Tony Watkins

The Hokianga landscape is both strong and unique.

107) The Hokianga landscape is both strong and unique, and all the settlements in the Hokianga have traditionally been subservient to that dominating landscape.

108) All landscape is unique. In the natural environment we know where we are. Too often in the built environment we could be anywhere because much modern architecture belongs nowhere in particular. Global placelessness has become a characteristic of our time. Uniformity has replaced the rich diversity of a vernacular architecture which was not only strongly rooted in place but also sourced in local communities, local skills, and local traditions.

109) The good news, although not everyone may see it that way, is that we are at the end of an era where the primary purpose of the built environment has been seen as sheltering us from, and dominating, the natural environment. Human beings, like all species, are now suffering from habitat loss.

110) The first move in addressing the global “climate change” environmental crisis must be to re-establish our relationship with nature. We need to feel the wind, the rain, and the sea once again in the way that our ancestors did. Heritage preservation begins with strengthening relationships. Kohukohu is the rising of the sun and the full moon. Kohukohu is eastern solar light.

111) Shutting ourselves away in isolated heavily insulated, double glazed, closed boxes, is rather like climbing into a coffin to protect ourselves from a world which wants to give us life. Winter is winter. Spring is spring. Taking away the seasons takes away our understanding. We need to open ourselves up to the world, not close ourselves away. We need to love the outdoors, in the way that New Zealanders traditionally have. Urban design is not about taking away gumboots and mud. We need to be constantly surprised by the awe and wonder of the universe.

112) Architectural obesity makes a significant contribution to climate change. Too much gets in the way. We need to rediscover the meaning of enough. Architectural comfort can make us soft, sapping our energy and making us lethargic.

113) Community in the Hokianga has always been more important than the individual. The marae is more important than the house. The churches and the pa sites mark unique moments in the landscape. The houses of individuals are subservient to those formal expressions of community. The relationship between those marks on the land weaves a network of relationships through the natural landscape.

114) Urban design which grows out of, and is sensitive to, landscape, is also unique. Each of the settlements in the Hokianga has a particular reason for being where it is. Motuti or Panguru are at the navigable limits of their inlets. Rawene or Matawera reach out from the shallows. Horeke or Kohukohu are where the waters run deep.

115) The ridgelines, the mountains, the silhouette and the harbour of the Hokianga are sacred. They are not negotiable. Landscape establishes a sense of place.

Hokianga settlements are dominated by landscape.