Take a seat: the new designs in our 2024 Nohonga competition

This is the third edition of the biennial competition, which is supported by Britomart, Resene and JFC: this time around, each of the teams of landscape architects was invited to respond to the prompt of Haumanu (renewal or restoration), a theme that draws inspiration from the cyclical nature of all things and the desire to find balance between whenua (landscape) and tangata (people). 

The three winning teams received funding to make their nohonga, and the results of their efforts are now on public display until the first week of October 2024. Read on to find out more about each of them. 

Pōkare creates a space for pause, inviting both individual and shared moments of contemplation and reflection. The rippling form symbolises that even in stillness, life — like the cycles of nature — continues to evolve and change. "Ryan and I were thinking about the idea of the moon and the cycles of nature and trying to link the human experience into that," says William Chrisp. "We did a brainstorm of all these different words and what they could mean and how we could explore that. The idea emerged of evolving over time and what has happened before in our lives to lead us up to where we are now and then what's happening now in our lives that's going to take us into our future. And so the seat was something that was changing, something that didn't feel stagnant."

The circular arrangement of routed panels was designed to afford a shared experience, drawing people together for meaningful connection. "Each ripple represents different generation," Ryan Peralta explains. "And then you have the middle, the source of the ripple, which is us, our current state, where we are in the present. And then another ripple will come and then we will pass that on to the different generations."

The designers were assisted by FabricationSpecialists, Greenscene, Cut Shop and Plyman.

The form of this Nohonga represents a connection to the cycles of the seasons, moon and tide. Wave is centred on embodying our interdependency with these elements, with its undulating form residing and rebalancing.

Team leader Zak White says the Nohonga project is a great opportunity for young landscape architects to stretch their capacity. "It's quite a steep learning curve, but it gave us an appreciation for how much collaboration often goes into the creation of these quite bespoke pieces and how different groups all need to come together. We were very lucky that Urban Effects, the furniture manufacturer, were keen to jump on this journey with us, and the engineers were also happy to dedicate their time into making sure that it was going to be structurally sound with these kind of fun movable elements inside it."

Made from durable Accoya timber and steel, the different Resene stains used for each slat reflect the different stages of the pine's life-cycle. "We've got the mature wood, the fresh-cut, the bark, and the foliage," says Jo Kearney. "With the silver colour [that's on the internal side of the slats], we wanted an interesting moment of conceal and reveal when you interact with the seat, and we thought the silver could speak back to the moon cycle, which was one of our inspirations. That little light pop of silver, we hoped would ripple out and become a really interesting feature of the bench when you sit on it." 

The designers were assisted by Urban Effects on Fabrication and Construction, ITI NZ | Accoya on Timber Suppy, Coastwood on CNC services, and Mitchell Vranjes, Engineering Consultant.

This nohonga captures the whakapapa (life cycle) of a rākau (tree), physically responding to the whakataukī ‘ka mua ka muri’ (“walking backwards into the future”).

Crafted from rimu slats and salvaged redwood, each segment tells a story—the towering trunk of Te Wao Nui, the timber slats of Te Rauemi, the form of Te Waka, and the sanctuary of Te Whare. Grounded in Papatūānuku, this nohonga aligns with Ka Mua and Ka Muri, inviting reflection on our past and future.

Team leader Zak Kelland says that an important aspect of the design is that the tree wasn't felled for the purpose of furniture-making."We happened to come across an amazing guy, Scott, who we're calling our kaitiaki of our rākau, of our tree. He had a whole methodology for cutting down this tree that had been struck by lightning. It was quite a new process that he had to go through because it was such a big tree. And so we've tried to retain as many of those cuts and those markings of the process as possible within the final outcome."

Zak brought the initial idea for the nohonga to the table, but he says that the collaborative aspect has been the most rewarding for him. "For me, my favourite part of the whole process is seeing how the design has changed. We've had a lot of people come in with some ideas and I think everyone's brought a little piece of themselves to the design. I think as fun as it is sitting by yourself and having a go at designing something great, the best outcomes are always a collaborative effort." 

The designers were assisted by Scott Geddes of Auckland Tree Services, Cathy Challinor with design support, Andi Suryadharma with construction support, and Boffa Miskell.

You can read more about the 2022 Nohonga winners here and here, and the 2020 winners here.