Depth & Confinement, from Tokelau to Hataitai

Western education systems have always over-shadowed my Tokelauan heritage. Through my tertiary education, I have found architecture to be a predominantly Western profession that has struggled to integrate South Pacific values.

I wonder how Tokelauan knowledge and values might contribute to Western architecture - particularly in suburbs like Hataitai.

I have used the redesign of a primary school campus - a mini-city of sorts - to explore how Tokelau culture might inform an approach to density and community. Through design-led experimentation, I have discovered a set of spatial techniques that mediate between depth and confinement. These include: layering inwards from the building envelope, overlapping layers of tactile boundaries, and softening the perimeter edge. While these techniques are rooted in Tokelau culture, they are also utterly relevant to dense urban living in Wellington.