WRLC Iwi Inspired by Innovative Housing in Tāmaki Makaurau

WRLC Programme Director Kim Kelly shares an update on a recent field trip to Tamaki Makaurau to view several new housing projects where mana whenua, sustainability and community are being put first.

One of the actions listed in the WRLC Regional Housing Action Plan, relates to supporting iwi/Māori with housing provision.

The 2023 Housing and Business Development Capacity Assessment (HBA) notes that Māori households are more likely to reside in homes that are rented than owner-occupied. Rates of home ownership for Māori in the Wellington region are slightly higher than for Māori at the national level (43% compared with 42%), but less than ownership rates for non-Māori in the Wellington region (43% compared with 55%). Due to the way this information is collected, this data does not include Horowhenua.

As part of this support the WRLC Secretariat along with assistance from Kainga Ora led a visit to Auckland with WRLC iwi members and their associated housing entities.

The trip included representatives from Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust, Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki and Te Āhuru Mōwai.

The first visit of the day was to Kōtuitui in Manukau, where 300 homes 90% completed, and Wirihana where 500 homes are in stage 1, with Te ​Ākitai Waiohua and Advant Group.  These developments have been manu whenua led and there were some interesting lessons for our team when they talked with representatives from both Te ​Ākitai and Advant Group.

This part of the trip included a walk around and a discussion on how these developments came about, lessons learnt, benefits for mana whenua and partnering for housing outcomes. More on the Wirihana development can be found at Te Waha Nui, noting the story is from 2022.

The second visit of the day was to the Fletcher Living LowCO home in Takanini.  The characteristics of this home fit really well with WRLC iwi partners values and alignment to the whenua and wai.  More on the LowCO can be found here.

The following is their own description of this development:

We believe a low-carbon future is within reach for all Kiwi homes. To show what’s possible we’ve designed and built LowCO, our low energy, low carbon and low water use pilot homes project.

We’ve achieved our goal of using seven times less carbon, and half the electricity and water of a standard built home. LowCO has been awarded ‘10 Homestar’ by the New Zealand Green Building Council.

The people who will ultimately live here will be healthier, warmer and drier and have less bills to pay.

Trip attendees got a tour of the LowCO home and also a medium density development close by built to the same philosophy. We were briefed on how this development came about, the key features, climate and other benefits. There were key lessons and understandings for any similar developments that might be undertaken in our region.  This type of home is one option for WRLC iwi partners to reduce housing impact on the environment and climate impacts.

The third and final visit for the day was to Clever Core On Site Manufacturing site, a truly inspirational visit showing a different way of building a home compared to how we traditionally do things.

The Clever Core site notes that “Clever Core is building a new generation of homes for New Zealand. Homes that can be built faster, more accurately and with less waste”.

Trip attendees were shown around the manufacturing site and learnt about how the process works, what happens on site and the timing implications of how long it then takes to build a house on site (compared to a “standard” build”) and how the ordering activity works.  There was quite a bit of interest in this model and how we could apply this in our region.

Models such as Clever Core provide opportunities for building homes over and above the traditional way of building and these opportunities were a bit of an eye opener for trip attendees. We will continue to follow this may of building and also identify similar opportunities across the motu to help to contribute to the 99,000 new homes we need in the Wairarapa-Wellington-Horowhenua region over the next 30 years.