K’aute Pasifika Village
Completed:
Size:
Value:
Status:
Studio:
2022
600M2
$4.0m
Completed 2022
TEAM Hamilton
K’aute Pasifika Village is the very first of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. This iconic building in the heart of Kirikiriroa Hamilton, based on a traditional fale, has been designed as a welcoming hub of health and wellbeing for the community.
The recently-opened K’aute Pasifika Village is a Pasifika-focussed hub designed to drive health and wellbeing outcomes for the community through wraparound services including an early learning centre, medical services, pharmacy, and iconic fale for community and cultural events.
The project was first tabled in 1999 at a community fono held at Wintec - Waikato Institute of Technology Marae to understand why Pacific people were not accessing mainstream healthcare.
The feedback was clear - the community wanted to be treated by people who understood their Pacific worldviews, and health in the Pacific context. They also wanted a community space, for Pacific people, where they could receive the care they needed and have their cultural values understood.
The fono was instrumental in the creation of K'aute Pasifika Trust whose mission was ‘Tagata Pasifika - United we achieve’. One of the key goals was to create a centre of health and wellbeing to serve the community.
With its polished concrete floors and high rounded ceiling, the central fale space provides a communal experience which welcomes visitors and engages the eye upwards.
Located near FMG Stadium on the edge of the city centre, this project has been a labour of love for the Pasifika community, driven by the K’aute Pasifika Trust and supported by our team at TEAM Architects Hamilton.
The Trust is based in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, and provides health, education, employment and social services to Pasifika communities and all other ethnicities.