The reality is a country rendered by recent history. Forty years of extractive free-market capitalism and 200 years of domineering colonisation. Millions of years of nature – wetland, coast, forest, birdlife – obliterated by unrelenting, unconscious development. The original settlers, Māori, with nearly 1000 years of culture that sustained them, were overpowered by the European ‘need’ for resources for profit. And now, are we just a regional example of accelerating planetary genocide?

To have a future in Aotearoa, in fact any future in the context of climate and biodiversity collapse, we need to make conscious choices about the actions we take. Should we comply with business-as-usual design, or slow the damage with greener projects? Could we engage regenerative design paradigms to ensure our building projects are in service to our living systems? The current statutory consent system is doubling down on business as usual and is difficult to shift. The design and construction sector in Aotearoa must evolve or it will continue as a burden on society.

Is it possible to evolve our thinking and develop our unique bi-cultural relationships to enable architecture to be the instrument in regenerating communities, ecosystems and, thus, the planet’s biosystem too? What is the sector’s end game? And who are the leaders to enable this way and practice? Hugh Tennent and Ewan Brown offer us an example of how we resolve all of these questions. When the pair met, Hugh – curious, travelled, unimpressed by 1980s privatisation of social value, and uplifted by Buddhism – understood the interdependencies of our living world. He saw this expressed in te ao Māori, where the collective and te taio come before the individual and domination of nature. As an architect, he needed to align this awareness with his work. Bodhinyanarama Monastery was the project that placed a pou in the whenua for Hugh to express the challenging complexities he wanted to address.

Ewan, with solid commercial experience, but not chasing a green agenda, enjoyed growing high-performing teams of people who could learn from each other. He took a pragmatic approach to using resources wisely and responding to the needs of the place and client. With some foresight, Ewan engaged early with Green Star, a traditional third-party credit-management evaluation for good behaviours in building design. Of himself, he asked: ‘how do I take people on this journey?’ and ‘how do I make this a journey of co-learning and development to explore the changes and outcomes we need?’.

The pair’s individual and collective attributes – listening, awareness of an interconnected world, taking care of people and planet, appreciating te ao Māori, green design, growing high-performing teams – formed the foundations of Tennent Brown Architects. My initial introduction to the practice was the ASB Sports Centre in Miramar, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, which opened in 2011. The lead engineer shared stories of the practice and client investing in integrated design and whole-of-life value – more daylight, less lighting, less energy demand, a better roof – a modest spend to save millions over the lifecycle of a resilient building, one that provides a better user experience for more stakeholders. What’s not to like?

A series of indelible projects followed a ‘lucky loss’ in Te Kura Whare. Jasmax and Ivan Mercep beat Tennent Brown in the bid for Te Kura Whare, Ngāi Tūhoe’s centre of governance near Whakatāne. I had been widely advocating the Living Building Challenge (LBC) in Aotearoa and this aligned with Tūhoe’s kaupapa. The LBC met their sustainable aspirations and desire to be independent, uplift wairua and mauri. I liken the LBC to Green Star on steroids – think 100 percent net-zero carbon over 100 years, locally sourced, non-toxic materials, ecological restoration, energy generation, water harvested and treated on site, with beauty and art as conscious design drivers. The challenges of achieving LBC certification are significant and onerous, but the journey offers insights for all stakeholders.

Te Kura Whare laid the groundwork for architects in Aotearoa to take up the sustainability challenge, and Tūhoe adopted the LBC as their compliance standard for all consents. Tennent Brown’s opportunity arrived with Te Wharehou o Waikaremoana, Te Urewera Visitor Centre (2016), a project that would prove transformative for the practice and client. Its success flowed directly on to Te Tii Ruatāhuna, the community hub that opened in 2018.

Above: Gisborne Airport, Tairāwhiti Gisborne, 2020. Photograph by Andy Spain.

Unlike Ngāi Tūhoe, most developer-clients in Aotearoa are not known for leading or investing in green design or considering long-term value. Gisborne Airport [2020] is a classic example of the rigour, hope and consideration Tennent Brown offers their clients. Having developed deep LBC experience, they took the client on an educational journey, showing them the link between sustainable design and te ao Māori. They went the extra mile to demonstrate that a certified outcome was achievable. While certification may not be pursued, this project still represents an incredible commercial success and serves as an advocate for sustainability. The LBC drives change in the wider industry and Tennent Brown’s efforts have expanded the uptake of Declare, a database that helps specifiers identify products that meet green-building standards.

Commitment to bicultural values and LBC knowledge facilitated Tennent Brown winning Te Wānanga o Raukawa projects, the first for the Ōtaki wānanga being Ngā Purapura. These beautiful, sustainable teaching spaces grow the muscle for all stakeholders to take on other challenges.

Ngā Mokopuna at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington represents the pinnacle of living, bicultural and sustainable architecture in Aotearoa. The implicit intersection for dialogue between te ao Māori and Western pedagogy celebrates diversity and the opportunity to progress the creation of our nation. A building to bring this to life is a tall order: the client asking to set a precedent to guide the future campus and tie the university into its biodiverse urban landscape, all on a tiny site that’s home to a marae and ātea. Every design decision requires documentation to ensure certification and every constraint is at play – from a marginal roof area to accommodate solar array, from sequestering carbon biogenically to meeting budget.

It’s fascinating to see how life unfolds, and it has been wonderful to see the essence of Tennent Brown come to life in these projects. Hugh and Ewan work on themselves to be in service not only to the client and building users, but also the industry, te ao Māori, our towns and cities, our living systems and Aotearoa’s future.

We need to grow our built-environment industry like Hugh and Ewan grow their practice, so we really do have a thriving living future for all.

Jerome Partington has been advising on sustainability strategies and tools, including The Living Building Challenge, Green Star and NABERSNZ, for more than 20 years. He is a sustainability consultant with Jasmax, chair of Living Future for New Zealand and an NZGBC Accredited Professional.