HOOPLA are proud to be  working with Athfield Architects on the design of Te Hono, a new community hub and library for Te Whau/Avondale. Gifted by Mana Whenua, the name Te Hono means ‘the connection’ and relates to the underlying principle in the design brief of hononga – relationship and bond, a place where people of all ages, abilities and interests can come together for social interaction.

As part of our on-going work with the Athfield design team, the landscape architects (Isthmus) and clients (Auckland Council and Eke Panuku), HOOPLA have been generating connections with the place and with Avondale locals. We’ve hosted Kia ora Avondale, a guided hikoi (journey) for the designers and local people around the Avondale town centre that visited neighbourhood spaces, allowed for conversation along the way and ended in a locally sourced feast and music in the Members Lounge of the Avondale Racecourse.

We also created an opportunity for the design team to travel on awa Te Whau (the neighbouring Whau river) and to consider important cultural, historical and ecological connections between whenua (land) and awa (river). This connection now forms an important part of the Te Hono conceptual design as it reaches out to Great North Road, the high street, to the east and envisages ‘arrival by waka (canoe)’ to the west. Regularly hosting the wider project Mana Whenua hui at All Goods in Avondale central, HOOPLA will continue to keep the design team connected into the neighbourhood as the project progresses through detailed design and construction.