UNLEASH SPACE

The Unleash Space is your space

Unleash Space (Kura Matahuna) is the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship hub, with a state-of-the-art maker space. Unleash Space is free for staff and students from all faculties at the University of Auckland.

For those interested in exploring the world of innovation and entrepreneurship there are workshops, bookable meeting rooms, brainstorming spaces, experts and inspiration for your projects and ventures.

For the makers, creators, builders, fabricators and designers, there are 3D printers, laser cutters, routers, electronics, vacuum formers, sewing machines, craft and art supplies and other tools and machinery.

Unleash Space is your space for creating, playing, making, inventing, experimenting and doing. Join us to build your skills and networks in a supportive and fun environment.

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Our Story

Unleash Space was founded as a partnership between the University of Auckland’s Business School and the Faculty of Engineering. Its creation and continued management has been led by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Unleash Space was made possible due to the vision and generosity of our Founding Partners, who share our values of instilling an entrepreneurial ethos and skillset into the next generation of New Zealanders.

Learn more

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Kura Matahuna

Unleash Space’s given Māori name is Kura Matahuna.

Māori are a great lover of wisdom and philosophy and it is to these subjects that the term Kura applies (vade mecum: Hongi p153).

Kura in the old language means precious treasure, sacred wisdom and philosophy, divine law and natural phenomena.

Kura Tawhiti was an ancient sacred wisdom tree that grew at the center of the earth where all known and unknown knowledge was kept. The knowledge was accessed by tohunga through the Kura Wananga. The knowledge tree in the movie Avatar is a perfect image of the Kura Tawhiti.

Matahuna refers to the unseen face or the unknown source. The wind, for example, is a matahuna. It can’t be seen but it can be detected by its impact on something (Tukāki Waititi: Ngati Hine or Whanau a Apanui).

So what we have here is the idea of a group challenging the unknown and the unseen and as yet undeveloped territory. It is like our ancestors who called upon many knowledge sources such as stars, animals, fish and bird migrations to develop a wayfinding system that enabled them to populate 6.5 million square miles of ocean without any instruments. They used a collective knowledge gathered from the Kura Tawhiti.

Kura Matahuna is the new journey into the future that is agile and challenges the status quo.

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Join us

We look forward to seeing you at Unleash Space!

You can find Unleash Space at the corner of Grafton Road and Symonds Street at the University’s City Campus. The entrance is via the Faculty of Engineering (building 402), 20 Symonds Street. Just go up the stairs (next to the Symonds Street underpass).

Phone:
09 923 4870 (within New Zealand)
+64 9 923 4870 (overseas)

Email:
hello@unleashspace.ac.nz

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