In Aotearoa NZ:
• New Builds in Akl produce 570,000 tonnes of waste
• CDW contributes to 50% of landfill volume
• Every new house produces 4.5t of waste, apartment blocks more
• In contracting, EoT claims often more expensive than material over-supply: PGCert in PM research?
• Waste Levies ($10/t) in AKL a joke compared to LDN ($100/t)
• Deconstruct don’t demolish
• Digital off-site prefabrication CLT has minimal waste
• Fly-tipping problem / Litter Act ineffective
• NZL is not green by design but by accident

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The use of Scalectrix to rationalise boardwalk construction.

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As my ode to Witi Ihimaera, the Stardome Observatory tells me:

• Five planets can be seen with the unaided eye.
• Planets look different from stars and different from each other.
• How close a planet is to the horizon affects how bright it appears. When high, there’s less air to look through – so the higher they are, the brighter they appear.
• Mars’ brightness varies hugely over the course of a couple of years.
• Mercury (the hardest to spot) and Venus (the easiest) are sometimes called the ‘evening’ or ‘morning’ star. Mercury comes and goes very quickly (just a few weeks) while the others hang around for many months.
• The planets will always be found near the ecliptic against the backdrop of the Zodiac constellations – approximately east or west when rising or setting, or near north when they are highest in the sky.

Mars is stooging around in the early morning sky as I write but as spring approaches it will appear in the evening sky as well. Approaching mid-October 2020 it will reach opposition and will be brighter than Jupiter and won’t be this bright again until June 2033! Best viewing will be around midnight half-way up the northern sky.

The giant planets Jupiter and Saturn will be in our evening sky for the rest of 2020. Watch this pair as they slowly draw closer to one other. On 21^st December they’ll give us a one in twenty year treat as they seemingly almost ‘touch’. Called a ‘great conjunction’ we might think of this as a modern rendition of the Christmas Star 😊.

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Rebuilding Tānewhirinaki: A Digital Projection

The great whare Tānewhirinaki was built by the Ngātira chief Hira te Popo at Waioeka in 1874, to restore the iwi’s mana following the illegal land confiscations imposed after the killing of the German missionary Carl Völkner.  Tānewhirinaki became implicated in ominous prophesies by Te Kooti. This association and disturbing events on the marae led to the house’s acquisition of frightening tapu. One myth tells that the whare would not be standing after a kumekume a ruaumoko and so by the time of the 1931 Napier earthquake, Tānewhirinaki was no longer standing. Unable due to re-erected due to funding, the whare carvings have been in storage since that time. It is a travesty that such a significant part of Aotearoa NZ’s history lies in pieces.

In 2010 the School of Architecture began a collaborative project with the mana whenua Ngāti Ira o Te Whakatohea to look at reconstructing the whare. A 2014 lecture by Jeremy Treadwell and Yun Sung was the story of the first stage of the project; to reconstruct the house as a walk-through digital model (with Jordon Saunders) to provide this generation of the iwi with their first view into Tānewhirinaki. The animation was made with the blessings of the hāpu who lifted the associated tapu.

Jeremy Treadwell is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning. Jeremy is engaged in doctoral studies investigating the structure of the large 19th century Māori meeting houses. Yun Kong Sung graduated with a Master of Architecture (Professional) at the University of Auckland. His current work encompasses archaeology and conservation using 3D scanning, automation of prefabricated single living units, and building visualisation through augmented reality.

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A taxonomy of kākahu: kahu huruhuru, kahu kiwi, kahu kuri and korowai.

A kahu huruhuru is a feathered kākahu (weaver Erenora Puketapu-Hetet has used different birds).

A kahu kiwi is a kiwi feathered kākahu (weaver Erenora Puketapu-Hetet).

A korowai is a hukahuka, or tassled, kākahu (weaver Dame Rangimarie Hetet).

