Half finished houses and ‘incremental’ villages explored
A Kiwi lawyer who was deported for trying to help villagers of a remote area in Papua New Guinea fight a multi-national corporation says he is determined to re-enter the troubled country and continue his advocacy work.
Doug Tennent was kicked out of the country last month after three years of helping the people of the Pomio district in East New Britain province with their legal fight against a large multinational company.
But on June 9, two immigration officials turned up at his office and asked him to hand over his passport. He was bundled onto a plane, Tennent recalled.
‘‘There was no warning, no chance to respond and no specifics,’’ he said.
As a lawyer, Tennent was using his skills to advocate on behalf of the Pomio villagers around issues related to land rights, which included taking court action against Rimbunan Hijau, a Malaysian-based company whose interests include logging and timber processing.
Before his arrest, Tennent was three years into a seven year commitment to work in Papua New Guinea as part of the Caritas Catholic Volunteers Overseas programme.
It was this advocacy work which landed him in trouble, Tennent said.
Corruption is rife in the Pacific Island nation, which is currently holding general elections.
Tennent said he was eventually informed by the officials that he had breached the conditions of his visa by getting involved in ‘‘sensi- tive land issues’’.
Lobbying by the Archdiocese of Rabaul and a court order to stay his deportation proceedings were ignored by officials and Tennent was flown back to New Zealand on June 12, after being detained for three nights.
For the past month, Tennent has been trying to do what he can to continue his work via email but his sudden departure had been disruptive.
He said he left behind a huge amount of work which he was keen to get back to and a new visa application to re-enter Papua New Guinea had been filed, which he hoped would be granted shortly.
‘‘The full intention is to get back as quickly as possible,’’ he said.
He said the experience had given him a renewed commitment to his advocacy work but it was likely he would take a more cautious approach in how he went about his role should he be able to return to Papua New Guinea.
‘‘Certainly it’s going to make us more thoughtful about what we do,’’ he said.
Caritas director Julianne Hickey said the organisation was proud of the work Tennent had been involved with but for him to be forced out of the country because of it was a worry.
‘‘This ongoing work is what caused him to be deported, which is very unusual for any volunteer and quite concerning,’’ she said.
‘‘Doug’s work has had a significant impact on vulnerable and marginalised communities in the country and he continues to make a real difference. We are supporting Doug to ensure he is able to return to Papua New Guinea,’’ Hickey said. Design half a house and let the buyer finish off the construction to their own needs and budget.
That was the brief given by judges to 30 tertiary architectural, engineering and construction students at the sixth annual ArchEngBuild national design competition held in New Plymouth.
Ten teams of three students, each studying final year architecture, engineering and construction courses at university and polytechnics around the the country, entered the competition.
Working from the Len Lye Centre, the teams were given two days to design a half a building which combined work and living space, based on the ’incremental village’ concept developed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, said competition co-ordinator Dr Joe Gammon.
Aravena won plaudits for a real life incremental village design plan in Iquique, Chile, where 100 houses were deliberately half constructed and then sold to buyers who completed them to their specific needs and budget, Gammon said.
It was the first time the competition, supported by construction consultants Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) and industry partners, had been held in Taranaki.
Gammon said the competition used the premise of a hypothetical New Plymouth District Council economic development policy to attract entrepreneurs to New Plymouth.
The policy included the district council paying income tax of the new start up businesses for the first five years.
‘‘It targeted entrepreneurs shut out of the Auckland housing market and forced to live and work elsewhere,’’ Gammon said.
The students were required to consider location, resource consent, construction materials, whether space would be shared or not, and how the community would decide what was suitable to be built.
Industry mentors were on hand to guide the teams with advice through the design process before the teams pitched their design to the judging panel.
‘‘The key to the competition was achieving a collaborative design plan from three disciplines - architecture, engineering and building - in each team,’’ Gammon said.
Clelands Construction site manager Justin Taylor, of New Plymouth, teamed up with California Polytechnic engineering student, and Auckland University intern, Sophie Moore, and Auckland University architectural student Nadia Rivai to design a modular system using shipping containers.
‘‘We saw the opportunity to design a community based on busi- nesses wanting to develop the potential for solar energy in New Plymouth,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘The community at Ngamotu would attract up to 100 innovative entrepreneurs and their families who saw opportunities for solar energy to become the major renewable energy source.’’
The team chose a modular sys- tem using shipping containers which could be easily relocated and redesigned to suit the needs of each occupant.
Taylor said the system, which had worked in Christchurch after the earthquakes, could work in New Plymouth.
‘‘The container space could be moved to another site, or enlarged to accommodate more uses.
‘‘We have started by designing use for two-thirds of the floor space and leaving the remaining third to the occupants.’’
Timber industry mentor Gerry Callebout, of New Plymouth, said the team’s plan could prove successful.
‘‘Unlike older style houses which were built on piles and are easily removed from sites, newer houses are built on concrete pads which make them more difficult to relocate.’’
‘‘The team’s design allowed the modular buildings to be upgraded and expanded in size and relocated if needed.’’