Mapua Waterfront Park

Canopy staff provided Masterplanning, Detailed Design and Construction Management services for the Mapua Wharf precinct which saw the rehabilitation of a heavily contaminated agri-checmical storage site into a successful waterfront park and plaza area. Canopy worked with Robin Simpson for the Park design, with Architects Irving Smith winning awards for the architecture of the associated buildings in the park. Canopy have since gone on to develop the latest phase, master planning the plaza setting for a renovated industrial warehouse retail and commercial entertainment precinct.

Materials and forms evocative of the coastal and estuary landscape and orchard industrial heritage were used to form a diverse series of spaces with custom furnishings, lighting and public art installations. Sense of place was critical to the success of this landscape design, with the grid form of orchard trees pulled through into the park space. The amphitheatre is formed by tiered park steps that flow down to the sea.

A boardwalk provides pedestrian access along the waterfront's edge with a viewing platform over the water providing views across the Mapua wharf to Kina Penninsula and Rabbit Island. The amphitheatre creates a multi-use area used as both steps and seats that allow tourists and locals alike the opportunity of sitting, picnicking and enjoying watching the ebb and flow of the Mapua tide past the village. Use of unexpected materials include the use of FRP (fibreglass reinforced plastic) which harks to the industrial materials of the fishing industry. This contrasts with the corten steel lazer cut designs that bookend the concrete benches. The highest bench at the back row includes a poem sandblasted into the concrete which can be discovered by the users of the park. This poem was written especially for the new park by Tasman poet Cliff Fell. This poem is evocative of the estuary, tides, the migration of birds and the marine life and cultural use of the area.