JERUSHA RAZEY
Maungārongo in Tauranga, designed by TOA Architects and built by Totara Construction, won an NZIA Waikato/Bay of Plenty Housing Award and a national Master Builders award in 2020 for each firm, respectively.
Trailblazing Māori architects, such as the late John Scott and Rewi Thompson, would be impressed - the work being done by their followers has taken on a new significance in recent years, as architects strive to create stronger, more meaningful connections between the built environment, tangata (people) and whenua (land). It’s enough of a change to lead Māori architect Nicholas Dalton, principal of Tāmaki Makaurau Office (TOA) Architecture, to describe it as a “powerful point in history”.