The 5th Auckland Triennial

Sirkes Dankha

Sirkes completed the National Diploma in Architectural Technology (NDAT) in 2009, followed by the Bachelor of Architectural Studies (BAS) from which he graduated in the summer of 2012. Sirkes is currently in his 1st year of the Master of Architecture professional program. Sirkes has been living in New Zealand for the past 8 years; he joined Māori studio for the opportunity to further explore Māori history and culture. He is excited to be a part of a design team, and to construct a real project and see it come to life.

Jessica Hulme

“Don’t forget your roots my friends. Yeah.”

This song, if you know it, reflects why Jessica Hulme chose Maori Studio. It offered her the chance to be a part of a real life, hands-on project, and the chance to combine her culture with her degree – Māori architecture! Jessica hails from Te Whanau a Hinerupe o Ngati Porou, and Te Roroa o Ngāti Whātua, and was born and raised in Waitakere (West Auckland). She wants to learn as much as she can and gain the life skills, networks, and of course practical abilities that anyone is lucky to have through opportunities like this. Tihei Mauri ora!

Pearl Patel

Pearl is currently in her second year of the Bachelor of Architectural Studies at Unitec. She is originally from India but has been living in New Zealand for the past decade. Pearl chose Māori studio for the outstanding opportunity to work on a ‘real’ project. She feels privileged to be learning more about Māori culture, and is grateful for the opportunity to be involved with and contribute to the 5th Auckland Triennial. Through this project, Pearl hopes to develop her communication skills, working with real clients and working in a team with different individuals.

Breean is a 21 year old Australian studying architecture at Unitec. In 2011, she moved to New Zealand to pursue study goals and has never looked back. Last year, Breean was involved in a mapping project to assist with the Christchurch rebuild. This experience opened her eyes to the strong community spirit within New Zealand; she is looking forward to being a part of another such project, especially one specific to Māori. Through her involvement with this project, Breean aims to learn and share knowledge about the

Māori culture and Tāmaki’s tribal groups, and to learn new skills through being part of a team.

Samantha Chu

Samantha is a second year architecture student at Unitec. Samantha joined Māori studio because she was interested in being a part of a real world project as well as learning more about the culture of Māori community and their individual tribal groupings. She is incredibly excited and honored to be a part of such an amazing real world project that is being built and the potential for the project to be used by the local Iwi as a backdrop to portray their own histories.