State housing or Social Housing is a term used/given to housing provided to those who cannot otherwise provide for themselves.

 

Auckland is currently undergoing densification requiring more medium-density housing solutions to meet the national housing shortage and make way for new housing stock.  Glen Innes is known as a predominant state-housing community with new medium-density developments such as Talbot Park exposing the future of Auckland’s housing fabric. Currently the majority of people who require and occupy state housing in Auckland are of Maori and Pacific ethnicity. This is largely seen throughout Glen Innes, which is one of the first post war suburbs to be built in Auckland and location to hundreds of state subsidized state houses.

 

Housing whether public or private not only provides a place of home and shelter but also plays a central role in the expressions of social structures, identity and culture. Therefore housing from a communal scale to the design and use of space at the unit level impacts and influences social and cultural expressions. The existing state-housing solutions researched in Glen Innes are predominantly a response and reflection of European traditions of living in nuclear families, the importance of ‘privacy’ and the concept of individual land ownership.

 

This thesis research explores how Pacific and Maori culture, architecture and notions of space can be introduced and integrated into the provision of state housing in Glen Innes? The design proposal introduces the conversation of Pacific and Maori concepts  into a dialogue of medium density housing in Auckland. 

 

Situated in Glen Innes along the corners of Elstree Ave and Taniwha Street sits the Ukutoia Housing development which addresses Maori notions of Whanaugatanga through shared structure and living spaces. The development proposes accomodation for up to 600 people within a 4Ha site. Three varying housing typologies are scattered on site in relation to the courtyard atea spaces, street access, carparks and kohanga facilities. The courtyard spaces are known as ATEA or MALAE, these spaces were found to be integral within both the Samoan Malae and Maori Marae architecture. This Atea is deemed as the common ground as it is the place that holds the entry, exit, conflict, discussion, negotiation, happiness, mourning - It is where the living occurs in Maori and Pacific custom. 

 

The provision of kohanga reo and multiple community spaces have been made for on the ground floors and open up onto the Atea - which serve both the immiediate whanau and the wider community of the area. The housing apartments are designed to be relatively large to cater to the dominant need for larger families (common in Maori/Pacific households) whereas singles/couples and smaller families are encouraged to share living spaces with other families or individuals alike rather than living in a nuclear modes.

 

Sleeping spaces and living are not specified but are altered and defined by the user through using adaptations of 'POLA' and 'POU' structures. The kitchens and bathroom are also shared however these have been fixed within the architecture.  Pola were applied and influeced from studies on the Samoa Fale - Pouwhenua are carved, wooden posts, or fighting staffs used by Māori. Pou posts also marked territorial boundaries or places of significance.

 

POLA and POU have been applied to the exterior facade and extend into the atea courtyards. These extensions of space are for both the wider community and the immiediate inhabitants. This dynamic process of construction and defintions of space have the ability to be flexible and influence/meet cultural expressions and social interactions.