Te Tangi a te Manu - "a marathon effort"
Next month marks an important milestone for Tuia Pito Ora New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects as Te Tangi a te Manu - Aotearoa New Zealand Landscape Assessment Guidelines is published.
It’s taken four years of collaborative work by Rachel de Lambert, Gavin Lister and Alan Titchener to put the guidelines together, encapsulating the best collective knowledge of landscape architects working in landscape assessment under New Zealand’s legislative framework. They acknowledge mana whenua and mātauranga Māori, and afford due respect to pūkengatanga — the knowledge and expertise relating to an iwi, hapū or whānau.
Te Tangi a te Manu - Aotearoa New Zealand Landscape Assessment Guidelines will be published next month.
“We are getting to the exciting penultimate moment of pushing the button on printing Te Tangi a te Manu with a big effort on the part of the Isthmus graphic design team, we are really happy with how the look and feel of the book are supporting its kaupapa,” says Rachel de Lambert.
“Even after all the times we have read and reread Te Tangi a te Manu we are finding ways to refine and simplify the content for its users, the editing completed by Shona McCahon has really tightened the content and tidied up the language, we are pretty excited to be this close to achieving our goal and to finalising the document in it’s freely available online PDF and hardcopy book formats.
“Thanks to everyone that has submitted images to illustrate Te Tangi a te Manu, the diversity of graphic material really reinforces the Aotearoa landscape draws on the breadth of the country and its people”
The guidelines are the culmination of four years’ collaborative work.
“It’s awesome to be this close to publishing Te Tangi a te Manu, we are so close and really can’t wait to have the book in our hands.”
Alan Titchener says the “extraordinary” level of support from the profession has been “hugely gratifying. It’s been a bit of a marathon, he says, but well worth it.
"The images provided by practitioners from all around the country and the great work by the graphic design whizzes at Isthmus and Boffa have really helped to lift the readability of the document".
"The whakataukī provided by William Hatton and the various quotes featured add another layer of meaning and richness to the book. We've ended up with a real taonga that we can all be immensely proud of.”
The guidelines originated as a Ministry for the Environment contract, initiated by Shannon Bray, to update the 2010 Best Practice Guide. Isthmus Group and Boffa Miskell were awarded the contract. However, when the funds were subsequently withdrawn, Gavin Lister and Rachel de Lambert made a voluntary commitment, with the support of their colleagues to go ahead anyway under a memorandum of agreement with Tuia Pito Ora.
Copies can be pre-ordered now with an expected delivery date of mid April. NZILA will look to run additional CPD events around the guidelines later in the year.