Garth Falconer’s company Reset Urban Design has worked on designs for many national and international projects.
His illustrations for a new Auckland Harbour crossing, supported by Auckland mayor Len Brown and former mayor Bob Harvey, hit the media spotlight last month.
This month, he has turned his talents to helping organise a charity fundraiser for a Wanaka Wastebusters project on the environmentally sensitive island of Aitutaki, in the Cook Islands.
Mr Falconer told the Wanaka Sun he was concerned to discover during the process of working on the 2020 Aitutaki Spatial Plan that a landfill was leaching into subsoil.
He was looking forward to the prospect of raising as much money as he could to take Wanaka Wastebusters’ business development manager Sophie Ward to Aitutaki, to do some Wastebuster education as part of his business ethos of giving back.
Ms Ward has not been to Aitutaki before and is excited about the opportunity Mr Falconer has presented.
"The reason why Garth reached out to us was because he was quite inspired by the work Wanaka Wastebusters has done over the last 25 years we’ve been operating. He just felt there were some parallels between the story of Wastebusters and what we have been able to create for our community and what the Aitutaki community could create for themselves.
"The idea is to provide some inspiration and tell the story of what we have done, some of the successes and some of the challenges with the hope we can inspire their community to take some actions for themselves to solve some of the issues they have."
Another hope was the two communities could create some sort of partnership and connection.
Reset Urban Design was established in 2008 and works internationally and nationally with governments, iwi, councils, public institutions, property owners and communities to co-design projects.
The company won international awards in 2022 and 2023 — one for spatial planning work done for Aitutaki and the other for work designing Wānaka Lake Front Development.
Mr Falconer said sorting the Aitutaki landfill had been deemed by its people a "high priority".
During the weeklong visit, Ms Ward would engage in conversations with Aitutaki mayor Nick Henry, the island’s council, hotels, schools, and community groups, assess the situation and complete a recommendations report for the island’s council.
A report will also be given to the purchasers of Mr Falconer’s art.
At a glance
WHAT: Aitutaki-Wastebusters charity fundraising exhibition
WHERE: Pembroke Wine Bar, 24 Dungarvon St, Wānaka
WHEN: Opens November 11, 5pm-7pm. Closes November 24.
ABOUT: Sale of 12 oil paintings of Wānaka landscape scenes created by artist Garth Falconer. All proceeds go directly to funding Wastebusters’ visit to Aitutaki.
MORE INFO: garth@reset.co.nz sophie@wastebusters.co.nz
