22 | T T Sue Russell Exciting new facility a step closer A cultural narrative was developed for Te Aka in partnership with Mana Whenua, which has been imbued into the design from the concept stage. After many years in the planning and working through due process, Napier City Council earlier this year reached the milestone moment of giving its approval to preliminary design of Te Aka, a flagship project, encompassing construction of a new library, community space and home for Council staff. To reach this point involved a thoroughly planned multi-level consultative approach, engaging, since inception, with Te Waka Rangapū and with Mana Whenua to create the role of a Mana Whenua Design Lead, in a truly co-design process. Darran Gillies, exudes enthusiasm for the project he’s been steering through the necessary planning and engagement steps as Council’s Strategic Programmes Manager. “It can be said that there is truth in the saying that to go fast toward achieving a goal, the process needs to be slow. Taking all stakeholders along a journey with you to bring all the threads of energy, view-point and engagement into its proper place. This is what we have attempted to do right from the start and this is what has brought us, at the start of 2024 to approval, in principle of Te Aka’s design,” Darran says. Council has set aside $58million for the whole development and now the development pathway has reached this critical point, is confident that construction will start towards the end of the 2024/25 financial year. A cultural narrative was developed for Te Aka in partnership with Mana Whenua, which has been imbued into the design from the concept stage. The role of the Mana Whenua Design Lead was created specifically for the purpose to give life to the co-design process. “One of the aspects to the planning of Te Aka that we’re especially proud of is that this is absolutely a co-design process. Quite often Council’s will engage Mana Whenua to have a seat around the design table, but not in a fully equal collaborative way, as we have done with this project. Co-design will only enrich the pathway forward as the design details begins to arise.” Napier City Council The cultural narrative describes what is unique about the people and place of Ahuriri/ Napier. Several grounding impulses have been articulated in this journey. ‘Te Aka is the sacred connection between Papatūānuku and Ranginui. It is the link between the space of excellence above and the space of physical manifestation below. The upper level represents dreaming, meditation, and knowledge and the lower level represents clarity, conversation, and creativity.’ These articulations, along with others will be reflected in its design. Darran says the pursuit to find the stories has taken the design team to different marae through the region. “The other element that’s guided the success of the design process to date is that we’re open to acknowledging when we didn’t get it right. It took some time to understand who the people were that we needed at the table.” Te Aka is essentially two buildings. A two-storey library of just under 4000m2. A ‘back-pack’ innovation space services work-shopping while the front of the building is more open and will be constructed of timber and glass. The ground floor will focus on the more active activities the library will be home to, while upstairs the feel is more of a traditional library space, with meeting rooms and computer technology room. “One of the things we learnt was that Māori view was that traditionally a library hasn’t been a place of welcome for them. It’s felt like a threshold they can’t cross, so our engagement with Mana Whenua has been about building bridges that will ultimately break these feelings down. Te Aka will be a place for everyone to be.” The name Te Aka was given by Mana Whenua. It speaks of ‘the vines of knowledge and the endeavour to scale the vines to bring enlightenment’. Construction is expected to take roughly 18 months. Expressions of interest will be called from construction companies. Darran says it will certainly be interesting to see what business’s submit an EOI. From there, Council will whittle the number down to three or four then move into the Request for Proposal stage. “We believe this library, community and governance precinct Te Aka will be immeasurably valuable to this community.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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