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David Lange Memorial, 2008
The David Lange Memorial was conceived as an outdoor room, a tranquil space for contemplation and reflection. The room was created by recessing the courtyard in the land, embraced by mounds of earth, native planting and large boulders.
Sixteen poles, representing the community, surround the courtyard and support a suspended vessel, completing the enclosure of the space.
The Vessel form references the Otahuhu portage route between the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours. Oriented East - West the form symbolizes the passage of life and alludes to cycles of time, to sunrise and sunset.
Visitors enter the Memorial courtyard from Mason Avenue where they can stand under the Vessel or sit on the large boulders that edge the courtyard.
Four steel poles support the overhead vessel. The remaining twelve timber poles have a series of stainless steel bands with laser cut images representing the diverse Otahuhu Community.
David Lange was known as a man of words and both sides of the vessel are laser cut with text. The words on the North side were selected from the former Prime Minister’s maiden speech to parliament and on the South side are selected excerpts from his Oxford Union Debate.
Beneath the Vessel, is a ‘shadow’ of the overhead Vessel form, listing David Lange’s attributes engraved into basalt: Love, Mana, Justice, Passion, Humour, Courage, Confidence, Compassion, Integrity, Morality, Honour, Aroha, Hope and Wit.
The project required considerable community consultation before I began detailed design.
“I spent around eight months in consultation with the Otahuhu community, local Iwi, representatives from the Pacific Island, Indian and Asian communities, members of David's family, friends and David’s brother Peter Lange - to listen to their wishes and understand what was important to each of them. They offered generous input into the selection of symbols for the pole iconography, and also about the plants and landscaping materials that would best represent their cultures’’.
Virginia King 2009