Funded by the Provincial Growth Fund, the set-up comprises two buildings: an office administration block with smaller occupancies and a warehouse-style unit with distribution and processing capabilities to accommodate industrial tenancies.
Within this incubator for food-related businesses, there’s a central hub made up of large meeting spaces that can be used by any tenant, a conference or classroom that seats 70-80 and a communal staff kitchen with a variety of break-out spaces.
Haumako, which means ‘fertility’, is a name gifted to the facility by Ngahiwi Tomoana from the local Waipatu Marae. “It ties the project back to the abundance of the Heretaunga Plains and provides historical respect to the land in which the project is placed,” says Casey.
Shed-like volumes that reference the agricultural vernacular are clad in corrugated vertical sheet-metal in classic Zincalume interspersed with colours derived from the shades of the landscape. “We topped and turned the exterior envelope windows to create visual interest and used sections of cladding in vertical bands of terracotta and pioneer red to echo the region’s clay soils and rural buildings,” explains Casey. “It was a way of creating interest from the road edge while retaining the low-maintenance, simple forms of construction which help keep costs down.”
A red entrance shroud decorated in patterning pays its respects to the building’s narrative and projects from the both the entrance and the opposite side of the administration building. The circulation laneway runs right through the central axis of this block to an external deck overlooking an apple orchard which provides an attractive alternative work setting for the facility’s tenants. The two buildings are connected via an external paved passageway safely managing people’s movements between staff parking and heavy traffic zones.
Officially opened in December last year, Foodeast-Haumako has already attracted a diversity of tenants, from an eco-friendly food-and-wine logistics business to an exciting start-up that turns industry by-products such as apple and beetroot pomace and grain waste into functional food-grade ingredients.
At RTA Studio, we feel honoured to have designed a facility that, although humble in form, has an ambitious mission to feed the future of Aotearoa.