This kura kaupapa in New Plymouth caters for students from Year 1 through to Year 13, and delivers total immersion Te Reo, Te Ao Māori education.

S&T was asked to design four new technology teaching spaces for the kura’s growing “college age” roll. The design was based on the Māori myth of Rongo, the god of cultivated food (especially the kumara), and the separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.

As cultivation is important to the local iwi, the design metaphor reflects the development of the kura’s students under the protection of oversized kumara leaves. These roofs express the leaves’ midrib and veins (oriented diagonally across each square shaped block) to reflect the traditional wharenui’s tahu and heke, creating a somewhat different, but familiar spatial experience.

Lining most of the internal walls in ply also allowed the kura to add further meaning to the spaces with local stories routed into the surfaces in a reinterpretation of tukutuku paneling.

Through S&T’s workshop process, we refined the kura’s curriculum into four key learning areas:

1. Manaaki Tangata
2. Nga Mahi Hauora
3. Putaiao, and
4. Nga Mahi Hangarau

These spaces all relate to one another but can be separated when needed.

S&T responded to the school’s unique cultural, historical and geographical requirements to create built forms that allow both indoor and outdoor learning, and provision for including Māori legends into the curriculum, eg: cultivating fruit and vegetables on site, followed by their preparation and presentation as an example of the coordinated ‘project based’ practice of the school.