Designer Gates Open in Havelock North

Media Release

Designer Gates Open in Havelock North’s Keirunga Gardens

Havelock North’s Keirunga Gardens is graced with stunning new gates, the first of two sets designed by EIT degree students to enhance the public reserve and deter vandalism after dark.

Together, final- year Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design student Raewyn Paterson and Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule opened the gates at the park’s main entrance off Pufflett Road.

Their ornate design, says Raewyn, draws on the meaning of keirunga, Māori for “a place on high”. She looked to the birdlife in the tree canopy to incorporate two tui, one worked onto each leaf of the gates, in developing her concept.

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Caption: Raewyn Paterson (right), who designed the recently-opened gates, with classmate Amanda Matthews.

The Keirunga Gardens Heritage Action Society initiated the project with a competition held in 2008 which called for EIT’s first-year Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design students majoring in 3D-Design to design gates for the reserve.

Liking two entries so much, the society decided to go with both. It coordinated fundraising for the Pufflett Road gates – with input from the Endeavour Community Trust, the Havelock North Lions Club and the Hastings District Council as the major contributor – and expects to realise Amanda Matthews’ design for the Tanner Street approach to the gardens in the next couple of years.

Society chair Berry Small says Havelock North engineering company, Field’s Way Ltd, has done a wonderful job of executing Raewyn’s design in Cor-ten steel with powder-coated steel infill details.

Raewyn agrees. “They’re fantastic,” enthuses the mother-of-two, who has no immediate plans for her future but would like to do post-graduate study once her children are through their teens.

Amanda, who lives in Napier and is hoping to find work as a designer, says seeing her classmate’s drawings take form is “so cool”. Her own concept was inspired by oak trees in Arthur’s Path, a secluded and scenic gully in the gardens.

Other examples of the two women’s work will be exhibited along with that of diploma and other final-year students at School of Arts’ Graduate Show, at EIT from December 4-8.

Berry Small said the Keirunga Gardens Heritage Action Society enjoyed working with EIT, and she urged other groups and organisations to adopt a similar approach with their community projects.

“Go to EIT – they are a source of great knowledge and help and they are so willing.”

ENDS

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