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01.1 / Public Realm / Civic

Owhiro Bay — 2024

Landscape that
outlives the people
who plant it.

A Wellington-based spatial practice shaping public realm, coastal remediation, and master landscapes across the Pacific Rim.

Selected work01.1Tidal Commons
Scroll to the work

A landscape should outlive the people who plant it.

Est. 2011 — Te Whanganui-a-Tara

[ 01 / Selected Work ]

Five sites, read closely

[ 02 / Method ]

Four steps, and none of them are the drawing

The process below is the one we have used on every commission since the studio opened — including the ones that never got built.

  1. A landscape starts with what's already growing there. We walk the site, talk to the people who use it, and map what's worth protecting before drawing a single line.

    • Site survey
    • Constraint map
    • Shared brief
    You bring
    Your hopes for the site, seasonal memories, community constraints, and the questions still unresolved.
    We make together
    A shared spatial brief, ecological soil survey notes, hydrological paths, and a clear planting/paving direction.

  2. We never present a first idea as a first idea. Every site gets a set of deliberately different options, drawn at the same level of care, so the trade-offs are visible instead of hypothetical.

    • Option set
    • 1:200 model
    • Cost matrix
    You bring
    Which of the eleven feels like yours, and which one you are quietly sure is right even though it isn't.
    We make together
    Physical models at 1:200, a costed option matrix, and the reasoning behind why four were discarded.

  3. Concept is the easy part. We take it into section, into drainage, into a plant schedule that a contractor can actually order, and into a consent drawing that a council will actually read.

    • Consent set
    • Planting schedule
    • Maintenance plan
    You bring
    A budget you are honest about, a programme you can live with, and a list of things you will not compromise on.
    We make together
    Consent-ready documentation, a costed planting schedule, and a maintenance regime written before the contract is signed.

  4. Landscape is delivered over growing seasons, not construction weeks. We supervise on site, walk it after every storm, and come back at the two-year mark to see what actually took.

    • Site supervision
    • 2-year review
    • Handover manual
    You bring
    Notice, honestly and early, when something is failing — the earlier you say it, the cheaper it is.
    We make together
    On-site supervision through planting, a two-year establishment review, and a maintenance handover your team can run.

[ 03 / Studio ]

Four people, one patch

[ A Simple Belief ]

A landscape should outlive the people who plant it.

A Wellington-based spatial practice shaping public realm, coastal remediation, and master landscapes across the Pacific Rim. Everyone here still walks every site, and every one of us still draws.

  • Black and white portrait of a female landscape architect in a studio with botanical sketches and architectural books, natural daylight, minimalist editorial photographyL-01

    Isla Vance

    Founding Partner & Ecologist

    20 years reading coastal hydrology and native revegetation corridors across Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

    Wellington — REG. NZILA

  • Monochrome architectural portrait of a male design director looking at a topography contour model, directional soft shadow, editorial monograph styleL-02

    Callum Reid

    Design Director & Masterplanner

    Directs large-scale civic connections, public waterfront interfaces, and modular timber assemblies.

    Auckland / Wgtn — Urban Core

  • Monochrome portrait of a designer holding native fern and wetland specimen plants in an architectural greenhouse, crisp focus, minimalist lightL-03

    Maya Chen

    Senior Planting Designer

    Specialist in rooftop pollinator matrices, hyper-saline coastal scrub, and riparian microclimates.

    Christchurch — Botany & Seed

  • Monochrome portrait of a mason examining weathered stone masonry blocks and landscape joint detailing, architectural craftsmanship aestheticL-04

    Tomas Lindqvist

    Technical Detail & Masonry Lead

    Mastery in drystone basalt retaining, permeable drainage strata, and resilient seawall connections.

    Wellington — Fabrication

[ 04 / Contact ]

Got a piece of ground with a problem worth solving?

We take on a small number of commissions each year so we can stay on site through planting. Tell us what the land is doing and what it should be doing instead.

studio@groundwork.nz
Office
Level 3, 24 Blair Street, Te Aro, Wellington
Hours
Mon–Fri, 9:00–17:00 NZST
  • 01Civic Infrastructure
  • 02Ecological Recovery
  • 03Public Sphere