Exit at the hokohoko

CHARLES DARWIN KNEW A THING OR TWO about survival. He knew it was not the strongest of the species that survived, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. And the recent Te Ao Mārama rebuild, together with the earlier addition of the South Atrium, are both stories of adaptation: perhaps, too, for the sake of survival. Big gestures such as the suspended tanoa and floating glass roof on top of the neoclassical building speak of change and progression in a brave new world.

When Ignite teamed up with artist Carin Wilson of Studio Pasifika to conceive the design for the new Hokohoko Museum Store, Wilson told a story of how in the 1930s, around the time when the museum was built, Māori culture was at