Identification and description of feathers. By Hokimate P. Hardwood

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263662225_Identification_and_description_of_feathers_in_Te_Papa’s_MAori_cloaks/download

ABSTRACT: For the first time, scientific research was undertaken to identify the feathers to species level contained in 110 cloaks (käkahu) held in the Mäori collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa). Methods of feather identification involved a visual comparison of cloak feathers with museum bird specimens and analysis of the microscopic structure of the down of feathers to verify bird order. The feathers of more than 30 species of bird were identified in the cloaks, and consisted of a wide range of native and introduced bird species. This study provides insight into understanding the knowledge and production surrounding the use of materials in the cloaks; it also documents the species of bird and the use of feathers included in the cloaks in Te Papa’s collections from a need to have detailed and accurate museum records.

KEYWORDS: Mäori feather cloaks, käkahu, cloak weaving, birds, feathers, harakeke, microscopic feather identification, barbule, nodes, New Zealand.

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1. Write The Research Question.
2. Read How To Write A Thesis By Umberto Eco.
3. Make The Thesis as a Book. Assume 300pp say for 20,000 words.
4. Add content. Assume minimum rate of 2,000 words pcm.
5. Recall: You are not Proust. Do not write long sentences.” Your Research Question might be your longest sentence.

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A pepeha is a different way of introducing one’s self. More personal than a business card, more bee’s knees than a personal greeting whereby one simply offers a name – which is then forgotten.

A pepeha offers all NZers, not just Māori, a way of learning about one’s sense of place.  A pepeha connects you to your landscape as taonga: to maunga, awa and moana. In doing so we learn more about the (his)stories of Aoteroa and thus all NZers can participate in the embrace of Māori culture. No matter where in the world you are or are from, a pepeha allows one to enter a Te Ao Māori and to find your mountain, your river, your sea, your boat, your land. You source your own personal wairua, your own personal mauri, your own mana whenua from those places you consider home. A pepeha is a map of your personal landmarks and these landmarks are your people.

Ko Mataatua me Queen Mary ngā waka
Ko Toitehuatahi toku-Moana
Ko Mauao te maunga
Ko Kaituna toku awa
Ko Mōtītī toku motuere
Ko Tauranga te papa rererangi
Ko Ngāti Awa me Ngāti Ranana ngā iwi
Ko Patuwai toku hapu
Ko Stichtingbureau de architectenregister de Nederlands me Royal Institute of British Architects me Te KāhuiWhaihanga ngā whare takuira
Ko WHAT_architecture te pakihi
Ko Aubrey tōku mātua
Ko Māui Pehiamuopatuwai tōku tama
Ko Anthony Hoete tōku ingoa

The Great Bear by Simon Patterson (1992) reworks the already brilliant London Tube map in an entertaining way but through minimal means. Patterson didn’t change the map’s overall appearance (the lines’ colours remain the same, the circle icons representing stations are intact and the fonts are all unchanged); what he does, on closer inspection, is to simply change the stations’ names and assign roles to the lines.
The Northern line thus represents ‘Actors’, the Central line ‘World Leaders’ whilst the Overground line ‘Comedians’. Tottenham Court Road is now ‘Gina Lollobrigida’; Camden Town ‘Peter Fonda’; Stratford ‘Napoleon’ and Brondesbury Park ‘Spike Milligan’. When different Tube lines intersect their roles overlap. So West Hampstead, where the Jubilee line (‘Footballers’) meets the Overground line (‘Comedians’) meet becomes ‘Paul Gascoigne’ – after the 1990s baffooning footballer.
As with any artwork, though, there’s something more profound at work with The Great Bear than mere amusement. By not just retaining the look and iconography but the exact detail of the Tube map, yet substituting the expected and often familiar station names for names of well-known figures from completely different realms of our experience, it creates a slightly jarring, even confusing effect. Although this effect may only be there for a few seconds until we figure out what’s going on and it becomes funny, it’s long enough to lodge in the brain and, thus, cleverly demonstrates how the everyday and the expected can be subverted.

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