A New Zealand project will see architecture students taken to Samoa to acquire indigenous knowledge about buildings, and how space is utilised within their structures.
A beach fale in Samoa. Photo: Sarah Kelemen [CC BY 2.0]
The project is the brainchild of Taranaki-based Samoan architect Carinnya Feaunati, who received a United States government grant last week.
Ms Feaunati said she would take third-year students to learn from the master builders in the Pacific, in an effort to bridge a generational gap in traditional knowledge.
"The whole premise behind our project is we really wanted to look at that whole generational gap for architecture in the Pacific.
"We are using this grant to bring over third year UNITEC students doing Bachelor of Architecture and taking them over to Samoa and for them to have a workshop and give Tufuga Faufale the stage and essentially tell the story about the fale Samoa."
Carrinya Feaunati said traditional knowledge was often not taught in the architecture curriculum in New Zealand.
