From facial tattoos to TV stations, young Māori are enthusiastically embracing tribal cultural identity in Aotearoa New Zealand. Now a new wave of Indigenous architects are making their mark
bright red ribbon of metal buckles out of the ground in suburban Auckland, ramping up at a sharp angle before cranking over in a lopsided arc. It frames a big glass wall, folded in a diagonal crease, whose striped surface is covered in a riot of patterns, with abstract motifs of waves, fish and stars swirling together in a polychromatic frenzy.
“It’s quite hard to miss,” says Wayne Wharepapa Asher, an elder member of the community. He recently moved into an apartment in a new terrace next to the building, where the homes open on to a pedestrian mews and a shared deck faces a lush babbling brook. “It feels like a different world here now. It has given us a fabulous place to share our culture with visitors from all walks of life.”
Inside, the spaces unfold as a cosmic diagram. The ground floor represents the terrestrial world, with space for 300 people to gather, while a raised mezzanine is associated with the celestial realm, the ceiling studded with a constellation of lights. The Māori tradition observes a strict separation of tapu and noa , so toilets are housed in a building outside, while the mezzanine provides an elevated meeting area for communicating tapu knowledge.
Kake is working on several housing projects for Māori iwi , designing forms of collective dwelling known as papakāinga, where communal facilities are shared in a similar way to co-housing. The homes are designed to be flexible to respond to changing family patterns, where cousins might come to stay for months at a time, or floors might be adapted to accommodate older relatives.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The world’s largest Māori and Pacific Island school cultural festivalPolyfest, held this week in Auckland, New Zealand, saw thousands of high school students gather to compete in music, dance and speech performances
Read more »
– it’s the rich, warm characters that make this thriller so compellingAn Irish couple go missing in New Zealand, and a Dublin detective flies in to investigate – but why? As we meet the local Māori community, this crime drama becomes almost a mood piece
Read more »
Homes on steroids: how Australia came to build some of the biggest houses on EarthMy family of four lives in a home that 90 years ago housed a family of 11. How have our ideas of enough changed over the years?
Read more »
US to build temporary Gaza aid port as Palestinians grow hungrierThe port would increase the amount of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the war-battered enclave by “hundreds of additional truckloads” per day.
Read more »
US to build temporary Gaza aid port as Palestinians grow hungrierThe port would increase the amount of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the war-battered enclave by “hundreds of additional truckloads” per day.
Read more »
Build nuclear sites in coal communities: oppositionRussia’s advance in Ukraine stalls after quick gains; Top donors resume UNRWA funding; Trump campaign begins to cut costs as cash crisis hits. Follow updates here.
Read more »