Tīramarama Way is a pedestrian and cycle public laneway. Its first of two stages were completed in 2018 and Wā led its design in collaboration with celebrated artist, Lisa Reihana. The brief for the laneway was to provide a space that will attract a diverse demographic, be flexible for a range of uses including pop-up events, allow for movement of people through and across the lane as well as emergency services. The lane crosses east-west through ‘Wynyard Central’, an emerging precinct of high-quality residential and commercial developments. The design reveals the whakapapa of the place by drawing from the historic intertidal edge of the underlying environment. The laneway offers dynamic expressions of water and light, through the ‘purposeful puddles’ that temporarily detain site stormwater and fill in sync with the rising tide, with an interplay of the catenary lighting overhead.

The array of catenary lighting strung across the street abstracts the navigational cosmology of the Pacific that once guided voyages here (pre-reclamation) and their reflection within the puddles sets up a deliberate sky-ground relationship in what will eventually be a fully enclosed linear urban space. The former intertidal shoreline beneath the lane is reflected in a dot-screened photographic collage of the Waitematā Harbour tidal surface, providing a texture to the concrete paving that can be read at various levels. The densely planted nikau grove and burrow raingardens form a shoreline-edge gateway into the space with opportunities for exploration and play. The street’s open character responds to the spatial requirements and environmental conditions, while also adding a deliberate variety to the Wynyard neighbourhood spaces, which are generally green streets with extensive tree and raingarden planting.

Location: Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
Structural Engineer: Beca