Concurrent sessions

Concurrent Session One

Oval Frame

Participatory and Living Lab approaches to risk-informed multigenerational Pasifika housing

Jamers Miller & Dr. Karamia Müller

Across the Pacific, extended family living plays a central role in supporting wellbeing, intergenerational care, and collective resilience. Yet contemporary housing systems often fail to accommodate multigenerational living arrangements, particularly under increasing pressures from climate risk, housing affordability, and changing family dynamics. This interactive workshop introduces a participatory, place-based approach to risk-informed housing design for multigenerational Pasifika communities.The workshop draws on Living Lab methodologies — collaborative research and innovation environments where new ideas are co-designed and tested in real-world community settings, emphasising participation, experimentation, and iterative learning. Participants engage in facilitated co-design activities that integrate hazard awareness, cultural spatial practices, and practical considerations such as construction feasibility, financing mechanisms, and locally available resources.Through collaborative activities, participants will map environmental risks affecting housing, identify socio-spatial patterns that shape multigenerational living, and explore adaptive housing configurations that support evolving household structures. Design exercises consider accessibility for ageing populations, inclusive design for disabled residents, and housing layouts that support extended family life while maintaining privacy and flexibility.Participants will also examine how community capacity — including finance, construction knowledge, local materials, and cooperative building practices — can be leveraged to support housing solutions. Discussions explore options ranging from bespoke culturally responsive housing to modular and incremental building approaches, alongside opportunities for renewable energy integration and shared infrastructure that may reduce long-term costs.By combining risk-informed planning, culturally grounded design, and participatory Living Lab principles, the workshop empowers participants to collectively explore housing possibilities within their communities.Participants will leave able to: identify community resources supporting housing development; recognise socio-spatial patterns influencing multigenerational design; apply risk-informed principles to address environmental and social vulnerabilities; evaluate approaches supporting accessibility and ageing in place; and understand how Living Lab methods can advance community-led housing innovation in Pacific contexts.

James Miller (Kanaka) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland and strategic appointment to MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre, leading the Pacific Region Strategy. His practice centers Indigenous design knowledge in the service of culturally resilient communities across the Pacific.

Oval Frame

Dr. Karamia Müller (Samoa)

Dr. Karamia Müller (Samoa) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland and Co-Director of MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre. Her research advances Indigenous spatial knowledge and values-based, community-led approaches to Pacific housing, design, and cultural resilience.

Oval Frame

From Aspiration to Ownership: A Shared Equity scheme for Pasifika Aiga

Lissa Birse

Home ownership remains one of the most powerful pathways to long-term wellbeing and financial stability, yet for many Pasifika aiga living in Aotearoa New Zealand it remains out of reach. Deposit gaps, borrowing constraints, and systemic barriers have widened the divide between aspiration and reality. With support from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Pacific Building Affordable Homes Fund, Home Foundation developed a culturally grounded Progressive Homeowners Scheme that uses shared equity to bridge the gap between what a family can borrow and what a home costs.

The scheme combines MPP grant funding with Home Foundation capital, alongside partners Westpac Bank and Tangata Atumotu Trust (TAT). Home Foundation co-invests with aiga by holding a silent equity share for up to 15 years while the whānau lives in and maintains the home, with a clear pathway to buy out the equity over time.

A key differentiator is the wrap-around support delivered by TAT: budgeting guidance, debt navigation, and annual check-ins that support accountability and celebrate progress. The criteria are intentionally inclusive, debt is not an automatic disqualifier, and the programme is built to respond to changing circumstances, reflecting Pacific values of collective wellbeing and long-term thinking.

This workshop shares the scheme’s origins, design, and early outcomes (including the first four Pacific Homeowners’ journey in Christchurch’s New Brighton), and highlights lessons on cross-sector collaboration and culturally responsive investment to increase home ownership participation for Pasifika whānau.

Lissa brings expertise in business strategy, operations, and community development. She is focused on ensuring not-for-profits are impactful and financially sustainable. At Home Foundation, she’s driven by the scale of the housing challenge and passionate about finding innovative solutions that create long-term change—supporting whānau to thrive through safe, affordable housing.

As CEO, Lissa works alongside an incredible team and some amazing community and sector partners to find practical, innovative solutions to Aotearoa's housing challenges. The Progressive Homeowners Scheme is one of those solutions — born out of genuine collaboration with Tangata Atumotu Trust, Westpac, and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, and driven by a shared belief that home ownership should be within reach for every Pasifika whanau who aspires to it.

