Grace He
Multiculturalism in Urban Landscape
Research question:
How can urban design practice accommodate
and enhance the intersection of diverse culture in the public/third spaces at
Cook street west, and contribute positively to the social exchange within
diverse communities?
Abstract:
This study explores the interconnections
between multiculturalism, social integration
and public space. Insights into these relations were gained based on
fieldwork from observing the social activities of different cultural
communities in the public space within the research site – Cook street west and
Investigate the perceptions and experiences based on the relationship between
the Cook street west residents and its public spaces. By understanding the
localised forms of social-wellbeing in this highly diverse neighbourhood, a
conceptual design framework was developed to explore the renovation
opportunities of inventing a new type of public places which would help in
supporting the healthy growth of Cook street west - a unique ethno cultural
neighbourhood in the Auckland.
Gemma Gao
How can Open spaces be designed so they can
act as evacuation places in case of volcano eruption in Auckland?
Abstract:
Auckland is a city built on more than 50
volcanoes. According to Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group
Plan (2011), it is considered as a very high risks event. Auckland Council
offers comprehensive illustrations and related suggestions of various natural
disaster, maps of tsunami evacuation zones and functions of regional parks
could be use response to natural disasters. However, the evacuation routes and
safe area for sheltering are not specified. More importantly, volcanoes
eruption could result in other kinds of natural disasters such as earthquakes
and tsunami in historical cases and the growing population could be additional
risks. Thus there is a need to analyze problems referred. This research is
aimed to design a model of multifunctional park that can serve as an evacuation
zone or part evacuation route in case of natural disasters like volcanoes and
related disasters like tsunami and earthquake. The findings of the research
could also be applied to other places that have high disaster risks. The concept
of multifunctional park is to fulfill the roles that the open space in both of
emergency program and general program, to make city more resilient and prepared
for the natural disasters. In this research, Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) is technique support for site identification. Two parts consisted in the
method: (1) finding out public open spaces suitable for natural disaster
evacuation in Auckland Region and (2) developing a design strategy for one of
these spaces in order to increase their capacity and appropriateness for
evacuation.
Qian Wang
The Urban Green Infrastructure
Research Question:
How can an urban green infrastructure and
low impact design approach encourage multi-functional management of water in
parks?
Abstract:
There is a requirement to renew and improve
Green Infrastructure assets as the world faces challenges to water ecosystems,
e.g. increased droughts and flooding due to climate change (Salinger, 2013).
This project is an explorative research by design into urban green infrastructure,
focusing on water storage and subsequent use within public parks. The project
aims to investigate the use of spirals in urban park design to enhance
ecological functioning and provide increased ecosystem services for all users,
possibly encompassing neighbouring households. This could include flood hazard
reduction, and rainwater storage for irrigation as a functional and aesthetic
aspect of park design. It will focus on water strategies including extensive
rainwater use and treatment of stormwater runoff to achieve a high-quality
physical and social facility that exemplifies contemporary principles of urban
development (Levario, 2007).
Junjie Xu
A Brownfield Park.
The Sustainable Landscape - Transformation
of Brownfield Sites
Abstract:
How can landscape ecology assist in
achieving sustainable outcomes for the brownfield development?
With the rapid development of the city and
the increase of population, the area of the city is increasingly expanding and
sprawling. However, the existing problems of brownfield site have seriously
restricted the construction and progress of the city. The issue of how to
effectively and efficiently redevelopment and transformation of brownfield
sites is increasingly being considered by agencies and a wide range of
professionals throughout the world.
The definition of brownfield site is vital
for development of a city or a region in different contexts. It can help to
inform the direction of research, explore the development potential of site and
deal with relevant urban issues.
Landscape is an effective approach to
coordinate ecosystem on brownfield site to facilitate sustainable development
for enhancing the relationship between human and nature. It is a good way to
deal with a variety of social contradictions as well.
The objective of this research project is
to enhance the connection between humans and nature. A series of theories and
methods will be researched and analysed to improve the value of brownfield
site, return more public space for local residents. Meanwhile, people’s
requirements and Auckland council’s plans will be considered in this project to
develop the most rational project, even to help to achieve the goal of the
world’s liveable city.
Rithy Heng
Urban Renewal and Revitalization in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Abstract
Cities are the products of human
civilization and settlement. They keep changing both physically and socially.
With the advancement of technology and economic prosperity, urban lives in the
21st century have become more comfortable and easier. However, there are still
some negative aspects arising from urban growth such as air pollution, traffic
congestion, and inadequacy of public spaces where people can freely enjoy their
time after work. The world has shifted the attention to the creation of a more
livable and greener urban environment.
The concept of urban renewal is vital for
the lifespan of a city and planning as it helps curbing urban sprawl and
introducing new lives into the old, sometimes abandoned, places. As the city is
ageing, some parts of it have to be replaced by new elements to keep the city
vibrant, livable, and sustainable.
Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is one
of the oldest cities in Southeast Asia dating back to 1431 A.D. The city
underwent a lot of changes both physically and socially. During colonial period
from 1863 to 1953, Phnom Penh became a center of French colonial government
that left some French-styled buildings to present time. From 1953 to 1969,
Phnom Penh was developed into one of the most modern cities in Asia acquiring the
name “Pearl of Asia”. Modern buildings inspired by Khmer concept were built. In
1970, Cambodia plunged into civil war that destroyed almost everything.
