Rewi Thompson

b. 1953d. 2016

Also known as:

  • Rewi Michael Robert Thompson

Of Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Raukawa decent, Rewi Thompson grew up in Whanganui-a-Tara and trained as an engineer. Later Thompson moved to Tāmaki Makaurau, graduating from the University of Auckland with a Bachelors of Architecture, in the early 1980s. He began his own practice in 1983, and the following year, with John Gray and Paratene Machitt, won the competition to design The City to Sea Bridge in Whanganui-a-Tara.

As well as running a sucessful architectural practice, from 2002 onward Thompson was Adjunct Professor at the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning.

Thompson is recognised as holding a seminal place in the evolution of contemporary Māori architecture.

See also:

Rewi Thompson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa), Aronui Trust Carvers, Whaiora Marae, ‘Fish Canopy’ (1987) [head], Ōtara Town Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Images: Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021.