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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Designing With Nature

What changes when nature is both the purpose of our designing and an active collaborator in the process? Designing with Nature is both a collective and personal exploration of that question — thirty projects across Aotearoa New Zealand where we’ve been examining this possibility.

$48.00

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

Our Projects

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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.

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.

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

Arthur’s Pass National Park Visitor Engagement Strategy

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A strategic insight plan identifies key moments along the Arthur’s Pass route—like the highway, village hub, and visitor centre—where visitors can be warmly welcomed into conservation through tailored information delivery. It maps out how to spark first-time engagements across the entire experience.

Field Notes

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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.

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

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.

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.

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DesigningwithNature

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