WildLab

WildLab is a group of designers and researchers committed to growing a world where people and nature thrive together.

We collaborate with community groups, iwi, farmers, business, and government agencies. Together, we create regenerative landscapes, strategies, experiences, and communication tools that connect them and their partners with te taiao and nature.

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Te Araroa Map Series and Toolkit

Be among the first to explore Te Araroa in a whole new way. This new six-map series brings the whole trail together, beautifully designed for walkers, section-planners, and everyone who’s part of the Te Araroa journey.

$58.00

Southern Faces - An Introduction to Rock Climbing in Ōtepoti Dunedin

Southern Faces is a comprehensive climbing guidebook for Ōtepoti Dunedin, created to fill a 25-year gap in local climbing information. Designed and edited by WildLab's very own Riley Smith, the project brought together climbers, designers, mana whenua and scientists to produce an accurate and visually engaging resource. It combines detailed route descriptions, maps and access notes with essays and photography that highlight the region’s geology, ecology and climbing culture.

$48.00

Southern Faces Tees - Pinnacle

Tees feature Dave Brash’s original topos from his 2000 classic Dunedin Rock - cheers Dave!. These shirts are a tribute to the cliffs, climbs and community that continue to shape the climbing story of Ōtepoti. There are three awesome designs to choose from!

$48.00

Southern Faces - Tees

$48.00

Our Projects

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Te Whenua Hou: a distributed forest

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A sweeping, distributed native forest of 1.2 million plants springs to life across 20 farms, weaving biodiversity through farmland. Designed with fractal, braided‑river patterns, it creates a 350‑hectare ecological “bird bridge,” connecting the Southern Alps with Banks Peninsula.

The Future is Wild @ The Hillocks

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WildLab designed and developed the concept, landscape and building for The Future is Wild @ The Hillocks - an innovative visitor experience where place, architecture, VR storytelling, and hands-on planting combine. Each stage reveals Aotearoa’s ecological past and future, guiding visitors from awe to action. The result is a powerful design framework that directly supports nature’s restoration.

Te Ara Ōtākaro Avon River Trail

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A community logo design for Te Ara Ōtākaro Avon River Trail uses a multi‑interpretive mark to celebrate connections to the river. It cleverly evokes winding water, long‑finned eel (tuna), a footprint, and movement—expressing the trail’s story with a simple, evocative image.

Abel Tasman Virtual Visitor Centre App

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The Abel Tasman Virtual Visitor Centre App is a mobile guide offering curated information on walks, history, and biodiversity through wireframe and high‑fidelity prototypes. It also invites visitors to contribute to local restoration by uploading bird sightings like the weka.

Field Notes

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New Zealand’s ‘Arc of Influence’: The ‘Clean, Blue, Green’ Country

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New Zealand is often imagined as a handful of islands in the Pacific—but its territory is now mostly ocean. This study explores how mapping can reshape our sense of national identity, proposing a shift from “clean green” to a more expansive “clean, blue, green” vision grounded in conservation and connection.

Being Landscape

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This article reimagines landscape not as a static scene to be observed or preserved, but as an active, lived relationship between people and place. Drawing on personal experiences, design research, and fieldwork,a case for more participatory approaches to conservation is made—ones that foster mutual shaping between people and landscape, and enable deeper belonging through embodied practice.

Behind the Image

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This column, some years back for Wilderness Magazine, takes a look at our love of pristine wilderness photos—those calendar shots with no people, no huts, no mess. But behind every image is someone swatting sandflies, hauling gear, and eating tuna from a foil pouch. Maybe it’s time we showed that too

Social Natures

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How do landscapes and people shape each other? From stone walls built after forests were cleared, to regenerating bush reclaiming old farmland, it reveals how places are formed through work, memory, and material. Rather than viewing nature and architecture as separate, it shows them as deeply entwined—built from shared histories, changing relationships, and ongoing conversations.

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Our Projects

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