The material
Could a thousand-year seat be made of clay?
Most of our Pae begin with a place. This one began with a material. Before there was a site, before there was a design, there was a question: could a seat built to last a thousand years be made of clay? After all, fired clay is one of the oldest surviving things humans make.
The place
A potter’s land, protected
Driving Creek, in the Coromandel, is the pottery, railway and bush sanctuary that Barry Brickell has developed over the last 50 years. He bought the land in the early 1970s and protected more than 23 hectares of regenerating forest under a QEII covenant in 1993. On the land is a predator-proof sanctuary, home to kererū, tūī, pāteke and the nationally vulnerable Coromandel striped gecko. Fifty years on, the same covenanted ground is ready to hold a clay Pae.
Regenerating forest at Driving Creek, under QEII covenant since 1993. Josh Neilson Photography.
The designer
Jaime Jenkins
“I believe my work is at its best when I work out the piece during making.”
Jaime hand builds in ceramic in Tauranga Moana. Her materials are local and her glazes are often drawn from the ground, so pieces carry something of the place where it was made.
Jaime Jenkins at her studio. Claire Mossong.
The community
Made for young and old
Jaime is designing the Driving Creek Pae with blocks that step from low to high. The lowest is built to a child’s proportions so children can “feel drawn in and included”. The Pae is made for young and old to sit together, “to connect and converse, or and be still”.
Time
Built for the year 3026
Pottery is a long game. Some firings take days, a glaze takes years to master, a pot can last millennia. The whole project is a meditation on patience, made from the earth it will sit on.
The timeline
- Early 1970s Barry Brickell buys the land at Driving Creek and starts building the pottery studios, and later the railway, by hand.
- 1993 More than 23 hectares of regenerating forest go under a QEII covenant, protected in perpetuity.
- The invitation Paererewā specifies clay for one of its first commissions and invites Jaime Jenkins, one of the ceramicists on the Curatorial Board’s panel of designers.
- The concept Jaime’s concept, Looking seat / resting rocks: a group of slab-built ceramic blocks stepping from low to high, each glazed with colour drawn from its surroundings.
- 2025 The site search. Jaime suggests Driving Creek, where she has held residencies.
- Next Final design.
- March 2027 The Pae is installed at Driving Creek (planned).
The design story
Jaime doesn’t draw a form in advance. She has a sense of it and works it out through the making, often starting small at maquette scale before going large.
The Pae is a group of semi-square slab-built ceramic blocks. They range in height from about 300 to 500 millimetres, and each block is glazed in a colour drawn from the environment around it. The lowest blocks are built to a child’s proportions, “so they can feel drawn in and included”. Sit facing in and it is a place to connect and converse. Sit facing out and it is a place to take in the bush, still in company. Jaime wants to sculpt a Pae that will “both stand out and relax and sink into its surroundings, inviting its guests to immerse themselves into the environment”.
“The brief of designing a Paererewā to last 1000 years has had me thinking about the necessity of humanity working together in all of our diversity,” she says.
Barry Brickell’s mantra on the same ground was “It’s not the thing but how”.
What your gift builds
A group of hand-built ceramic blocks, stepping from low to high, set on covenanted ground inside the sanctuary Barry Brickell protected. The glazes are made from the dirt and rock of the place, so the Pae wears where it stands. Low blocks for children, higher ones for adults, arranged so people can sit facing each other or facing the bush.
The site has been chosen by the designer, on ground she already knew, and the Driving Creek crew are behind it. Paererewā and Driving Creek are raising for this Pae together.
Slab-building in the studio. Claire Mossong.