Beach provides stunning backdrop for new hot pools — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tūāhuririri and Matapopore gifted the name “He Puna Taimoana” to New Brighton’s hot pools. Translated it means “coastal pools” or “seaside pools”, reflecting their location in the Christchurch suburb. The name also reflects the indigenous plants and natural environment.

In gifting the name, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tūāhuririri and Matapopore spokesperson Lynne Harata Te Aika noted: “Traditionally Maori were sea voyagers but also observers of the stars and natural environment. He Puna Taimoana will provide a family experience where fun and leisure become a reason to visit the pools and enjoy the outdoors and the Canterbury coastline.”

The pools make the most of their seaside setting.

A key part of the New Brighton Regeneration Project, the facility includes five saltwater hot pools, a cold plunge pool and a sea-facing sauna.

Glasson Huxtable were appointed landscape architects by Development Christchurch Ltd, their work encompassing the hot pools area, the urban streetscape interface and seafront promenade including a boardwalk, bespoke street furniture elements, a pocket park, native dune restoration, amenity planting and hardscape design.

Native planting enhances the tranquil setting.

And while the picturesque site provides jaw-dropping views, it also presents big challenges.

“Comfort, amenity and views were top of mind. We had to provide shelter from the Easterlies (wind), ” Mark Huxtable from Glasson Huxtable says. Wind modelling was carried out to find the most suitable fencing - one that also provided privacy to those inside the hot pools while allowing views of the sea.

Bathers enjoy views and sounds of the ocean.

“I think we got that right,” says Huxtable. “You can stand up next to the pool right at the front of the seaward side and you can look over the fence, but when you are sitting in the pool you can still see through it. It diffuses the wind at the same time.”

It was also important to create an ambience around the pools themselves – native coastal planting with rock boulders alongside the pools provide an authentic natural context and help to soften the space. Huxtable also worked with a lighting engineer to provide ambient lighting of the planting and pools spaces to create a more intimate evening atmosphere.

“It was a complex project that involved a lot of different disciplines (architects, structural and civil engineers), requiring a really strong (team) effort.”

The team had to provide defence from coastal erosion, “you can get quite big storms coming through there”. Sheet piles - “ugly but necessary” - are hidden underneath the seaside boardwalk. “As well as the piles, nature now provides the first and best line of coastal defence in the form of newly reinstated dunes with native sand-binding species”.

Glasson Huxtable collaborated with Debbie Tikao from Matapopore regarding the cultural context for site including “woven” paths that meander through the landscape and Tukuku panel inspired fence. She describes the coastal foreshore as an area where the tension between the forces of nature are most evident.

“The landscape of this in-between zone is the physical outcome of the pushing and pulling between Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) and Ranginui (Sky Father), and between Tangaroa (God of the Sea), Tāwhirimātea (God of Wind) and Tāne Mahuta (God of the Forest),” she wrote in a paper on the cultural design intent. “This zone is dynamic and it’s ever changing and sometimes unpredictable nature creates an energy which has both a beauty and unease to it.

“The cultural design intent is to draw on the tension between these forces and on the many traditional stories which teach us about the powerful nature of these forces and how they are always at play.”