Co-designing collective housing for a regenerative future: Lessons from Indigenous communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and South America

Abstract

Since moving to Aotearoa New Zealand, I have been attempting to learn about Mātauranga Māori and understand how we can embed values from local cultures and traditional knowledges into the design of our future built environments. These learnings help me rethink architectural design and pedagogy not only here, but also in my home country, Brazil, and the wider South American context. In the global context of climate and ecological crises, Indigenous knowledge can help us learn to live lives with a closer connection to the natural environment, to be mindful of the use of natural resources and to be more collective-oriented. Indigenous perspectives are important in our transition to a regenerative future, where we aim to go beyond sustainability to create positive impacts for ecology, health and society.  In this context, I have been working with a team of researchers from Auckland University of Technology and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile, on a project investigating co-design practices to develop better housing models with Indigenous communities. Indigenous concepts of ‘home’ are multidimensional and often extend beyond the physical and social environments where people live. Although there are diverse cultures across the world, fundamental ideals of ‘home’ are shared amongst many Indigenous communities, such as relationships that connect a person to all that surrounds them, connections to other people, living beings, land, ancestors, stories, languages, and traditions. Most housing options in colonised countries have tended to promote values of individualisation, private property rights and nuclear family units; public housing policies and architectural designs have often been imposed on indigenous communities based on non-indigenous ideals of good housing. However, more recently, these original values and collective forms of living have been re-emerging across the globe, with many successful examples of new collective housing co-designed with Indigenous communities. This presentation will share findings from this research carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand and South America, which investigates contemporary housing solutions co-designed with Indigenous communities. Case studies from different countries are explored, and interviews with architects reveal key lessons learned in participatory practices with residents. The findings show differences and similarities across the Pacific, highlighting key valuable shared principles that can be applied to all forms of housing for a regenerative future, such as multigenerational relationships, connection to the natural environment, shared spaces and resources and initiatives to create a real sense of community. The lessons learned about co-design processes can be valuable for designers working with collective housing in the Global South and other areas across the globe.