Ki Muri: Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua

Aotearoa’s urban fabric is Eurocentric and does not reflect the culture of Aotearoa. Over the last 30 – 50 years, it has become apparent that Aotearoa’s urban fabric struggles to adapt and change to its respective populations in light of fundamental cultural changes in its communities. Through a design lens, this thesis explores how pre-colonial Māori spatial planning principles and cultural values might be applied to the urban fabric to align colonial towns with their cultural identities and values to encourage social cohesion and connection to place.