Isthmus

Isthmus is an integrated design studio that removes the traditional boundaries between disciplines. We solve complex problems with integrated thinking guided by a clear set of principles and ideas. In our work we aim to celebrate and bring balance to the relationship between people and place. We work with people, helping to connect them to their […]

Te Wānanga is an audacious public space that extends over the sparkling Waitematā harbour to create space for people, flora and fauna to flourish at the interface of city and sea. Stitching together the land and the harbour, Te Wānanga is conceived as an elevated tidal shelf for human and coastal ecologies. Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) […]

The crater lake of Rotorua is a taonga (a highly prized natural resource) for those that live in the city that has grown along its shore. The nation of Aotearoa New Zealand has always treasured the lake—it’s been a key destination for tourists since the town of Rotorua was built by the government in the […]

In 2018 the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), a co-governance statutory authority between Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau and Auckland Council, commissioned a world-class boardwalk experience on the ancestral volcanic crater of Maungawhau. Human occupation of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland goes back roughly 1,000 years to the arrival of ocean-going waka (canoes) from the Pacific which […]

Until recently the site of an NZ Air Force base, Hobsonville Point is a new suburb of Auckland designed to generate a socially successful and sustainable community. After a decade of development thousands of people are already living in new homes on safe streets connected to transport networks, schools, parks, playgrounds and public amenities. Te […]

Straddling active fault lines and blasted by ocean winds funnelled through the Cook Strait, Wellington is, by necessity, a resilient city that nestles into steep hills girded with a green belt of vegetation. Where sea meets land there was once a fishing kāinga (village), Kumutoto, named after an ancient stream that makes its escape to […]

Located within the ‘engine-room’ of Auckland city, Freyberg Square sits on a north facing slope on the toe of an historic volcano. With fabulous aspect for sun, and shelter from the prevailing south-west wind, it is a popular destination for locals and visitors, adults and children, residents and workers to take quiet refuge from the […]