Porirua Wharewaka

On the shore of Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour and nearby to the Takapūwāhia marae this wharewaka building was built as a collaboration between the Porirua City Council and Ngati Toa.

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Echoing the form of Whitireia (Ngati Toa’s Maunga) this building is part sculpture, part functional museum, designed to house a ceremonial and working waka made especially for the nation’s sesquicentenary celebrations at Waitangi.

 

Open but secure, this building allows the waka to be seen, repaired and maintained for regular use.  It also supports a growing fleet of Waka Ama (outrigger canoes) on the shore of Porirua Harbour

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The Waka Shelter is an artistic and practical structure, with clever use of engineered timber, steel, aluminium and composites, the build required intense attention to detail to make it incredibly durable as a public building exposed to the marine elements and regular use.