100 | Complex to reflect cultural values Now under construction by Marra Construction, the Manawa Commercial project has been shaped as a gathering precinct, which will soon house six mixed-use businesses as well as a 490sqm anchor store. ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN Architecture F+D=A: Marra Construction T T Kelly Deeks “There is a huge amount of building stock around the country that hasn’t been touched for the past 20 to 50 years.” Aiming to be a modern take on oldschool neighbourhoods to encourage community interactions, the Manawa Commercial project at Pāpāmoa’s new Manawa subdivision has been designed by Architecture F+D=A. Now under construction by Marra Construction, the Manawa Commercial project has been shaped as a gathering precinct, which will soon house six mixed-use businesses as well as a 490sqm anchor store. Architecture F+D=A co-founding director Kent Fabian says, on being engaged by Manawa’s owner Ngā Pōtiki, he and his co-founding director Margaret Douglas were invited on to the Tahuwhakatiki Marae to speak with the elders about their history and the significant items they wanted to bring into the design of Manawa Commercial. The design of the whole Manawa development reflects Ngā Pōtiki’s values around kaitiakitanga and sustainability, with a natural eco-system, native plantings, and plenty of green space. The location included a former flax-processing facility, so Kent and Margaret speak to both that history and these current values with a colour scheme that brings blue to represent the sky, green to represent the vegetation, and brown to represent the flax. They have included prominent upstanding members at each end of the complex to represent the poutokomanawa, the central supporting post of a whare, and they abstracted a pattern from a tukutuku panel at the Tahuwhakatiki Marae, a traditional design unique to Ngā Pōtiki, to imprint on to some of the precast panels. This type of commercial development project is Architecture F+D=A’s bread and butter. Prior to starting Architecture F+D=A, Kent and Margaret originally met 24 years ago when they both worked for a large multi-disciplinary international consultancy focusing on retail and commercial work, including the original Botany Town Centre, which at that time was the largest shopping centre in New Zealand. Today, their commercial planning strategies are grounded in their solid understanding of retail dynamics theory to determine the best master-planning option, taking into consideration issues such as circulation and flow, to maximise functionality. Architecture F+D=A focuses about 50% on large base builds and 50% on retail and hospitality fit-outs. With extensive experience of individual tenancy fit-outs, the pair can ensure their design decisions at base build level are responsive to the needs of each individual retailer. At Manawa Commercial, the six tenancies have been designed to be flexible. Inter-tenancy partitions can move to either grow or reduce the size of an individual tenancy, and the glazed shop fronts are modular so that doors can be relocated to suit the changing shape of each tenancy. Architecture F+D=A is as much about new base builds as it is refurbishing existing ones to suit modern-day commercial trends, improving both functionality and aesthetics to create buildings that work better and look better. “There is a huge amount of building stock around the country that hasn’t been touched for the past 20 to 50 years,” Kent says. “It’s like the commercial equivalent of indoor-outdoor flow; these are aspects of building that just weren’t thought about back then. People are different now, and things are changing quickly. We’ve got to be able to be flexible.” Manawa Commercial caters to such modern changes decisively. With the rise of online shopping, its tenants may be more likely to be hospitality- and service-based businesses, rather than a traditional retail offer. The removal of minimum car parking requirements for both residential and commercial developments in 2022 changed the face of commercial development. Lower costs and less ground space required are the payoff for barriers to both customers and staff accessing a commercial development with fewer car parks, so the ultimate decision on car park numbers comes down to individual business needs. With help from the experts at Architecture F+D=A, developers can make the most informed decision about their next commercial project. PROUD TO SUPPORT MARRA CONSTRUCTION AND ARCHITECTURE FDA
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