Nohonga 2022: From Britomart to Brick Bay

'The Stack' made its debut in Auckland's Takutai Square, along with the other Nohonga 2022 finalists.

The Stack was designed by Auckland-based landscape architects Monica Bainbridge, Alex Smith and Nicole Tune; and responded to the competition theme of Te Ao Hurihanga – The Changing World.

Nā Tāne i toko ka mawehe a Ranginui rāua ko Papatūānuku, nāna i tauwehea ai, ka heuea te Pō, ka heuea te Ao.
Tāne thrusted upwards and separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku, so there was night, and there was day.

In their successful design proposal, the team said:

“The Stack seeks to express the notions of Permanence and Impermanence in its design. Two sides consist of strong interlocking timber beams not dissimilar to a lightweight crib wall structure or the familiar wooden puzzle on your parent’s coffee table. There is a sense of permanence and durability to this stack, it’s methodical and considered.

“However, the other two sides of the Nohonga reflect the opposite through a chaotic disassembled beam pattern that appears to be crumbling and falling apart, evoking the sense of the impact of a millennia of crashing West Coast waves on cliffs or the slow decay of a fallen tree.

To express impermanence further, nature will be encouraged to reclaim elements of the Nohonga to provide nourishment and habitat for invertebrates and native wildlife of the local area. This will be achieved through the use of a range of salvaged and foraged timbers, allowing them to break down at varying speeds over time as they slowly reveal a strong core.

“It’s this balance between a sense of fleeting impermanence through decay and the persistence of a permanent structure that gives The Stack its visual and physical resilience in the face of change.”

The 2022 cohort of Nohonga moved to Brick Bay this month, to be revealed to a new audience and enjoyed by visitors to the restaurant and sculpture trail over the summer and into 2023. The Stack has been sited in a familiar spot: the same place where award-winning Bioluminescence had been positioned from 2020 – 2021.

Find out more 'The Stack' is a Nohonga 2022 finalist >The inaugural Nohonga (seat) design challenge took place in 2020, with two Boffa Miskell designs funded for construction. Bioluminescence went on to win a Resene Colour Award, and most recently had been positioned on the boardwalk in Tauranga; while Whiria remains at Brick Bay.

See the Brick Bay video

Read the interview with Monica and Nicole on the Britomart website

For further information please contact Monica Bainbridge, Alex Smith or Nicole Tune