About Home Foundation
Home Foundation is a charitable trust with a mission to ensure every person in Aotearoa New Zealand, and beyond, has access to a secure, affordable, and healthy place to call, home. Through quality research, innovation and strong partnerships they aim to create places of belonging, connection, and opportunity.
Home Foundation is the kaitiaki of the Home Foundation group, a collective of organisations united by a vision for a just housing system where quality homes enable communities to thrive. Together, we’re working across the entire housing ecosystem to create enduring impact, home by home, family by family.

Concurrent Session Two

Oval Frame

Why Housing Doesn’t Happen: The Hidden Policy Decisions Shaping Indigenous and Pacific Housing Futures

Nazarene Mihaere & Ali Hamlin-paenga

Housing outcomes for Māori, Pasifika, and Indigenous peoples are shaped not only by housing need, but by the policy settings that determine whether housing can happen at all.

Across Aotearoa New Zealand and the wider Pacific region, many housing systems are still designed around individual land ownership, standard infrastructure pathways, and conventional financing assumptions. These settings often do not align with collective tenure, intergenerational living, community-led delivery models, or Indigenous governance structures. As a result, legislation and regulation can unintentionally prevent housing from progressing, even where land, leadership, and community demand already exist.

This interactive workshop explores the system-level decisions that shape housing feasibility in practice. Drawing on experience from Māori housing delivery and national policy advocacy in Aotearoa New Zealand, the session highlights where planning frameworks, infrastructure funding settings, financing pathways, and eligibility rules enable housing outcomes and where they quietly create barriers.

Participants will work through real-world housing feasibility scenarios and map where projects become blocked within existing systems. The session creates space for Pacific and Trans-Tasman participants to compare experiences across jurisdictions and identify shared policy pressure points affecting Indigenous and community-led housing delivery.Together, the workshop builds a practical understanding of how governments can better align legislation, regulation, and funding settings with Indigenous and Pacific housing realities.

Nazarene Mihaere The Executive Strategic Advisor at Te Matapihi he tirohanga mō te iwi Trust, the national peak body for Māori housing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her work focuses on strengthening the policy, infrastructure, and funding settings that shape whether Māori-led housing can happen in practice.

She works across iwi, community housing providers, and kāwanatanga (government) to identify system barriers affecting housing delivery on whenua Māori and supports national advocacy that advances Indigenous housing pathways grounded in collective ownership and whānau wellbeing. Nazarene contributes to sector coordination and policy engagement that informs housing system change across Aotearoa and supports shared learning with Indigenous and Pacific housing partners across the region.

Oval Frame

Ali Hamlin-paenga
Ali Hamlin-Paenga Chief Executive of Te Matapihi he tirohanga mō te iwi Trust, the national peak body for Māori housing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her work focuses on strengthening the policy, regulatory, and funding environments that enable Māori-led housing solutions across the housing continuum.Ali works alongside iwi, community housing providers, government agencies, and sector partners to address system barriers affecting housing delivery on whenua Māori and within Māori communities. Her leadership supports national advocacy, sector capability development, and strategic engagement to advance housing pathways that reflect collective ownership models, cultural values, and long-term community wellbeing.

Speaker Bio

Fale Tupu: An Indigenous Toolkit for Designing Culturally Grounded Living Environments with Pasifika Communities in Aotearoa

Amelia Lee Chee

Fale Tupu reimagines how housing for Pasifika families in Aotearoa can be designed, adapted, and lived in. The project responds to the longstanding misalignment between conventional housing models and Pasifika collective ways of living, centred on intergenerational care, shared space, and deep relationships to land and sea.

Positioned between policy and built outcome, the research translates cultural values into a practical, transferable design toolkit. At its core is the Maumoana framework, which acts as a cultural and ecological compass, guiding spatial and environmental decision-making across scales. Talanoa is employed as a relational method to enact this framework, supporting ongoing engagement with Pasifika Housing Providers, communities, and collaborators, including Penina Trust.

