Housing fails to meet Māori and Pacific needs, say experts

Housing in New Zealand isn't meeting the needs of our culturally diverse society, say University of Auckland Professor Deidre Brown and Dr Karamia Müller, directors of the Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre – MĀPIHI. 

Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and Müller (Sāmoa) say many Māori and Pacific families are larger, and several generations often want to live together. 

“Housing isn’t meeting the needs of Māori and Pacific people across the nation, sadly,” says Müller.

“Māori and Pacific people tend to live intergenerationally. They tend to find cultural resilience by living together – it’s mana-enhancing. 

“But the majority of the housing stock isn’t designed to enable and empower intergenerational living.”

Brown says one larger house is often needed to accommodate Māori whanau, and this can be more affordable than two or three smaller houses. 

“Māori whānau thrive when they live as extended whānau. 

“Much more flexible housing is required. The houses we have don’t accommodate larger families - they don’t have options like two kitchens, they don’t allow for people to come and stay for longer periods,” says Brown. 

Müller says Pacific people have different values about the way buildings connect with the environment. 

“The issue isn’t just about the design of the houses, it’s about how housing is placed, what it connects us to in the environment and whether that’s a source of well-being or impacts our well-being negatively.” 

Adding to the design concerns, housing prices have skyrocketed. 

In 2023, around 17 percent of Pacific people and 28 percent of Māori owned their own home, compared with a national home ownership rate of 66 percent. 

Cities have become increasingly gentrified, pushing Pacific people to the edges or outside cities, says Müller. 

“Housing pressures are particularly intense in regions such as Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Auckland, Northland, Oamaru and other parts of the South Island. 

“Some regions have additional pressures from homelessness, some need more social housing, and some need more innovative options for home ownership.”  

Māori and Pacific design elements scarcely featured in New Zealand architecture until about 15 years ago, say Brown and Müller. 

“Up until recently, more buildings than not have been what you would think of as Pākehā buildings. 

“But we’re seeing an emergent movement around Māori and Pacific design and architecture,” says Müller. 

The discipline of Māori architecture barely existed when Brown began her postgraduate studies, so her mission has been to create one. 

“I see Karamia and some others around Aotearoa as creating a contemporary architecture movement. We’re looking for transformational change in the built environment to meet the needs of Māori and Pacific people and New Zealanders generally,” Brown says. 

The University’s School of Architecture and Planning focuses on training architectural students in placed-based design, says Brown. 

“We encourage our graduates to draw on the environment – whether that’s the people or the whenua – to inform their design.” 

In the past, public buildings, such as airports and hotels, often featured “tokenistic gestures” to Māori culture, says Brown. 

“Now, we’re seeing architects and architectural designers incorporating Māori and Pacific concepts and the involvement of communities in co-design. 

“These innovations make sure what communities want and need is reflected in the architecture,” says Brown. 

Māori and Pacific design elements in buildings help reflect a sense that Aotearoa is a unique country, located in the Pacific, they say. 

“Some people might say ‘why Māori and Pacific when we live in New Zealand?’, but these design elements actually speak to a wider New Zealand identity. 

“Māori design elements in our architecture are unique to this whenua. 

“They have been developed over almost a millennium by Māori people to reflect our relationships to nature and the way we live in this land,” says Brown. 

Müller says most building materials these days come from overseas. 

“With the increased globalisation of building materials, it is even more important to have Māori and Pacific design elements in the built realm, because the built realm is a mirror of who we are. 

“It affirms and builds our sense of identity,” says Müller.