Overlooking Waitematā Harbour, Te Komititanga forms a new civic heart for Auckland City’s downtown and waterfront precinct. Framed by some of the city’s most significant heritage and commercial buildings, including Commercial Bay, Auckland Ferry Terminal, the Chief Post Office (CPO) and Waitematā Station, Te Komititanga provides a major public forum and a revitalised place of welcome and arrival into the city.

The design reflects the site’s unique setting and cultural heritage as a place where people, water and the land converge. The plaza’s name was gifted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei and the CRL Mana Whenua Forum and means ​“to mix” or ​“to merge” in te reo Māori. The unique paving pattern represents the convergence of the Waihorotiu Stream, flowing beneath Queen Street, and the Waitematā Harbour, over which is laid a whāriki (fine woven mat) demarcating a major gathering space, an ātea, expressing both welcome and unity in front of the CPO. 

Considered the most esteemed woven item within Māori culture, the whāriki traditionally reflects chiefly descent and is an expression of mana. The intricate centrepiece was designed in collaboration with mana whenua weaving experts, with proportions corresponding to the scale and form of the majestic CPO frontage. The patterns chosen include the Niho Taniwha border pattern which acknowledges the unity provided by the Kīngitanga (Māori King). The central pattern is the Poutama, symbolising learning and achievement. To the north, the waves of the Waitematā Harbour, and to the south, the meandering waters of the Waihorotiu Stream are depicted in the paving design, referencing the meeting of the two waters before the area was reclaimed in the 1880s.