>\ Design Challenge

Create an immersive, interactive activation

Kaikōmako was a student design proposal for an interactive installation; tasked by the Panuku Development Council of Auckland, we were to create an experience that visualized the Māori legend, the "Origin of Fire", with the intent of engaging the Manukau community during the 2022 Matariki celebrations.

>\ The Problem

To inspire Manukau's next generation

Our research showed that 1 in 5 people within the wider Manukau region considered themselves to be Māori, and that more than 20% of children in the wider Auckland region reside there.

Young people who come from lower socio-economic backgrounds often find themselves stuck on the known path. They follow in their parents footsteps, not because they choose to, but because their community hasn't shown them another option. Our goal was to set the unknwon path alight. To show the young people of Manukau that they can be creators, designers, or even work in tech. They can be anything they want.

We're wanted to inspire Manukau's next generation. Families, primarily kids; People who may not yet know what their future holds, but have the imagination and creativity to reach for the stars.

>\ Final Outcome

"A source of illumination"

Our final approach was to create an activation in the square that brings families together and inspires them into a new way of thinking. We envisioned three large structures, each representing a Kaikōmako tree - that which stores the flame in the Maori legend, sending the event-goers on a journey of connection to Māori culture and their community.

Upon entering the square, you are met with three large tree structures that form the edges of a forest, representing that which Māui travelled through. Between the trees hang a series of lights - Mahuika's fireballs - illuminating the area with a dazzling display of colour and sound.

While on the outside, a series of lights that represent Mahuika's fireballs hang between the trees and can be interacted with by stepping onto any of the many leaf-shaped plates that populate in and around the area and, in doing so, cause a random number of lights to change their colour and for ambient noises of the forest to be played around the audience.

Around the trees lay a series of interactive plates in the shape of leaves that work in tandem with the lights. As you step onto the plates a random number of lights change to a random color, as well as emitting ambient forest sounds and their own subtle glow so they can be easily seen in the dark. The more people which interact with them, the more alive the forest becomes.

Projected on the interior walls of each tree is a 360° animation representing a different part of the story. The first tree represents the Separation of the Earthmother & Skyfather. The second the creation of nature; the forests and mountains, and he third represents the journey with Māui and the Origins of Fire.