Motivated by the urgency of the challenges we all now face, environmental, social and economic, young architects in Aotearoa are inventing new forms of practice. These overlapping factors draw architects in different directions and sees them developing new and alternative ways of working. Making Ways: Alternative architecture practice in Aotearoa is an ongoing research project by HOOPLA and collaborators to make platforms where we can see and discuss this ever expanding practice of architecture. 

The first platform was an exhibition at Objectspace (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland). Taking the format of a staged, live ‘rolling event’, it brought together four practices that have emerged in Aotearoa in response to this context. Shaping their ways of making architecture by charting a new course through these concerns, each practice developed a week-long project that brought to life aspects of their practice.

The gallery was recast as hybrid studio, laboratory and wānanga as Making Ways included lectures, slide shows, interviews, gatherings, meals, workshops and other evolving live events.

The second platform is the book Making Ways: Alternative architecture practice in Aotearoa. Edited by Kathy Waghorn and Mike Davis, and including an essay by Kester Rattenbury, the book expands on the exhibition, including interviews with each practice and an essay looking for a history of alternative and inventive practice in Aotearoa. Making Ways is ongoing.