A project that brings iwi together with Auckland Council to regenerate the Puhinui area bordering Manurewa and Manukau has been recognised on the world stage.
Te Whakaoranga o te Puhinui has won an ‘Outstanding Award’ in the Unbuilt Parks and Environment category of the Asia Pacific International Federation of Landscape Architects awards.
The win celebrates the approach taken in bringing Eke Panuku Development Auckland, local boards, the Government, business and the community together with Te Waiohua Iwi representatives, Manurewa Local Board chair Joseph Allan says.
“It’s an acknowledgement of the benefit of working in partnership with Māori, and the project has also been selected to be showcased in a Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland City room as one of 11 cities featuring in a virtual Climate Change exhibition at the Glasgow Science Centre next month.”
“That will put the project, which would have been impossible without the outstanding co-operation and willingness of so many people to share in a vision for the area, alongside Beijing, Bogota, Istanbul, Jakarta, Lima, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Nairobi and Washington DC,” he says.
The exhibition will run as part of COP26, allowing visitors to discover examples of on-the-ground actions that are having positive climate impacts.
The award was submitted by landscape architects Resilio Studios, acknowledging the project as a collaborative partnership between iwi, the council family, government agencies, community groups and the culturally rich, unique and diverse communities of Te Puhinui.
The judges said Te Whakaoranga o te Puhinui was an excellent project that integrated ecological planning and design strategies with indigenous narratives, citing its impressive design quality, its planning processes and innovative design guidelines.
From the outset, mana whenua challenged the project team to be more aspirational and think holistically around bringing health back to the Puhinui, says Eke Panuku principal regenerative design lead Sara Zwart.
“When we started this project four years ago, they requested we take a wider approach using an innovative mai i ngā maunga ki te moana – mountains-to-sea – approach, which has truly shaped the strategy as it is today.”
Te Puhinui Regeneration Strategy is the wider project name for the regeneration of the wellbeing of the Puhinui catchment and its people.
The flagship project uses a living system and whakapapa centred well-being approach to create a strategy and resulting work-programme that integrates western ecological design concepts with mātauranga Māori tikanga, frameworks and narratives.
But Allan says it is much more than that. “It’s a partnership that sets out core values, a purpose and vision, the principles, responsibilities and obligations, and identifies a path for future projects all designed to deliver a better future for the area and its people.”
