Te Māhurehure Marae in Auckland has picked up a prestigious award for its Māori community hub, Te Taumata o Kupe.
Te Taumata o Kupe is a global indigenous learning centre dedicated to sharing taonga tuku iho. It measures 600 square metres over two levels. It has the ability to not only host wānanga but also double as a function centre.
Toa Architects, which designed Te Taumata o Kupe, won the gold pin as well as the supreme purple pin in the Toitanga section at this year’s Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards.
The National Graphic Design Awards were established in the mid-seventies to celebrate New Zealand’s best graphic design. Attracting 300 entries, the awards exhibited 130 works as part of a touring exhibition and lecture series.
In 1988, the name was changed to the New Zealand Best Design Awards, which enabled a growing community to benefit from the experience of a jury of international peers.
Toa Architect founder Nicholas Dalton is extremely proud of the award and says it is a nod to the country’s seafaring past.
“We really wanted to honour the great tipuna, Kupe. If you cast your mind back before iPhones or GPS, if you got off one degree, you’d miss the island completely.”
“It’s won a number of awards this year but this has been the zenith. So gold and purple pin at the best awards for toitanga, which is one of the most prestigious design awards in Aotearoa if not Australasia.”
Dalton and other designers worked with Rereata Mākiha to agree on different aspects of the building, which is at home on Te Māhurehure marae in Pt. Chevalier, an urban marae dedicated to being a central hub for Māori in Auckland.
Marae spokesman Julian Wilcox says the award is nice but the kaupapa behind the whare is even more important.
“We are delighted the marae has received this award. It’s a tohu that not only celebrates the design aspect of the building, But it also elevates the knowledge stored in this house, transmitted from our forefathers all the way down in perpetuity.”
