Tane Moleta is a designer, researcher, and creative technologist whose work investigates Real-Time Virtual Environments, computational imaging, ecological digital twins, and the spatial representation of environmental change. His research examines how digital tools, environmental data, mixed-reality technologies, and creative fieldwork can expand architectural knowledge and reshape how we sense, model, and construct space.

Tane is Co-Director of the Spatial Ecologies Lab at Victoria University of Wellington, a research platform working across architecture, photography, environmental sensing, immersive media, and public-facing spatial technologies. Through the lab, he develops projects that connect computational design, ecological data, coastal fieldwork, and creative practice. Recent work includes coastal digital twins, UAV-based geospatial intelligence, real-time environmental data pipelines, location-based augmented reality, and immersive public interfaces for urban and ecological systems.

Tane has developed and co-developed major creative and curatorial projects for leading cultural institutions, including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, the Museum of Wellington, and CAADRIA. His international exhibition record includes In the Forest with the Trees We Made in Thailand, multiple presentations at Ars Electronica, and ongoing collaborative work through An Architecture of the Sea. His current collaborative practice with Dr Mizuho Nishioka explores the sea as an active environmental and technological agent, bringing together generative photography, tidal sensing, immersive installation, and spatialised environmental data.

His recent doctoral research, The Entangled Studio: A Sociomaterial Study of Real-Time Virtual Environments in Architectural Education (submitted 2025), provides an empirical contribution to architectural learning research. The study examines how RTVE-enabled studio environments shape collaboration, leadership, peer learning, and community formation in architectural education. This work extends his broader interest in sociomaterial learning, computational design culture, and the role of immersive tools in architectural pedagogy.

Tane’s current research programme focuses on ecological digital twins and coastal intelligence. Projects such as An Architecture of the Sea and The Sea at Scale investigate how real-time streaming data, UAV photogrammetry, hydrological sampling, game-engine simulation, and public-facing interfaces can make vulnerable coastal landscapes more legible to researchers, communities, and decision-makers. This work positions digital twins not only as technical tools for monitoring and prediction, but as creative and civic infrastructures for environmental interpretation.

Recent funded projects, including Ecological Digital Twins: Real-Time Virtual Engines for Natural Environments and Complex Terrains: Mapping Ecology Through Technology and Culture, consolidate Tane’s current research focus on coastal intelligence, environmental sensing, immersive media, and public-facing spatial technologies.

Alongside his research, Tane teaches across architecture and design, with a focus on mixed reality, computational modelling, immersive studio practice, and design communication. His teaching is closely connected to his research into digital learning environments, iterative making, and the use of real-time media in architectural design studios. He also contributes to education quality assurance as an external programme monitor for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.