Arthouse Architects and Tennent Brown Architects have been engaged as lead designers to progress the Ren Xue Centre project in Onekakā, Golden Bay.

The vision for the Centre is to create a home for the Ren Xue community. It will be a multi-purpose centre accommodating up to 200 people. Cat Alker explained, “We looked for architects with a depth of skill and experience whose values and working style could align with the project's spiritual and community-based vision, who could offer authentic sustainable design practices, and who we could be confident would consider the impact on the local community”.

The process for choosing an architect for this special project was carried out with great care in keeping with the uniqueness of the project. It’s the first physical home for Ren Xue and a place to achieve the mission of uplifting our lives and helping others.  We feel confident that the design team will bring diverse skills, experience, sustainable design practices, local knowledge and sensitivity to the very special location of the site and the community it serves. Arthouse Architects is a Nelson based company, and Tennent Brown Architects is based in Wellington. Together, they provide a commitment to understanding Ren Xue principles, have relevant experience of creating buildings that reflect and nurture spiritual practices, local knowledge, and cultural alignment with the Centre Project.

The Bodhinyanarama Monastery is a previous project of Tennent Brown Architects that shows their close alignment and understanding of designing spaces for spiritual practices. The lead designer’s responsibilities include architecture, coordinating consultants, legal compliance, stakeholder management and communications.

Ren Xue Australasia Charitable Trust wishes to acknowledge the many people who have contributed to the development of the Centre Project to date. These include Steve Campbell from Steve Campbell Design, who collated input from the Ren Xue community to develop the brief, and Rua Sargent of Kaupapa Projects in Nelson New Zealand, a Nelson-based construction consultancy firm, who is providing construction and pricing process expertise.