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

Our Projects

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Wild Heart Project Punakaiki Storytelling

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A series of interpretation panels brings local nature stories to life, guiding volunteers through the plant nursery, sharing the project’s mission, and helping them become storytellers themselves—turning each visit into an engaging, educational exploration of this coastal restoration effort.

Lowburn Ferry Vineyard Master Plan

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This initial design layers ecological restoration with native planting and productive gardens to highlight terroir. Designed as an animated narrative, it invites people to experience the vineyard’s unique climate and story through immersive landscapes that celebrate place and provenance.

Ararira Wetland Community Restoration Project

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A restoration design reimagines a degraded wetland into an inspiring outdoor classroom where planting events connect people with place. The landscape's patterns evoke inanga, tuna, and a lazy river, nurturing both ecological renewal and a community of learners and stewards in a shared space.

Punakaiki Coastal Restoration Project

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A former mining and farmland site now transforms into thriving native rainforest, nurtured by volunteers and an on‑site nursery. It offers hands‑on experiences—seed‑raising, planting, monitoring, citizen science—while restoring the unique habitat where the Tāiko (Westland petrel) breeds. Over 200,000 eco‑sourced plants have been established.

Field Notes

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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.

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.

The Story of the National Parks of Aotearoa New Zealand

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In September 2017 we brought the story of the national parks of Aotearoa New Zealand to Beijing, China. It was hosted at the Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture, and shows the ways the National Park idea has evolved over the last 130 years in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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