A recent event at Ara Institute of Canterbury gave eight Lincoln University landscape students the opportunity to help with a refurbishment project involving Ara’s Centre for Māori and Pasifika Engagement.
The centre, called Te Puna Wanāka, is receiving a spruce-up to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. Students from Lincoln’s School of Landscape Architecture and Ara’s Department of Engineering and Architectural Studies worked together to come up with design concepts.
Gill Lawson, Head of the Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture, said the students were able to draw their ideas and interpret the stories they heard about the building from the Te Puna Wanāka staff and students, the wider Māori community and key stakeholders.
“They shared their knowledge about the ecology of the site, the building’s history and some key Māori concepts,” she said.
“In exchange, students were invited to work in groups of find ways to sketch, diagram and visualise how these concepts and stories could be communicated and what this might mean for the building refurbishment project.
“Great for all of us to work together in the design space!”
The event, called the Te Puna Wanāka Design Jam, was the second in a series of planned collaborations between the two design schools.