The second series of The Drawing Board is currently screening on Whakaata Māori and Professor Kawiti (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Tūhoe and Ngāti Porou) says he feels privileged to share the stories behind some amazing architectural undertakings.

“The Drawing Board looks at how the indigenisation of Aotearoa New Zealand is being manifested in architectural projects, especially projects for Māori, and led by Māori,” he explains. “It shows the power of architecture—the impact it has on people and how it literally brings communities together and strengthens their belief in who they are.”

The show features architectural projects from up and down the motu, ranging from large civic builds like Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, S2 E1, to marae, and even private homes, like that of Carin Wilson, S2 E3. A number of School of Architecture alumni feature in the series, discussing projects they’ve worked on.

In episode 8, Professor Kawiti showcases a project close to his heart—Ngā Mokopuna at Te Herenga Waka. The episode features interviews with key university staff, including Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Māori and Kaitiakitanga) Professor Rawinia Higgins.

Watch the episode featuring Ngā Mokopuna.

“Viewers will see some amazing ways of thinking about Ngā Mokopuna, and the instrumental role the building will play in developing course content around sustainability,” says Professor Kawiti. “Ngā Mokopuna is more than a physical building—it’s a commitment and responsibility to a place, and what that place provides, such as water, solar energy, its flora and fauna and its people.”

He says there is a lot of alignment between the principles of the Living Building Challenge and Māori concepts of kaitiaki. “Even the name, the Living Building Challenge—Māori have always acknowledged that buildings are alive, like Ngā Mokopuna. They live and breathe with their environment, and they are born from the people and the land.”

Living Buildings are extremely important more generally too, says Professor Kawiti. “They raise important issues around rethinking our existence and impact, and how we build into the future. They take a lot of effort and resources to build, and they also take much effort to run and operate as part of how they gain accreditation for Living Building status. Living buildings essentially serve as a behavioural model—you have to inhabit these buildings in a certain way and be very conscious about how you act.”

The science behind traditional materials and design processes

Professor Kawiti leads the Māori Designed Environments programme at the School of Architecture, and specialises in the application of contemporary manufacturing technologies, digital tools, and automation in architecture. He has developed practical labs for students, including SITUA (Site of Indigenous Technologies Understanding Alliance), which sees students working closely with Māori communities to find ways technology can be used with traditional materials. “We work with  timber products, clays or mosses, establishing  performance characteristics at a base material point of view, and we try to see both what we can do with them and what their material behaviours are telling us —that might include 3D printing with clay, or unlocking other, different modes of fabrication through our interactions with them.”

This aspect of Professor Kawiti’s research ties in with his work as a Principal Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute. “I look at how traditional materials and modes of working can be applied through new technologies, and vice versa,” he says.

“We’re currently looking to build a 15 metre-long 3D printer to print high performance hulls and waka. The printer length is important as we are trying to change the print layer direction to differ from current methods. Our first print will investigate structural performance through printing timber/wood grain. Ultimately we want to be able to create a seaworthy waka from bioplastics that can perform the same as one made the traditional way.”

With MacDiarmid, Professor Kawiti is also exploring how clays and iron sand can be used to store and conduct electricity, and be manipulated to form natural densities underground to stabilise and regenerate the ground, strengthening it against erosion on coastal edges.

“As a Māori designer and architect, I prefer to leave the approach of working with and interpreting materials and technology open-ended and non-definitive— in many ways letting nature dictate which direction we go with them,” he says. “Probably my favourite part of being an architect is questioning norms and conventions when it comes to working with materials and forms. I often ask what is my lens? Is it a convention? Is it the only way to see it?  Have I been attuned to see this in only this way?  I think criticality is the most valuable tool of a designer.”

He's also researching the science behind some of the intricate patterns used in customary Māori designs, and has found there’s much more to them than their surface appearances.

“A lot of very complex Māori patterns are already naturally optimised formally as abstracted patterns from nature, and in a way ironically, it is only now through the power of computers that we can better understand the way these structures work,” Professor Kawiti explains.

“In the past these might have been dismissed as ornamental patterns applied to surface, yet they are actually highly performing structures and geometries that are aligned to some of the most sophisticated western mathematical models. It has been amazing to be able to explore these things through a more natural and taiao lens.

Alongside his academic life, Professor Kawiti continues to practice as an architect in the ‘real world’—he is a director of interdisciplinary architectural design firm, CILOARC, and is an associate director at Peddlethorp Architects in Auckland, where he is cultural and digital lead on a range of civic and government projects.

Professor Kawiti believes Māori architecture is having a “certain moment”, and he’s excited to be helping bring Māori-influenced knowledge into the design realm more effectively.

“It’s really important that we see architecture for its power to encompass ideas and to freeze cultural values from particular moments in time. We should all be asking the architecture profession to push harder to bring more solutions to the table, much like Ngā Mokopuna, the Living Building at Te Herenga Waka, where the actions of people and buildings are intertwined.”

You can watch The Drawing Board on Sundays at 7 pm on Whakaata Māori, or stream episodes on Maori+.