Hastings' Waiaroha project keeps sending ripples around the motu and around the world

In a groundbreaking example of global intersections between landscape architecture, placemaking and tourism, Hastings’ Waiaroha – Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre has taken out the City Nation Place Global Award for Best Placemaking Initiative.

Supplied images: Wayfinder.nz

When the award was announced in London, on 10 November, the jury of 16 experts in place strategy, tourism, economic development and urban design gave their acclamation to Waiaroha as a bold and meaningful achievement that demonstrated both environmental leadership and community building connected to the city’s story. Furthermore one of the jurors for this benchmark international award was moved to comment: “We should all be treating infrastructure projects as a placemaking activity”.

The Hastings District Council is quite rightly elated with this global win, as are Shannon Bray’s team at Wayfinder Landscape Planning and Strategy.  

Competition for the City Nation Place Global Awards is stiff - entries were attracted from 28 countries and were up 14% on the previous year. Remarkably the award placed Waiaroha ahead of projects from cities such as Toronto, Stockholm, and Cleveland. (See more on this and City Nation Place below).

New Hastings mayor Wendy Schollum said the recognition was an extraordinary honour for Heretaunga Hastings and for everyone involved in the project, adding that “to be recognised on the world stage, against major global cities, shows what’s possible when we invest carefully and work together with purpose."

Hastings District Council chief executive Nigel Bickle called the award “one of the most rigorous international awards of its kind (being) judged not on appearance, but on strategy, collaboration, and real-world impact” and a signifier that the district’s placemaking approach stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the world.

Wayfinder led the design team, working in close collaboration with Designgroup Stapleton Elliott, Stitchbird, and Ngāti Kahungunu, to bring the vision of Waiaroha to life. Together, the team created a space that is both technically sophisticated and deeply rooted in local identity and values.

Developed in response to the 2016 Havelock North water crisis, the Waiaroha project is a bold reimagining of public infrastructure as a place of learning, connection, and celebration. It features interactive exhibits, native landscaping, and a discovery centre that brings the water cycle to life. The name Waiaroha, gifted by iwi, reflects a deep commitment to future generations and the protection of wai (water) as taonga.

Mayor Schollum acknowledged the community for sharing their ideas and feedback on the design, the contractors and Council staff who did phenomenal work, the iwi who worked so closely with the teams to tell the story of wai, and all those who have supported the concept and funding over the years. 

“This was truly a collaborative effort, and we can all be very proud. The heart of Waiaroha is its function - safe, reliable drinking water for our community. By designing it well, we’ve ensured that what had to be built anyway now delivers lasting educational and environmental value as well”.

Growing Recognition

Image from Taituarā.

Recognition of the role that Waiaroha has had in placing life-giving water in the heart of Heretaunga Hastings keeps growing; ranging across many awards, including: 

In June this year it was announced as a winner in the 2025 Hawkes Bay/Gisborne NZIA Architecture Awards and at another international level it is listed within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals action platform and knowledge base registry.  

See also:

City nation place: The Tourism Angle

The first City Nation Place conference took place in London ten years ago, in 2015, with an audience of 150 place practitioners who believed in the transformative potential of a place brand strategy. Since then events have been held in all four corners of the world, with regional events for North America, Australasia, the UK and more. 

Its Global conference in London last week heard from leaders of destination marketing, investment and talent attraction, economic development, and place brand organisations. Discussions were held on best-practice ideas to spread inspiration on how to tackle the challenges and opportunities for managing and building competitive reputation for cities, nations, or places.

For 2025 its international awards jury was made up of: Todd Babiak, Brand Gold Coast; Samantha Crawford, Brand Scotland; Clare Dewhirst, City Nation Place; David Gilbert, Destination Cleveland and Greater Cleveland Sports Commission; Margareth Gustavo, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board; Zoe Keith, VisitPITTSBURGH; Alison Migneault, Tourism Kingston; Stefan Nöthen, Hamburg Marketing; Aoife O’Shaughnessy, Limerick City and County Council; Nur Özkan Erbay, Türkiye Brand Office; Megan Peckford, Ottawa Tourism; Jess Radford, Brand Tasmania; Josué Ruiz Rodriguez, essential COSTA RICA; Louise Shaw, We Are Staffordshire; Nicky Toresen, New Zealand Story; Eveline Vincke, City of Ghent. Highlights of the awards were:

  • The specific tourism communications strategy category in the City National Place awards programme was won by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund with ‘Yaad Luv: A campaign for Jamaicans, for Jamaicans’, with Visit Wales, Visit Faroe Islands and Seattle Southside all collecting highly commended recognition. Copenhagen Capacity - an organisation for attracting international investments and professional talents to Danish businesses - won the economic development sub-category. 

  • A Chilean organisation picked up the best citizen engagement award for a ‘Made by Chileans’ programme. Estonia won for a best use of data category as well as a communication strategy award for a campaign that reinforced the nation brand’s “digital excellence pillar" and use of AI, while Luxembourg took away a highly commended in the same category for a campaign with the wonderful title of ‘Oops I Stayed In Luxembourg’.  

  • Best use of design awards went to the South Australian Tourism Commission and Finland Promotion Board. Work done on an “evolved design identity” for Sheffield, England was the Place Brand of the Year winner. Notably the New Zealand Story group won the Place Brand of the Year award in 2024 - see here.

City Place Nation has framed its Placemaking Initiative Award around the idea that developing the proposition of “place attractiveness” is a key element of any successful place brand initiative.

The category aims to “celebrate the best projects implemented to create and enhance public spaces, foster community interaction and build the attractiveness of a district, town, or city – involving urban design or landscaping, and/or cultural programming”. The jury looked for evidence that the winning project contributed to the place brand narrative, along with initiating effective collaboration between place stakeholders. 

The seven other shortlisted entries for the Placemaking Initiative category won by the Waiaroha - Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre were: 

  • Cleveland, USA, IlluminateCLE, entered by Destination Cleveland

  • Sheffield, England, Sheffield's 'Pounds Park' Area, entered by Marketing Sheffield 

  • Stockholm, Sweden, Stockholm – City Of Supporters, entered by Stockholm Business Region

  • Stockport, England, Foodie Friday: A Community Catalyst For Refreshing The Experience And Identity Of Stockport Town Centre, entered by Seven Miles Out Arts CIC 

  • Tampere, Finland, Window Walkabout – Transforming Streetscapes Through Creative Placemaking, entered by The City of Tampere

  • Toronto, Canada, YZD: Placemaking in Motion, entered by Northcrest Developments

  • Vilnius, Lithuania, Vilnius Pink Soup Fest, entered by Go Vilnius

See here for past City Nation Place videos on Youtube.

Awards, #Around-the-worldStephen Olsen