Papakāinga
"Paiheretia ana te raupō, ka ukiuki te tangata mai te āwhā.
Bound tightly together like raupo, humans weather the storms."
This Whakataukī illustrates the metaphorical connection between building a house using tightly bound raupo and the resilience of human relationships. By coming together and supporting each other, humans can withstand challenges and difficulties, much like the sturdy and insulating qualities of a raupo house. It emphasises the importance of unity, cooperation, and solidarity in facing life's adversities.
At Bode we’re committed to creating vibrant, thriving communities whilst simultaneously addressing the housing crisis facing Māori communities today. Papakāinga is a way to secure housing solutions for Iwi, Hapū and Whanau.
As a development partner for Māori housing, our approach is rooted in the principles of unity, resilience, and community support. Just like the construction of a house using tightly bound raupo, we believe in the power of coming together and working collaboratively to create safe and warm housing solutions for Māori communities.
Our commitment is to build relationships that are strong and enduring, much like the tightly woven raupo walls that provide insulation and protection from the elements. By partnering with Māori communities and emphasising the importance of unity and solidarity, we aim to weather the storms together, creating sustainable and resilient housing options that reflect the values and traditions of the Māori people.
To help us achieve this we’ve partnered with Hapū Housing Solutions, who are committed to ensuring Mana Whenua has a place to call home. Together we are spearheading the efforts to create and support dedicated affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households.
Building is broken in Aotearoa and we’re on a mission to solve it. Here’s some of the issues with standard building practices:
Cost New Zealand has a severe housing affordability crisis, homeownership a dream for many and is keeping some New Zealand families in a cycle of poverty.
Low performing with poor health outcomes Housing is recognised by the World Health Organisation as having a profound impact on people’s physical, mental, and overall well-being. Nearly a quarter of NZ homes are cold and damp.
Reliance on skilled trades Traditional construction methods are dated and inefficient, with most components made or finished on-site by small teams of skilled trades with a process that has a high level of dependence on previous tasks.
Finishing products on-site Traditional building ships raw materials to the site and fabricate the building on site too, resulting in waste, quality, environmental and supply issues.
No consideration for our environment With the realities of climate change, there is an urgent need for environmentally sustainable solutions. Waste from construction forms 50% of landfill, with a typical home generating four tonnes of waste.
Slow Regular construction methods take months, with many factors that can result in additional delays.
Not modular or scalable, made from unique components Other prefabricated houses are often designed and then rationalised to be prefabricated, which can result in construction issues. They also use unique components which can lead to supply issues.
Not futureproof Most buildings are built to the current minimum standards, meaning in future years, they’ll face maintenance to bring them back up to standard or be impacted by extreme climate events.
High maintenance Traditional timber frame homes require constant maintenance.
The Bode Difference:
Affordability We provide high-quality, cost-effective homes, fostering inclusive communities where everyone can thrive. Our homes are not only affordable to buy, but they are also affordable to run.
Comfort and Well-Being Our homes offer high-performance insulation and impact-resistant materials, ensuring a warm, dry, and healthy living space all year round.
Innovative Solutions As a social impact investment, Bode addresses housing challenges with innovative construction and design, ensuring safe and secure communities for the future.
Speed A Bode 56m2 (2-bedroom home) constructed from foundations to watertight shell in 5 days, so you can move into your new home sooner and start enjoying the benefits that Bode Homes offer.
Efficient, easy and straightforward Our palletised packages can be assembled with a team of three, with only basic tools required. Being able to easily source construction labour will reduce the boom and bust from the industry.
Controlled environment We make our buildings in a factory and then ship the finished components to the site for assembly. This ensures our processes are accurate, efficient and controlled, which reduces the field installation times, weather delays and drying times.
Designed to last Bode homes are low maintenance, ensuring the homeowner peace of mind. Most cladding only has a 15-year design life - ours has a 50-year design life!
Connecting People Our community designs encourage interaction with shared green spaces and community centres, helping neighbours build lasting relationships.
Truly modular construction with interchangeable parts We have the flexibility to adapt, a diverse range of housing designs can be created from our standardised components, ensuring each home can have a unique identity.
Sustainable Living We optimise panel sizes, ensuring minimal waste generation, the waste that is generated in the manufacturing process is responsibly managed. 50% of our panel foam content is made from recycled plastic bottles. One Bode 32 is equivalent to over 5,000 waste plastic bottles!
Exceeding standards Bode doesn’t just build to the minimum standards, we are dedicated to exceeding the standard of the NZ Building Code (NZBC).Bode is suitable for all corrosion, wind, earthquake zones and ground conditions.
Our Experience
Bode is part of The Wellington Company group (TWC), who have specialised in delivering projects with the Crown, local government and Iwi. It has a significant existing portfolio and development pipeline, with energy directed towards making a real difference in the communities that New Zealanders live and work in.
TWC developed Bode as a housing solution specifically tailored to the social housing market. Bode strikes a unique balance between affordability and performance that no other housing provider in NZ has achieved.
Our Housing communities are designed to accommodate traditional Māori family structures and reflect Māori values. The design enables extended, intergenerational whānau to live together communally, while still providing residents with privacy and independence.
The Bode construction system is expandable, moveable and made from a simple kitset of parts to create an endless range of housing designs, we have many different typologies available from 1 bedroom – 5 bedrooms, multi-unit developments and vertical clusters.
Case Studies
Case Study 2: We worked with an Iwi who needed a housing model that was affordable for their people, the traditional builders they’d consulted with totally missed the mark, it was not affordable for their people to buy, poorly designed and not fit for purpose.
Bode offered a whole solution; we proposed a low cost Papakāinga with a range of 1, 2 and 3-bedroom units suitably sized for individuals and families with universal design principles to make the homes disability and elderly friendly. Our proposal was designed with ownership models that enabled Iwi to become homeowners in mind, helping people from homelessness to home ownership, and was half the price of the original traditional build proposal. Furthermore our solution offered jobs in the community, training Iwi to construct homes for their whanau themselves.
Case Study 3: We were approached by Iwi needing to accommodate and provide social homes for local uri who are in rentals or state houses, and typically disconnected from their ancestral lands and their culture. The Iwi wanted a communal Māori land where whānau can come together and support each other, “under our mountain Pukeatua, next to our spring Pukeatua”.
Our design is built for a unique purpose, connecting local uri ('descendents' or 'kin') back to their ancestral roots, this papakāinga project encompasses a variety of housing options. It currently consists of 19 whare, all owned by uri, and 11 kaumātua units which are available for eligible uri as social housing rentals. Located together on the papakāinga, surrounding a small māra kai, these warm, dry, energy efficient one-bedroom whare have ramp access with low operating costs.
Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa - Let us keep close together, not wide apart
This whakatauki/Proverb speaks to the importance of keeping connected, of maintaining relationships and dialogue so that we can keep moving forward together. It could be used when sharing information about projects that bring people together.
If your whanau are wanting to build Papakainga on Whenua Māori, Please fill out the form below. Hapū Housing Solutions can help you navigate funding potential from Te Puni Kokiri or The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. Each project is unique, so we need to understand your whanau-specific need in order to help you through the Papakāinga Project.
Let us help you achieve your dream of papakāinga for you and your whanau.
