2020 New Zealand Architecture Awards Winner
Hihiaua Cultural Centre
The Hihiaua Cultural Centre asks not what architecture is in terms of materiality, but what architecture can do in terms of social value. Embracing the adjoining industrial estate vernacular, this whare as warehouse incorporates a Whare Toi, for Māori arts and craft, and a Whare Waka, for canoe restoration. The latter space belies the project’s identity by eschewing Western notions of floor in favour of (earthen) ground. As with a traditional whare, the Hihiaua Cultural Centre has what one can read as a mahau, or porch. Yet this porch is massive, being 4 metres wide and 60 metres long, extending along the full face of the building for accommodating outdoor social activities.
- Practice
- Moller Architects®
- Category
- Public Architecture
- Location
- Auckland
