Heke Rua National Archive Building

Third Year 2022, Design Capstone II , Public Civic Scale

A national archives building anchored on the historical Pipitea Pā site in Wellington, conceived as a waka come to rest facing the moana (sea). The building’s geometry is set out from the Kāpehu Whetū, the Māori star compass that guided ancestral Pacific navigation, with key angles from its compass points establishing the spatial entities on site. Navigation becomes the architectural narrative: the wayfinding that carried Aotearoa’s ancestors to these shores now organises the building that harbours the nation’s documentary history and identity.