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

Love Our Huts T-Shirt Fundraiser

Wear your support for FMC's Love Our Huts campaign with these awesome T-shirts! $20 from each purchase goes to supporting the great work Federated Mountain Clubs do.

$48.00

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

Our Projects

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Pancake Rocks Punakaiki Storytelling Project

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Wildlab collaborated with DOC and Ngāti Waewae to create a sequence of panels at Punakaiki that blend into the coastal setting with bold, engaging design. Covering geology, wildlife, and cultural perspectives, the panels invite visitors to look closer, learn more, and take part in caring for Paparoa National Park and Aotearoa’s natural world.

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.

Mackenzie Basin Drylands Park

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The Mackenzie Basin Drylands Park is a design-led exploration of what conservation could look like when integrated with tourism, agriculture, and cultural values. Inspired by the Mackenzie Agreement, this project proposes an alternative future where ecological protection is not separate from - but interwoven with - our productive and recreational landscapes.

Eden Project Christchurch Ōtautahi: Ki Uta Ki Tai

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An eco‑tourism project to transform the earthquake‑scarred land along the Avon Ōtākaro River into a dynamic waterscape—blending performance space, wetlands, sensory “rain,” “moss,” and “rainbow” rooms, and flood‑resilient landscapes. It combines environment, culture, and experience to reshape Christchurch through water‑enabled connection and renewal

Field Notes

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Forever Wild

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This recent column reflects on how moments in wild places shape who we are. It traces the history of New Zealand’s protected lands and how they came to be, while noting the pressures they face today. It asks us to consider the shared responsibility we all have for ensuring these places remain fully protected both now and into the future.

New Land

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This exploratory map invites us to see Aotearoa’s public conservation lands—covering a third of the country—not as fixed or finished, but as places full of fresh potential. Re-imagined as a newly discovered archipelago, it prompts us to ask how we might live differently within these lands. Could they foster new forms of innovation, economy, and culture grounded in restoration, care, and a deep engagement with nature?

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.

Wildness: planting new natures in Aotearoa, New Zealand

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This article rethinks wildness—not as something untouched or lost, but as something new, messy, and shaped by us. It’s useful because it gives designers ways to work with real, changing landscapes instead of trying to recreate the past. It encourages using what’s already there—native and exotic plants, people and animals—and trying out creative, practical ideas. Rather than aiming to fix nature, the article asks how we might live better with it. The article shows ways design can help grow new relationships between people and place, offering fresh ways to care for land, support life, and imagine more hopeful futures.

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Our Projects

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