NEW ZEALAND IS A SMALL COUNTRY WITH few architects. Where Britain has 42,170 registered architects in a population of 67 million, or one per 1600 persons, New Zealand has rather fewer, with one architect per 2200 persons.1 Yet, only 68 or three per cent of New Zealand registered architects are Māori2 (try naming some). That’s one per 78,400. Given this inequity, the Māori architectural critic stands in a vulnerable space. Māori critique is enacted not through words written but through words spoken: as kanohi-ki-te-kanohi hui and wānanga, involving face-to-face robust discussion. The dismantling and reassembling of ideas is a Māori method of learning. Yet, like parliamentary debate, differences of opinion are voiced, sometimes heated, but always welcome.
An architectural review of Māori by Māori thus requires a new form of localised critique. Aside from the disconnect of a Letter to the Editor, there is no right of reply. So, I asked Rau Hoskins of designTRIBE, representing one of the project’s three architectural firms, to peer review this journal article.
