UDF - Resources Page www.urbandesignforum.org.nz

9 September 2010

Auckland Council

The Royal Commission on Auckland has delivered a strong message that urban design is critical to the future success of Auckland (and all towns and cities), thanks in part to some great input from the Urban Issues group of the Institute of Architects.

Visit our What's Hot page for UDF submissions and other related material

An extract of the Commission’s findings on urban design

more detail - http://www.royalcommission.govt.nz/rccms.nsf/CONTENTPAGES/$first?open

UDF's Submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland's Local Government

Auckland Council Commentaries

Your contribution to this Commentary section is welcomed.

Please either email your commentary directly to enquiries@urbandesignforum.org.nz or contact David Mead for further information

PAST COMMENTARIES
PAST COMMENTARIES

David Mead - The Royal Commission on Urban Design (well almost!)

Chris Bentley - NZILA Comments on the Auckland Governance

John Mackay - Super City and the Transport Agency – Delivering on the Spatial Plan

David Mead & Graeme Scott - letter to the NZ Herald 3 January 2010

Rod Oram's paper presented at UDF seminar 20 May 2009

UDF Submissions

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The Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill 2009

UDF's draft submission on the RMA Amendment - here
Getting urban design into District Plans has been identified by UDF members as an important initiative.
Changes to the RMA provide an opportunity for UDF to raise awareness of the need for new ways to plan our towns and cities.

MfE RMA Amendment page

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UDF's National Policy Statement on Urban Design Submission - here

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UDF's Submission on Building Sustainable Urban Communities - here

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UDF's Submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland's Local Government - here

UDF Information

A. Urban Design Forum New Zealand (updated 21/12/09)

National Committee announced visit UDF Elections for all information on this important UDF development.

B. “What do UDF members want the Urban Design Forum to focus on?

Attached is a summary of responses to the recent survey of UDF members, asking them what the UDF should concentrate on.

The survey will help the UDF Committee to shape its activities over the forthcoming year – there is certainly no lack of things to do”.

Survey Results

Urban Trends

introduced by Brenna Waghorn

High rises – the people, the buildings, the farms?!

Apartment Living
Sustainable development across Auckland and many other centres includes encouraging mixed use development supported by passenger transport. As we encourage more apartment “urban” living and seek to design “great places that work”, it is useful to keep an eye on who is living down town and why.
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/urban/managinggrowth.html

Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC)
CMHC seem to do so much research. It is worth a look on any housing and design related issues.
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/

Vertical Farming
How about growing peaches, strawberries and herbs in high rise towers, and feeding thousands of urbanites from within the city?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15farm.html?_r=4&ref=science&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin (you may need to register as a reader (its free) to access this article - but it's well worth it)

Gordon Graff
The New York Times

download complete article

introduced by Jess Donaldson:

My Morning Urban Design Fix

CoolTown Studios is a blog/news site aimed at ‘creatives’, written by Washington DC based Neil Takemoto. An architect by training, Neil runs a consulting firm specialising in cool urban development crowdsourcing.
The blog is a free public service (including all 1300 archived entries) committed to helping build inspiring quadruple-bottom-line places to live, work, learn and play.

Sustainable Transport Newsletter

The Transport Newsletter is well researched and offers punchy snippets of information from wide and varied resources. It’s great to hear what is happening out there in terms of sustainable transportation…and what needs to change to ensure that sustainable transportation is achieved.
The Transport Newsletter from Stephen Ingrouille, of Going Solar, a Melbourne-based company that specialises in renewable energy and sustainable living.

download complete article

General

- Good Solutions Guide for Mixed Use Development in Town Centres (2005) (non statutory) - copies are available free from North Shore City!

The target audience for the Guide is developers and planners and urban designers who can influence them. The Guide offers best practice design guidance for developments that combine residential, commercial and retail activities.

If you wish to obtain some hard copies of the Guide to hand out, please email Sarah Lindsay at North Shore City Council, sarah.lindsay@northshorecity.govt.nz or download here

- New Zealand Urban Design Protocol
The New Zealand Urban Design Protocol is a voluntary commitment to specific urban design initiatives by signatory organisations, which include central and local government, the property sector, design professionals, professional institutes and other groups.

- Urban Design Toolkit
The Urban Design Toolkit is a compendium of tools that can be used to facilitate high-quality urban design and supports the implementation of the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol. The Toolkit is a living, web-base resource and MfE encourages comments and contributions urban.design@mfe.govt.nz

- Urban Design Compendium (UK)
As a companion to the two Urban Design Compendium publications this site provides guidance on good urban design – summarising the principles of urban design, how they can be applied and the processes which lead to successful places. Chapters of the publications can be downloaded.

Streets

Naked Streets and Shared Spaces

introduced by Greg McBride:

After two recent informative talks in Auckland by Councillor Daniel Moylan and Professor George Hazel, those lucky enough to attend might feel inspired and informed enough to advocate the removal of all street signs and kerbs and let chaos reign. Both speakers covered the importance of releasing streets from the domination of the car for economic, environmental, safety and aesthetic benefits.

The work of Hans Monderman, Ben Hamilton-Baille, David Engwicht et al, (variously named shared space, naked streets, reclaiming the streets, living streets, self explaining street etc), all use street design intervention to influence drivers behaviour in favour of other road users, especially pedestrians.
...

download complete article

Complete Streets: We Can Get There from Here
by: John Laplante & Barbara McCann
published: ITE Journal/May 2008

introduced by David Mead:

If urban design is the common language for all professionals involved in the built environment then surely the street is the forum where that language needs to be most intensely used, no more so than the main arterial roads that knit together our towns and cities.

This article from the American Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal caught my eye because it talks about the need to rethink how we treat streets from a movement perspective.

The article recognises that the common standards applied to road management, including lane widths, traffic speeds, levels of service and safety indicators affect the street’s ability to support a wide range of users (and therefore uses).

Flexibility around these standards has a huge potential to improve the place-making role of streets.

download complete article

PRESENTATIONS TO IPENZ AUCKLAND TRANSPORT GROUP
PRESENTATIONS TO IPENZ AUCKLAND TRANSPORT GROUP

UDF presentations to Transport Group of IPENZ (Auckland Branch)

- David Mead
- Richard Reid

OUR : OFFICE for URBAN RESEARCH

How does the urban form of Auckland influence its economic performance?

Is it just coincidence that this famously low-density city is a significant part of New Zealand’s low-productivity national economy?

How can we design Auckland to help in the Government’s stated aim to raise national productivity?

In 15 years of involvement in Auckland’s urban issues, it became obvious to me that a better Auckland can’t just come through better architecture; that the city is shaped to a huge extent by transport systems which, in Auckland’s case, is the private car. Over the last 50 years this has supressed urban intensity, which may mean we are losing the benefits of agglomeration effects.

Are agglomeration effects real? And can a new focus on public transport, over time, lead to their benefiting our city’s productivity?

Graeme Scott of asc architects has set up the Office for Urban Research website to try to shed some light on these matters.
Check it out at www.our.org.nz