The Hundertwasser Foundation in Vienna has approved plans to create a park in the Northland town of Kawakawa and name it after the late artist.
Austrian-born Friedensreich Hundertwasser had a home near Kawakawa for many years; the quirky and much-admired toilet building in its main street was his last work.
Wishing to create a park and native wetland nearby, the Far North District Council asked the artist's trustees for permission to name it after him.
Deputy mayor Sally McCauley says the Hundertwasser Foundation's Joran Harel responded by offering funds to pay for materials for Maori artists to create sculpture for the park.
"What I need to do," Ms McCauley says, "is get the iwi to come up with some designs and I'll send them over to Vienna so he knows exactly what we're talking about."
Hundertwasser loved to walk, the deputy mayor says, so a park will be a fitting memorial to him.
The foundation says that the artist had a great love of and respect for Maori culture, and that it salutes the council for its plan.
