News & events
Te Ahi Tupua
30 March, 2021
Te Ahi Tupua, the largest 3D printed sculpture in the world.
Te Ahi Tupua, the largest 3D printed sculpture in the world, collaboratively designed by Principal Investigator Derek Kawiti and Māori Customary Artist Stacy Gordine of the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, was helicoptered into place in Rotorua’s Hemo Gorge this year.
Derek Kawiti is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington. His research includes understanding the implications of digital technologies in the convergence with Indigenous traditional knowledge. With a background in advanced parametric design methods, he is heavily involved in generative digital modelling, digital heritage and ‘low’ and ‘high tech’ digital fabrication. He founded the collaborative research lab – SITUA (Site of Indigenous Technologies Understanding Alliance) with Iwi, including Ngāi Tāmanuhiri - of Muriwai, Gisborne and more recently with the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute of Te Puia, Rotorua.
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