The inaugural Festival of Design Aotearoa brings architecture, landscape, heritage and public space into focus across Whanganui and Palmerston North this October.
From 16–25 October, the inaugural Festival of Design Aotearoa will bring more than 50 events to Whanganui and Palmerston North, spanning architecture, landscape, public space, heritage, technology, craft, culture and design. Anchored in Whanganui, Aotearoa’s UNESCO City of Design, the 10-day programme includes exhibitions, talks, open homes, studio visits, tours, workshops, performances and public activations.
Much of the Festival’s architecture programme is centred on experiencing design at close range. At the Dalgleish Architects Open Studio, visitors can explore the Whanganui practice’s work and process before encountering one of its projects through HERE presents: Open Home Whanganui & Palmerston North. Among them is Te Ruamātatoru – He Whata Kai, a pātaka at Pūtiki that draws on local architectural and cultural knowledge, connecting contemporary design with place and tradition.
The Festival’s material focus extends into making, too, with HAUSLYFE: How to Make a Haus a Home at New Zealand Glassworks bringing contemporary glassmaking into the conversation. It offers another perspective on how materials, craft and the objects within our spaces contribute to the way we experience and understand design.
HAUSLFYE: How to Make a Haus a Home exhibition by Melbourne’s HotHaus.
Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery
The Festival also turns attention towards what already exists. Re:Using the City: Reimagining Whanganui’s Built Heritage brings together six case studies exploring the creative reuse of heritage infrastructure, considering why giving older buildings new purposes can make sense economically, environmentally and culturally. A tour of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery offers another perspective on working with an existing building, exploring its history alongside its recent redevelopment.
Beyond architecture, the programme considers how design operates at the scale of cities and landscapes. Te Hīkoi Toi takes visitors onto the Te Ahu a Turanga highway to explore the relationship between infrastructure, whenua, cultural identity and mahi toi, including the influence of harakeke on its sculptural and infrastructural elements. LandLAB: Landscape as Operating System similarly considers how ecological systems, cultural narratives and urban development can be integrated through landscape-led design.
There is also a strong emphasis on how places are experienced. Designing the Night, led by Beca Lighting Studio, looks at how light and darkness influence movement, mood and perception, while The City & The City exhibition considers the urban environment through public space, ecology, communication, materials and different ways of inhabiting a city.
Taken together, the programme offers a timely view of design in Aotearoa as something embedded in everyday life rather than confined to individual buildings. For professionals, it provides a chance to encounter new ideas and local practice in context; for homeowners and the wider public, it offers a way to better understand the decisions, histories and cultural relationships that shape the places around them.
