By the time of publication, Te Rimutahi will have been officially opened for four months.
BRAVO!
The ‘soft opening’ (when the construction fences were taken down, enabling the community to finally access and enjoy the new civic space), happened in early May this year, following a dawn blessing by mana whenua. The formal opening, hosted by the Waitematā Local Board, took place on Saturday, 17 May — a fortuitously beautiful, sunny day after the early morning fog had lifted.
Te Rimutahi was a long time in the making, and is tangible evidence of what a group of determined community advocates can achieve. In 2015, the Waitematā Local Board initiated the Community-Led Design (CLD) process, with CLD referring to projects led by a community group or organisation. This process effectively involved local people in the decision-making process, from envisioning to implementation and, importantly, in an ongoing capacity throughout the entire project.
The CLD process connected the community by:
- Creating a collective vision of what could be.
- Developing a design brief informed by local knowledge.
- Holding that vision on behalf of the community to ensure it was always front-of-mind for the project team.
- Maintaining a communication pathway between the project team and you, our stakeholders.
This produced multiple community benefits, including:
- Putting local people at the heart of changes made to their neighbourhood.
- Improving civic participation to ensure a more democratic outcome.
- Creating a strong sense of community by strengthening people’s attachment to their neighbourhood.
Informed by the community through the years of sustained, ongoing support and engagement in the CLD process, it’s heartwarming now that Te Rimutahi has opened, that the community has responded to this wonderful civic amenity with such exuberance!
We had pop-up dancing with Michael Parmenter MNZM, on the very first evening Te Rimutahi opened. Since then, the Lindy-hoppers and Kizomba have held numerous pop-up dance events under the canopy on the wooden floor. And it’s such a delight to discover the dancing when strolling through Te Rimutahi of an evening.
Through the wet winter months, the space has been full of life with children exploring, friends meeting up, lunchers lunching, people investigating, dogs sniffing and much, much more.
Te Rimutahi, the new civic space at 254 Ponsonby Road, was always envisioned as a place of diversity and inclusion, where everyone would be welcome, to be an urban oasis that is good for the people, good for the environment and good for Tāmaki Makaurau. The beautiful civic space that is Te Rimutahi is all this and more, and is available for all the residents, visitors and local businesses to access, enjoy and delight in.
BRAVO! The CLDG couldn’t be happier with the result!
See you at Te Rimutahi soon and don’t forget to VOTE in the Local Body elections.
For more information or to contact the Community-Led Design Group, please see our Instagram page _te_rimutahi our website: 254ponsonbyrd.org.nz or our Facebook pages: Te Rimutahi, or 254 Ponsonby Road.
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