Cultural centre a drawcard for Horowhenua
Six months after opening, Foxton’s $8.6 million new cultural centre, library and museum is collecting awards and users.
Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom had been well used, Horowhenua District Council cultural and community centre manager Hendrix Warren said. Since it opened in November, more than 81,000 visits had been clocked up.
It is ‘‘attracting visitors from across and outside Horowhenua. It’s been popular right from the start.’’
The centre was awarded the Museum Project Excellence Award at the New Zealand Museum Awards, and the only public architecture award given out in the Western regional round of the NZ Institute of Architects awards, both in May.
Auckland’s Bossley Architects created the design, with an aim to also create a link between the town’s Main St and the Foxton
‘‘...attracting visitors from across and outside Horowhenua. It’s been popular right from the start.’’ Hendrix Warren
river loop. The complex houses the town i-site and council services, an exhibition space, Foxton’s library and ‘‘living room’’, community meeting spaces, the Oranjehof Dutch museum and the Piriharakeke Generation Inspiration Centre – a Ma¯ ori museum, cultural and arts centre and learning space.
Judging notes from the NZ Institute of Architects awards said they appreciated the idea the building transformed the site of a former Mitre 10 into a ‘‘waka in a Mitre 10 shed’’.
‘‘The impact of this wholly appropriate and apparently simple stroke of genius on the town of Foxton has been immense, creating a community hub around the iconic windmill, Whare Manaaki, and Flax-strippers Museum.’’
This brought ‘‘iwi and Netherlands histories together across a library, and connecting the Main St town centre back to the river’’.
Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom means ‘‘the new stream’’, using language from Ma¯ ori and Dutch.
The Foxton stream Te Awahou, which is also the traditional name of the town, flows underneath the building.