The Green Lab, in partnership with the Avon-Ōtākaro Forest Park and Hummingbird, has built a nature play area that promotes access to nature and a deeper connection to the environment.
The Green Lab is excited to be partnering with fellow local business, Hummingbird Coffee.
A central space in Ōtautahi for all people to hui, kōrero, work and connect with the taiao of Ōtautahi.
Pop in for a Pod Chat on Thursday 29 September! Our Green Connection Pod was designed to get people talking.
Here you’ll find our care and watering guides to ensure your indoor plant companions live long and happy lives.
Queer Games is a monthly, LGBTQIA+ community games night amongst the plants at understorey.
We are working with Neighbourhood Trust and the Mairehau community to build a garden with a focus on food stability and community resilience.
understorey [tuatoru] is a community, events, co-working, and collaboration space that pops up in vacant spaces in the heart of Ōtautahi Christchurch. This third iteration is in The Welder, 20-26 Welles St, May – June 2022.
understorey [tuahtahi] was a bold new project: a free to access, community, events, co-working, and collaboration space, in the heart of Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Type of project: Community Co-Design ProjectCollaborator: Hornby Community Care Centre TrustSponsors/Funders: Christchurch City Council, City Care, Thank You Charitable Trust, Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby Location: 8
We have been collaborating with the Hornby Community Centre since November 2019.
The Tree Museum project drew inspiration from Joni Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi” and displayed nine notable trees that formed part of the original ecosystems of central Christchurch. The project aimed to highlight the loss of these ecosystems and provide central city businesses and residents options to consider when planting as part of the future development of Christchurch.
Restless Forest was an innovative moving native garden created in 2015 in collaboration with the Department of Conservation. The forest combined landscape design, art, story-telling and natural history to draw attention to the plight of our natural heritage.
Nature Play was a place for families to discover – through free play – what is special about Canterbury plants and wildlife. Opened in 2013 in partnership with the Department of Conservation the educational play space was designed by landscape architect Hilary Wetton.
The Green Lounge was an indoor greenspace set within a co-working office environment at Biz Dojo Christchurch. Opened in June 2018 in collaboration with Variant Design, the project explored the intersection of the modern work environment, our inherent love of nature and our mental health through a series of functional green ‘rooms’, and formal and informal events.
Linwood Tiny Shops Village is a collection of small buildings set in a landscaped garden which hosts community-led activities, workshops, shops and a cafe since opening in February 2019. Creating Tiny Shops Village was a collaboration with Christchurch City Council who funded and supported the work, and Te Whare Roimata who operate the village as part of a wider programme of community development projects in Christchurchs’ Inner City East.
The Green Lab designed the Green Connection Pod as an intimate, interior gathering green-space to foster moments of genuine human connection. It is a flatpack, circular wooden seating area, enveloped by greenery, which creates a welcoming venue that fosters relationship, hosting kōrero, connections, meetings, and contemplation. Research shows that green spaces enhance mental wellbeing, lift our mood, reduce anxiety and depression, and support genuine connections between people.
The Family Recovery Garden Te Oranga Rā is a garden to bring public awareness to the family and community issue of addiction and recovery. Re-designed and built in collaboration with Odyssey House Christchurch, the garden opened in April 2017 and has been operated and maintained by the residents of the house. Prior to 2017 the space was known as Places of Tranquility.
Riverbend Refuge, is a project on the banks of the Avon Ōtākaro River which was completed in stages between 2018 – 2019. The first stage of the project saw The Green Lab and Avon-Ōtākaro Network working with Wood ltd. in response to the unprecedented opportunity to restore native riparian habitat and mahinga kai values throughout the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor (ŌARC). After allowing new native planting to establish, we designed and installed seating platforms around two trees on site. A commissioned poem by Kaumatua Teoti Jardine is inscribed onto tree rounds forming a pathway that connects the seating, allowing visitors to traverse through the riparian planting and mihi to the river.
Type of project: Design Led ProjectCollaborator: Life in Vacant SpacesSponsors/Funders: Christchurch City Council, Briford Trailers, Natural Paint Co., Citycare, TimeZoneOne Location: 110 Cashel StCompleted: November 2019 – March 2020Status: Deinstalled – Propellor
Kotahitanga is a community gathering space made in collaboration with The Phillipstown Community Hub, completed in 2018.
