Neighbourhoods: the missing ingredient
This is a guest post by reader Grady Connell. It was originally published on Today FM.
This is a story about the missing ingredient from both a cookie recipe… and newer housing developments. After listening to Tova O’Brien’s interview about how walkable your neighbourhood is and completing a recent ride around Pukekohe’s newer neighbourhoods, it made me realise there’s a missing ingredient.…
37 Comments Streets for People: more agile projects on the way
The Streets for People programme was launched yesterday at Newtown School in Wellington. This is a $30m boost from Waka Kotahi to help councils around the country make adaptable changes to streets and public spaces.
The event was covered by Stuff, RNZ,and Newshub, with some pretty cute footage of the Transport Minister and Mayor of Wellington riding bikes alongside locals of all sizes.…
Why cities should make space for urban green
This is a guest post by Anna Michels. Anna is an urban designer recently with HUE, and she is about to start a role at WSP New Zealand.
We are living through tumultuous times: just out of covid-19 lockdowns, RMA reform at our doorstep, the recent central government housing mandates (NPS-UD and MDRS), the release of the Emissions Reduction Plan and the new Budget.…
Protecting Tāmaki Makaurau’s Urban Character
If twenty-thousand buildings across the city were determined to have exactly the same kind of character, few would try to claim that each and every one is “special”. And yet, this is exactly what Auckland Council planners are doing. The National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) is a document containing international best practices for developing affordable, accessible, and low-carbon cities, which directs the major local authorities to upzone to allow up to 6 story apartments near to important transit and employment centres.…
Unpicking the method behind Council’s SCA assessments
This is a guest post by Anna Michels. Anna is an Urban Designer at HUE in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Auckland Council has released its proposed changes to the Auckland Unitary Plan in response to Central Government directions under the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) and incorporating the Medium Density Residential Standard (MDRS) within the Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters Bill that was passed at the end of 2021.…
2022 – The Year Ahead
Welcome to 2022. After wrapping up 2021 before Christmas, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see in 2022.
Overall it appears that COVID will continue to loom large over the year and will be a major factor, potentially directly but certainly on things such as travel patterns.…
2021 – A Year in Review
With the year quickly drawing to a close it’s time for a quick wrap up the most important things that happened and WOW, what a year it’s been.
Thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in making Auckland greater.…
Alternative Futures of Parking Buildings: Part One
This is a guest post by Ella Kay. It is the first part of what we hope will be an ongoing series looking at parking buildings that have achieved a second life as something else.
At first glance you wouldn’t imagine that the kindergarten on Dresdenerstraße in Kreuzberg, Berlin was once a parking building.…
The challenge for urban agriculture in Auckland
This is a guest post by Charlotte Billing. Charlotte is a place strategist at Place Creative.
In Aotearoa there’s little urban agriculture, even though people are excited by the concept of urban farms. Mayor Phil Goff this week released an ambitious Climate Action package that specifically champions more māra kai in the city.…
Streets for People [take two]: 2021-2024
The next phase of Waka Kotahi’s Innnovating Streets for People programme was released quietly last week. Now called Streets for People, this is the second iteration of the project, which ran as a pilot from mid 2020-mid 2021. The possibility of a second round of funding seemed a bit up in the air when the 2020-21 pilot programme wrapped at the end of June, so it’s great to sea that Waka Kotahi are re-booting it, with what looks like an improved structure.…
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