Showcase
- NZILA Award of Excellence Parks, Open Spaces and Recreation — 2024
Embraced by both the local community and visitors to the region, the success of Pūtahi Park in Whangarei has exceeded all expectations. The park is well-used during the day and night with families picnicking and enjoying the water feature, people moving through the space, and many events activating the park and enhancing user experience. Intimate spaces provide the opportunity to sit quietly and linger, while cultural and historical narratives influence park layout, material selection, patterns and planting, creating a place that is unique to Whangarei. A catalyst project to regenerate and positively shape the future of a growing city, Pūtahi Park is a 1.1 hectare urban park, located on a culturally and historically signifcant site adjacent to the Hātea River. With a backdrop of Parihaka Reserve, Hātea River, and Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Maori Art Gallery (HAC), it has quickly become a significant civic space within the city. From carpark to park the placemaking has been transformational.
This well used urban park is in an important place for visitors and residents on the Whangarei Hatea River waterfront. It pulls in external links to the northern town basin shoreline, the busy traffic environment to west, the visitor focused waterfront to east and the CBD to the south. These links are generous and well considered but do not dominate their neighbours.
It is the park itself that is the gem, a series of well organised spaces that feel comfortable with one person or when crowded during a public event. The design language and well used in the different spaces through the site and this complements the external links and references the design makes.
This project is a real complement to the Whangarei District Council and their landscape architects who have created a “living room” for their community.
Whangārei District Council in collaboration with Te Parawhau and Ngāti Kahu O Torongare
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