NZ Visual Diary - entry 279

Te Nukuao - Silo Park
Tessa Harris | artist

Within New Zealand’s contemporary arts practice is a design form that gives material and expressive voice to Māori cultural traditions, aesthetics and histories. Te Nukuao (a reference in Māori to shelter) is a brilliant exemplar of indigenous artistic marker that successfully combines heritage expression, informed by the reverent use of vernacular materials, iconographies and place-based histories, with advanced manufacturing techniques.

In praise of its artistic achievement, Te Nukuao was recognised by the Designers Institute of New Zealand in 2021. The award statement reads in part as follows:

Te Nukuao is a place of both passage and pause.

This project was born out of cultural sustainability, to maintain cultural stories, heritage, crafts and values of Maori culture for future generations. Designed in collaboration with a mana whenua artist, Tessa Harris, this manifested as Te Nukuao, meaning shelter, and recognises the underwater caverns that existed prior to historical reclamation taking place. As a marker on this precious site, Te Nukuao embraces people and encourages visitors to engage with it at varying scales.

Referencing the journeys and waka from the past and present, Te Nukuao explores the narrative, form and symbolic presence of three waka hourua sails folded into a complex 3D structure to provide shelter and activation to the plaza of Silo Park Extension. The lattice members give the impression of a billowing, windblown movement across the surface of the structure, also echoed in the sail pattern.

The structure itself was considered a 'framework' to explore and celebrate the traditional craft of raranga (weaving). Te Nukuao takes inspiration from the weaving patterns found on the sole remaining Maori sail in existence – Te Rā. ¹

1. Designers Institute of New Zealand website - Best Design Awards
< https://bestawards.co.nz/toitanga/toitanga/wynyard-edge-alliance/te-nukuao-2/ >