the research is to create architectural interventions to increase thermal performance in existing occupied as-built homes. 

The limitations are the walls, as pre 1980’s homes in New Zealand do not have insulated walls. 

The barriers that are preventing every architect/government/policy makers/etc to implement change are: 

1. A lack of willingness to require better outcomes protects industry as we don’t have the skills in the industry to design and build to measurably high performance targets, 

2. An unwillingness to admit failure of a performance based code with too many ‘out clauses’, and,

3. The perception that requiring change (seen as higher cost of building) will be political suicide. 

Focus question:

Can Kainga Ora’s occupied Starblocks meet EnerPHit Standard.

Hypothesis:

The hypothesis for this research is that we can externally insulate existing masonry buildings to internationally recognised performance standards. 

In New Zealand there are major knowledge gaps in how we build thermally efficient homes. It is very simple to design improve thermal performance for existing dwellings and harder to implement.  

There is an underlying barrier to implement the change = cost, social and understanding/knowledge. 

Peter Raimondo 

Tall Bricks 

I would like a homegrown guide based on NZ-based research to reference while designing brick veneer facades. Through my engineering practice, I have been designing brick facades based on international standards and best practices, and often get pushback and scepticism from others in the industry questioning how international standards could possibly be used in New Zealand. The opposition to my design methodology has come from two polar opposite camps, both of which do not understand the strength and/or limitations of bricks.  

Firstly, there are those that reference the Christchurch earthquakes as a reason why brick cannot or should not be used in New Zealand due to seismic activity. This group would likely have seen the damaged buildings with damaged bricks either in person or in photos/videos, and would have written off bricks in their mind as unsafe for New Zealand due to seismic activity. They have decided that brick is inherently unsuitable for the local conditions without having done research into the causes of brick damage/collapse, and without knowing that there are different ways to build a building that is covered in brick.

Secondly, there are those that seem to believe that brick veneers have no limitations whatsoever, and therefore can be applied to mid- or high-rise buildings in the exact same way that they are applied to small 1- and 2-storey homes. These people try to “value engineer” or eliminate required items within the brick design to save money on a project without understanding that these deletions can and will compromise safety and durability. 

While the two groups opposing groups are opposite in perspective, they are two sides of the same coin as they both believe that the physics in NZ are different than the rest of the world and therefore international standards and best practices cannot apply and should not be used here. A NZ-written guide based on research done in New Zealand with local products would provide much more convincing and ironclad evidence to both the fearful and the stingy.