By Bull O'Sullivan Architecture
Nothing speaks of celebrating a moment in life quite like the spitting and eating of a pig, let alone 300 of them with three cray fish on each back.
Lesieli Tonga is a conduit for the whole New Zealand Tongan community to celebrate what it is to be Polynesian and what it means to be Polynesian living in a foreign country under English Crown law.
The Kingdom of Tonga is strong in its faith and none more so than the Free Wesleyan Methodist faith. The congregation in Mangere required an Auditorium that could cater for festivities and rituals that are unfamiliar to Anglo Saxon New Zealand.
A metaphoric blanket ceiling of frangipani flowers has been laid over the walls of the space, symbolising the nurturing and warmth of humanity required to get on with life in a foreign land.
The congregation voted to build it themselves with imported labour from the Islands and direction from the Architects on procedure and compliance.
Awards
Press
The BOS Practice is driven by the pursuit of quality - a belief that our surroundings directly influence the quality of our lives, whether in the workplace, at home or the public spaces and structures in between. It is not just buildings but urban design that affects our wellbeing. We are concerned with the physical context of a project, sensitive to the culture and climate of their place. We have applied the same priorities from housing to education to furniture.
The BOS philosophy and values that inspire every project are the same regardless of scale or size. This explains why no detail is too small in its importance for the BOS Practice and why the same amount of care and attention will be lavished on the design of a door handle, a tap, or a piece of furniture.
These, after all, are the elements of the environment that we physically touch every day of our lies. The BOS Practice believes the quality of a project is not necessarily related to how much it costs, but rather how wisely the resources of time and money are spent. The setting of standards is more about an attitude of mind in defining goals and honouring commitments. In that sense the most important things have not changed - in particular the philosophy of quality and optimism at the most personal of levels.