New Zealand’s Largest Public Housing Development of its Kind Officially Open

AUGUST 2023

MODE’s Auckland studio are delighted to announce the completion of Te Mātāwai, a single site supported housing development in Central Auckland. The innovative project is the co-ordination of public housing coupled with customer support services and represents the largest scale development of its kind in New Zealand to date.

The complex has been designed in partnership and consultation with the client, Kāinga Ora customers, specialist design consultants, the wider community and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as tangata whenua of the land. The building names and design narrative were gifted by Ngati Whatua Orakei and are a key driver behind the design, underpinning many of the design decisions and selections.

MODE’s design solution for Te Mātāwai responded to the client’s desire to offer an internationally recognised model for mixed-use community based social housing on a scale previously unrealised in Aotearoa New Zealand. With an existing brownfield city-central site available near local amenities, infrastructure, public transport links, and greenspace, Kāinga Ora had a great location for a development designed to serve the community.

Project Architect and MODE Auckland’s Studio Manager Daniel Chan said the project centres around the Māori concept of hospitality and generosity; Manaakitanga.

“Manaakitanga focuses on hospitality, community wellbeing, nurturing relationships, and respectful engagement. These were the principles that drove Te Mātāwai’s design outcomes to deliver a building that centers on fostering and sustaining a community. Te Mātāwai wasn’t about constructing a building, it was about building a community.”

The three residential towers rise above a mixed-use podium and have been designed around the idea of a welcoming, supportive and connected community. This thriving urban village includes significant shared, communal, commercial and retail spaces, providing opportunities for the community to connect and good quality amenity for the local area. The building also features a roof top garden servicing multifunction amenity spaces.

This exciting new development consists of 276 homes, 200 of which are specifically designated to Public Housing with the remaining 76 set aside for public rental in a Build To Rent (BTR) model. Public Housing tenants are supported through 24/7 wrap-around support services such as healthcare, counselling, budgeting, skills development and employment assistance to empower them and help them thrive.

All homes are delivered to a 7-star Homestar rating and have been designed to Healthy Homes Standards to reduce energy consumption. This is achieved through the use of outsulation, warm roofs, thermally broken windows, and high-performance low-e glazing.

Partnership and collaboration with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei gifted the building its name which relates to the gathering of the waters that elevate the mauri of the building and the customers within allowing wellbeing to break forth. Te Mātāwai means a source of water emerging from the whenua in the upper reaches of a catchment. Ground water in this form is at its most pure, and therefore most potent in the mauri (life force) and oranga (health) of that wai (water).

Te Mātāwai officially opened to the public this month with a grand opening by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Thursday August 3rd.