June Critics

Dr Charlotte Šunde

 Dr Charlotte Šunde is Research Development Manager, in the Transforming Cities: Innovations for Sustainable Futures, University of Auckland. Charlotte's academic education at Massey University was interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on planning, environmental science, philosophical anthropology, and urban studies. This created the possibility of forging new lines of enquiry across disciplines and to emerging cross-disciplinary fields such as ecosystem science, ecological economics, and intercultural studies. Her PhD research and subsequent publications are on cross-cultural understanding in relation to environment and development issues. Charlotte’s research spans several areas within a general field of environmental studies, including planning and theoretical ecology. She has a strong commitment to cross-cultural studies and the role of performing arts and science collaborations in research on urban sustainability. Charlotte is active in international research networks, which have created opportunities to work overseas on large-scale collaborative research projects (University of Versailles, France, 2007-2008). She has been involved in two projects with others from eight disciplines and is co-Principal Investigator of the arts-science-education collaboration, Water in the Sustainable City. The project produced a high-profile public art performance and educational science event about water sustainability in Auckland.

Neil Donnelly

Neil Donnelly is Manager of Strategic Planning, Todd Property Group Limited. Todd Property is responsible for designing and delivering some of New Zealand’s largest land development projects. These include:

The 100 hectare new suburb of Stonefields in Auckland;

The 160 hectare Long Bay development on Auckland’s North Shore;

The Ormiston Town Centre to support the emerging community at Flat Bush in Auckland’s south- east;

Operation and development of the Kapiti Coast Airport and associated 80 hectares of business park land;

Completing the Pegasus town development North of Christchurch and

Redevelopment of the disused hospital in Napier.

Clare Chapman

Clare Chapman is the editor of Progressive Building magazine. She has recently returned to Auckland after spending seven years working as a journalist and editor around Australia and New Zealand. Clare has worked in editorial roles for APN, Mediaworks (TV3), and Fairfax. Most recently Clare has been the editor of a New Zealand health magazine, and worked in the Australian education sector on a national media campaign. Clare has also specialized in mining and resources, covering the sector for an Australian daily newspaper.

Richard Harris

Richard has specialised in leading teams in the design and delivery of masterplans and large projects that have a bias towards significant public use. He has also worked on numerous successful joint venture projects. He has led the architectural team on AUT University’s campus redevelopment and masterplanning over the last two decades including their recently completed Sir Paul Reeves. He was the Principal in Charge of the University of Auckland’s School of Medical and Health Sciences Grafton Campus Redevelopment and has had a similar role in the development of Sylvia Park and the Auckland City Hospital. He is the principal responsible for the Jasmax component of the current BVN / Jasmax projects including the ASB North Wharf project. His projects have won numerous architectural and property industry awards.

Chairman, Jasmax Limited, 2000 - present (board member since 1989)

Deputy Chairman, Construction Strategy Group, 2013 – present (member since 2010)

Board Member, Committee for Auckland, 2010 – present

Chairman, Construction Information Limited, 2008 – 2011

President, New Zealand Institute of Architects, 2008 -2010 (NZIA Council member 2007 – 2011)

Chairman, Government Urban Taskforce, 2008 – 2009

Chairman, Architects Education and Registration Board (now NZRAB), 2001 – 2003 (Board

Garth Falconer

Garth graduated in landscape architecture from Lincoln University,  completed a Masters in urban design from Oxford Brookes (UK) and is fellow of the NZILA.  He is founder and director of Reset Urban Design, a specialised design practise focused on taking strategic projects into a realised form. Previously Garth was a founder and director of Isthmus Group from 1988 to 2008. Garth is foremost a designer and has over 24 years’ experience leading design teams on large scale urban projects around New Zealand,   Garth has been at the forefront of the development of urban public realm projects such as waterfronts, river edges, parks, streets, plazas and  central city environments. He believes landscape architecture has a critical responsibility in improving the quality and sustainability of life for our people and the wider ecology.

Garth has received national and international recognition.  He has won numerous  national design awards and lectures at the landscape architecture schools at Lincoln, Victoria and Unitec . Garth has presented at conferences and universities in Australia, USA,UK, Greece and Italy.

Richard Mann

Richard is of Tongan, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāi Tūhoe descent.  He is a principal policy analyst for open space with Auckland Council, having previously been in a role of senior landscape architect with Auckland City.  Richard’s area of responsibility covers the west and north-west of Auckland and he is currently working on development projects at Hobsonville, New Lynn, Oratia and Waikumete Cemetery.  Prior to his role in local government, Richard worked in a private practise based in New Plymouth, primarily on coastal foreshore projects.  Richard also lectures onto the BLA programme at Unitec, coordinating the level 6 ‘Landscape of Aotearoa’ paper.  Richard undertakes private work in his capacity as principal of mann landscape architecture ltd, and has a particular interest in notions of indigeneity and a developing landscape aesthetic borne out of this place, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Bill McKay

Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Head (Student Relations) in the School of Architecture and Planning. He has taught in all subject areas and currently supervises postgraduate theses, coordinates the teaching of architectural technology and some design courses, and teaches the Professional Studies courses.

Bill writes extensively on New Zealand architecture in books, journals and magazines and has received a New Zealand Institute of Architects President's Award, as well as being named Best Architectural Writer by Urbis magazine. He is a regular critic of architecture and commentator on urban design issues as well as being very involved in local Auckland issues.

Bill’s research is in the area of New Zealand historical and contemporary architecture, with a special interest in Maori architecture. His current funded research projects range from state houses to  post-war marae development and war memorial halls (as part of his PhD). He continues to practice both architecture and public sculpture with current projects in Auckland and the Chatham Islands. He is also working on Cloudland, a history of New Zealand architecture that focuses on the buildings most of us live and work in, and is editing Awkward City, a collection of essays about the history and development of Auckland.

Jeanette Budgett

 Jeanette Budgett is a Senior Lecturer on the Department of Architecture, FCIB Unitec. Jeanette has worked in architectural practice since graduation from the University of Auckland in 1987. Concurrently she taught architectural design and was made a Design Fellow at Auckland University of Auckland in 2000. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, UNITEC Institute of Technology, where she teaches in design studio and construction technology. Her Masters of Architecture (2005) investigated the history and conservation of coral mission-period architecture of the Cook Islands. A book chapter on this topic in Cook Islands Art and Architecture (Rarotonga University of the South Pacific, 2013) is pending. The recently published e-book The Unstable City (Unitec Press, 2013) discusses Auckland’s old shop buildings in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. Other research interests include contemporary digital fabrication technique and the architectural interior. Her most recent architectural project has just been published in Big House Small House (2012).