Students design housing for elderly in Opotiki

Juno Huang (left) and Wendy Zheng with a model of their homes for elderly people to be built in Opotiki. Photo / Supplied

Affordable, residential housing is being designed for elderly people in Opotiki to help bridge the generation gap.

Two students from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, Wendy Zheng and Juno Huang, have produced a model of pensioner accommodation for a small registered charitable trust in Opotiki. The undergraduates were delighted when their plans were chosen from dozens submitted to the trust.

The Rangimarie Trust, established in 1979, was set up to provide quality, low-cost rental homes in their area for elderly people on small fixed incomes.

The trust owns a block of land with a dozen units which were financed by the making and selling of patchwork quilts, running market stalls and raffles.

The trustees approached senior lecturer Bill McKay from the University of Auckland for assistance with design ideas to help fulfil their specific needs, including access ramps, solar heating, raised floors to prevent flooding, wider doors to accommodate wheelchairs and a maximum budget of $90,000 per unit.

Mr McKay sent the trust's brief to his architecture students to see what they could create.

Wendy and Juno's designs proved to be exactly what the trust had been looking for.

"It was gratifying to see young undergraduates come up with such a good design. Apart from nailing the requirements of the brief, they also produced a design sensitive to the church next door that will add to the townscape values of Opotiki by creating a nice little community precinct," Mr McKay said.

Wendy and Juno, who are both originally from China, were surprised and delighted that their designs will be built.

They are both third-year undergraduate architecture students who hope to go on and complete postgraduate studies with the aim of becoming registered architects.

The Rangimarie Trust is now in the process of looking for funding to help achieve the next stage of the project.