Sāmoan architect decries ‘stalled’ Māngere housing project

A Sāmoan architect has revealed that a Kainga Ora-funded design project aimed at improving housing for Pacific people in Māngere has been “stalled” by the state agency.

Lama Tone is an experienced architect and university lecturer who was brought on by former Māngere MP, Aupito William Sio to advise Kainga Ora’s on its massive Māngere Development - which was originally intending to build around 10,000 homes in the area.

He was specifically contracted to help lead the Modernising Pasifika Homes project aimed at designing homes for families living areas like Māngere, alongside architectural firm Jasmax.

“The general consensus was that the one size fits all approach, which is pretty much what social housing throughout New Zealand has been like, doesn’t really work for the tenants that live in places like Māngere or South Auckland or Porirua.

“Other initiatives that we were looking at was also that this pilot, these projects could be not only a one size fits all, but it could be Māngere for Māngere so that the Māngere residents were the first to have the first buy-in to these new homes before, obviously, we open up the floodgates to the rest of Auckland.”

Kainga Ora's Māngere Development is planning to build new 10,000 houses. Photo/ Kainga Ora website

Tone said the initiative included extensive community consultation and there was also talk of using the designs developed by the project to build homes specifically for Pacific families.

“What we did as part of this initiative was that we created scenarios and then we tested those scenarios on the typologies that we looked at.

“One scenario was, a mum and dad who's got three children, [and] an elderly mum living with them. They've also got the dad's brother who comes from Sāmoa to work for three months a year. Where does he stay? There's also the mum's sister that comes and visits the elderly mum to look after her three days a week.

“So all these things I've talked about and I guess scrutinise and unpack just so that it can help us to inform how we design around that. So that was really good, quite a nice approach in terms of designing these spaces to fit those scenarios because those scenarios are something that we can closely relate to in our community.”

Lama Tone is a lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at Auckland University. Photo/ Billy Wong

But Tone said after the planning and community consultation stage, no land was given for the project and he has had little communication from Kāinga Ora about how the project will be actioned.

“Before the elections, I did reach out to the principal urban planners and designers about where this project was and also I was getting people shoulder tapping me in the community asking what is happening to that project.

“But they said that they were going to make some announcements and then the election came around.

“And then just recently, I saw that there was a lot of restructuring in Kāinga Ora itself. So. I really don't know where this project is, but I do plan just to, you know, keep chipping away, see where it's going, with all that effort and research and telling what the community has gone to.”

When approached for a comment, Kainga Ora project director for Māngere’s urban development and delivery James D’Anvers said they’re making use of the valuable insights Tone provided.

“We engaged Mr Tome and design partner Jasmax in 2022 to create design concepts and principles aimed at informing ways Pasifika cultural values could be incorporated into market home design.

“We also sought their advice on which type of homes might suit Pasifika families wanting to get into home ownership. The project, named ‘Modernising Pasifika Homes’, was intended to be conceptual design only and to serve as a guide for residential property developers within the Kāinga Ora Māngere Development.

“The work has also helped to inform Kāinga Ora social housing design, but the primary aim was to help market and affordable housing developers design homes suited to Pasifika families.

“We are in the process of finalising a guide that pulls together the learnings and will help developers better cater to the needs of Pasifika families.”