The resulting toolkit comprises four interconnected components: the Maumoana Framework, Fale Typologies, Material Palette, and Communal Wellbeing Spaces. Rather than prescribing a singular solution, Fale Tupu proposes an incremental housing approach that reinforces community agency. It enables Pasifika Housing Providers to lead design conversations with architects, planners, and funders, ensuring that cultural identity and ecological responsibility are embedded from the outset.

Amelia Lee Chee is a Pasifika designer and Master of Architecture (Professional) candidate at Auckland University of Technology. Her work is shaped by her lived experience and a strong commitment to supporting Pacific communities through culturally grounded design. With a background in urban design at Kāinga Ora, she has contributed to public housing and regeneration projects across Aotearoa. Her thesis, Fale Tupu, explores how the Maumoana framework can translate Pacific values into practical housing solutions that enable intergenerational living, community resilience, and collective wellbeing.

Concurrent Session Three

Oval Frame

Moulded, Not Just Built: A Literature Review of Socio-Spatial Constructions in Sāmoan Diasporic Dwellings

Mark Meyers

Spaces in Auckland’s Sāmoan diasporic communities are moulded, not just built. The front lawn becomes repurposed as a car park. Marquees and tarpaulins extend the formal boundaries of the suburban house. Such moulded spaces can be dismissed as ad hoc or informal, but these domestic enactments are representations of cultural identity rather than a mere reaction to housing insecurity. Sāmoan socio-spatial practices, like those of other Pasefika cultures, challenge the formal biases in Aotearoa New Zealand social housing, calling for greater awareness of Pasefika spatial logics. This reorients the architectural question from “how many bedrooms?” to “how can this house be malleable or moulded by its occupants to enable Pasefika ways of living and being?” Towards this end, my PhD research on Sāmoan diasporic dwellings seeks to understand an innate spatial intelligence embedded in diasporic Sāmoan quotidian practices, providing a case study to deliver appropriate housing for diasporic Pasefika communities. My paper will present my review of Sāmoan socio-spatial practices and literature that will inform my PhD research.

Mark Meyers is a PhD Candidate at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning within Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland. A New Zealand-born ‘afakasi Sāmoa, with affiliation to the village of Faga, Savai’i, his research explores how everyday spatial practices express underlying cultural and symbolic systems, with a focus on distinguishing vā (Pacific relational logic) from Western formalism.

Oval Frame

Presentation to focus on Universal design and accessibility, Modular vs bespoke housing, and Smart technology and renewable energy

Shelby Young

Housing design plays a vital role in supporting the wellbeing of Pasifika whānau as family structures evolve. Prioritising universal design and accessibility ensures homes are inclusive, adaptable, and future-proof. Features such as step-free entry, wider doorways, and accessible bathrooms enable people of all ages and abilities to live safely and comfortably, supporting ageing in place and reducing the need for costly modifications.
Design must also respond to multi-generational living. Flexible layouts, multi-use spaces, and the ability to reconfigure homes over time allow households to adapt to changing needs. Elements like separate living areas, dual kitchens, and semi-independent units help balance shared living with privacy while maintaining cultural connections.

Balancing modular and bespoke housing approaches is key. Bespoke design supports the integration of Pasifika values, including communal spaces and intergenerational living. Modular housing offers affordability, speed, and scalability. A hybrid approach can combine cultural responsiveness with cost-effective delivery.The integration of smart technology and renewable energy enhances both sustainability and affordability. Solar power, energy-efficient systems, and smart technologies can lower long-term costs, improve resilience, and support better management of household resources—particularly important for larger families.Homes must also support diverse needs, including elderly residents and those requiring supported living. Thoughtful design, safe mobility features, and access to nearby services promote independence while strengthening family and community ties.

Ultimately, well-designed housing supports dignity, adaptability, and sustainability, meeting the current and future needs of Pasifika communities.This workshop will explore key priorities for Pasifika whānau and examine a Māori papakāinga case study delivered in partnership with Signature Homes New Zealand.

Shelby Young brings a powerful blend of personal insight and professional expertise to her work, supporting leaders, teams, and organisations through meaningful transformation. With a strong foundation in business strategy and emotional intelligence, she enables sustainable growth beyond transactional outcomes. Recently, Shelby has partnered with whenua Māori owners to realise their housing aspirations, drawing on her property development experience. She also serves as a governor across several organisations and is a qualified Sorted Kāinga Ora facilitator. Shelby’s holistic approach empowers people to create lasting change that enriches both individual lives and wider communities.