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August 18, 2022
Ancient whare studied for earthquake resilience
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira
Posted On August 18, 2022
Download AudioA Whakatōhea hapū wants to resurrect a significant 1860s whare whakairo demolished after the 1931 Napier earthquake.
Ngati Ira wants to turn Tānewhirinaki into a whare wananga.
The project has drawn funding from the Earthquake Commission Toka Tū Ake as a way to enhance the seismic resilience of the new wharenui and its community.
Project leader Anthony Hoete from the University of Auckland School of Architecture says the house was moved several times to escape colonial intrusion, until its final site above the Waioeka River inland from Opotiki.
He says it was built using the pre-colonial system of mīmiro.
“It’s a post-tensioning structural system much used on waka and in sailing like the way you lash and tie the sails or you bind the hull of a waka together, so the first traditional whare in Aotearoa would have been tied together much like a Polynesian fale I guess, in the absence of nails and screws,” Dr Hoete says.
He says the carvings saved from the house after the earthquake have deteriorated after 90 years in storage and can’t carry the weight of the structure, so his team will design a new outer wall to which they can be attached to.
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