Studio Tēpu

Creating opportunities in design processes

What does Studio Tēpu Do?

we support people to wholly contribute to the design of their future spaces

Studio Tēpu collaborates with communities, designers and government bodies to develop strategies and custom codesign processes that support communities to be truly part of decision-making. To support this community empowerment, we design custom tools that explore different ways values can be translated into design and space. They prompt questions about our built environment and provide a visual language that people can reference when talking to designers and decision-makers about the future of their spaces.

Behind the name

Tēpu is the te reo Māori word for table, which talks to the central kaupapa of our work. Bringing people to the table and ensuring they have genuine agency in the processes that form our built environment is the first step in any good design process.

How do we engage?

Codesigning the process

Our work is based around creating a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between designer and end-user.

We engage with designers, communities and government bodies to develop custom processes that enable communities to be truly part of the process and help translate values into spaces.