By Pollen Workshop
Pollen Workshop was engaged as the landscape architect in 2015 for Matangi Farm, a sheep and beef station that cloaks the rugged limestone outcrops and ridges that flows down to the valley floor of the Tuki Tuki.
Brief:
Create an overarching plan for the farm (to include buildings) that was; sustainable, simple and highly functional.
Key Features:
The breadth of this incredible opportunity allowed for the freedom to design a farm environment inclusive of all of the elements that make up it’s whole. The project needed to:
The Shed and Building hub is essentially a microcosm of what is achieved with the larger extent of the farm. That being: sustainable, simple and highly functional.
The buildings themselves are subtle in style yet, sleek in form. The iconic landscape of the Tuki is reflected in the overall look of the design. Sustainability is a key focus, with embodied energy being kept to a minimum, both in the construction and in the material selection. The bold goal was to be off the grid where possible whilst maintaining functionality and remaining practical – as a kiwi woolshed should.
The outcome is an off the grid shed complex, clad in locally grown thermally modified pine. The large central courtyard is the hub of the farm complex, integrated stormwater rain gardens and swales planted with natives surround the buildings settle them in.
On the Farm itself, we identified areas of marginal farmland that was to be retired from grazing and is now fenced. These gullies are home to species of Kowhai, Titoki and Harekeke that are climatically sympathetic to the precise location. Subsequent cultivation of many of these species has followed, and over two seasons, 10,000 natives have been planted in these corridors.
THE POLLEN WORKSHOP WAY
I believe in simplicity and most importantly, sustainability. This design philosophy has been shaped largely by the rural upbringing I enjoyed on the coastal environment of the East Coast of New Zealand.
Life on a farm requires a simplistic functionality. As guardians of the land, sustainability is required to ensure we hand a better environment to our next generations. Pollen Workshop looks to use these values of simplicity and sustainability in all of our design, be it rural, residential or riparian management.
Pollen Workshop is a small, independent Landscape Architecture company based in Te Awanga, Hawkes Bay. Our design philosophy is centered around the creation of simple, highly functional spaces. This ethos can be seen everyday at our Pollen Workshop coastal HQ.
I graduated from Lincoln University with a degree in Landscape Architecture in 2007 and worked in Melbourne before moving back to Te Awanga, Hawkes Bay in 2010. I have been practicing here ever since.
I look forward to seeing you at The Office for a coffee and to chat through your project soon.
– Willie Murphy