After decades of civil war and instability,
Cambodia is emerging as one of the fastest growing economies. Meanwhile, there
is development challenge to be addressed. Phnom Penh, the capital, is suffered
from absence of planning, population booming, pollution, traffic congestion,
and constant flooding from storm water. The ongoing profit-driven developments
give little consideration on livability and sustainability. Furthermore, urban
renewal is inevitable as Phnom Penh population is increasing. A former landfill
will need to be restored to make way for development. Because of its location
within the city, it has the potential of becoming a more affluent area by using
green space and water as amenities. This project aims to provide alternative
design approach by balancing livability, sustainability, and profitability to
make it more appealing to developers and government.
Quin Luo
Eloise Veber
Meeting at the edge. How would we design Te
Papa today?
Abstract
Te Papa Tongarewa has always faced
controversy over the lack of relationship to its historically/culturally
significant waterfront site, the ocean, and the surrounding urban environment.
Not only does this lack of relationship affect the public’s experience of the
Wellington waterfront and the public space surrounding the museum, but it in
turn affects the user’s sense of journey and orientation through the museum,
the spatial orientation of its interior spaces, and any sense of grounding or
belonging for visitors to the building. New Zealanders have an undeniable
attraction to the coast. As a nation bordering only oceans, natural activity at
the edge has captured our attention and imagination since early settlement. We
are outward looking, obsessed by our edges. They provide us our nutritional,
poetic and spiritual livelihood. Today, with most of our cities on the coast,
we radiate our cityscapes from the edge. The seaside promenade becomes the
urban climax, and we flock to it, instead of the town square. Waitangi and
Bastion Point, places of national contemplation for concepts of land ownership,
settlement and belonging, are both on coastal outcrops, scenic lookouts once
chosen for good views of an enemy, now raise us high enough for us to admire
the power and breadth of the ocean.
These are both sites of self-representation
and cultural and political exchange. This project will look at a new design for
the Museum of New Zealand. Reading the national museum as a place of
self-representation and inter-cultural exchange, the project will explore our
obsession with the coast and the foreshore as a place of gathering for New
Zealanders, to inform a new design for the museum.
Kormal Bhatt
Cemeteries as ‘Healing’ Landscapes
How can a Cemetery function as a place of
‘Healing’ for the many cultural groups in Auckland?
Abstract
Cemeteries play a vital role in all cities
not only as a space for the dead to be placed, but also for the living to visit
and remember their loved ones. Can cemetery landscapes act as a means of
healing in the grief process? The loss of a loved one causes sorrow, grief, and
mourning, shock and pain – a most difficult and lonely phase of one’s life.
People visit cemeteries to remember, pay
homage and revitalize old memories in connection with the dead. Due to
globalization, multiculturalism has brought with it a mix of death customs and
traditions of mourning that play a pivotal role in the healing process from
grief.
Cultural and religious groups from around
the world have different beliefs about death and the afterlife. In India,
particularly Hindus cremate the dead by burning the body at a very high
temperature and the cremated remains are immersed in the holy river Ganga. As
the dead are not buried there are no cemeteries which can serve as reminders
and touchstones for the living to remember people and events. This motivated me
to think about relation between man and environment which can be established
through the means of landscaping.
The purpose of this research proposal is to
gain an understanding the death rituals of various cultural groups and
accordingly developing strategies and designing a cemetery that can act as a
healing space. The psychological behavior on losing a loved one can vary
dramatically from person to person and the duration of grieving process can
also range dramatically. A study needs to be conducted that will define
ecological and social design objectives which emphatically will reflect values
from different cultures for development of cemeteries.
With the pace of urbanization, green field
sites and even for that matter existing cemeteries are destroyed or re-located.
This shows what kind of importance or respect we give the dead. The development
of a cemetery will also create an open space and green graveyard adding to the
ecological diversity and natural habitat of the area. With a focus on diverse
mourning practices, the guidelines will incorporate therapeutic goals and
suggest ecological solutions which will address the negative impacts of death
on environment.
Raewyn Davie-Martin
Mountain
to Sea: Water for Resilient
21st Century Cities
Question
How can potable and non-potable
decentralised water networks re-image cities?
Can the development of parks, as part of a
new localised wastewater
network,
help in the densification of the city?
Abstract
Reimagine parks and surrounding
neighbourhoods, with ultra smart designed infrastructure. This “re-imaged”
urban park could be used as a “vehicle” to reimage the city. This idea would
create city population growth around parks. The concept could be used to
reimage parks and create optimal public land use for recreation and amenity.
The city form would develop as a decentralised
network of neighbourhood nodes. This strategy is to buddy infrastructure
connections with green spaces, water bodies and parks to optimise
infrastructure in the surrounding neighbourhoods. Analysis from international
precedents show new uses for recycled wastewater. New technological development
changes the focus of water pollution to emission control, thus reducing
sewerage in the sea, the current scenario with ageing infrastructure during
storm events. Using these technologies to change water network infrastructure,
around parks, could create a more resilient use of resources. This would create
a city with less focus on big linear infrastructure networks (for example
Auckland’s sewerage network).
This research uses a “pluridisciplinarial”
approach, research from water network disciplines with city planning
innovations, using the logic and philosophies from landscape architecture
design. This design research is to generate new ideas for a new smart neighbourhood
infrastructure with supporting natural landscapes. The research aims to
generate a new urban resilience. Creating a “zero waste” approach from water
resources, by using wastewater in the neighbourhood. Water resources; become
the defining form for the resilient 21st century city.
Ryasp Bhandari
Abstract
The human
domestication of landscape and environment has remained a prominent area of
urban and environmental discourse over the past century. Contemporary urban
waterfronts, reflect and constitute changes in urban ecology, economic
regulation and societal issues under the influence of coastal cities (Bunce
& Desfor, 2007). The urban sustainability framework articulates the
relationship between humans and the environment and needs to remain at the
heart of urban discourse. This project explores the positive and negative
impacts on Auckland’s waterfront, further understanding the values of cultural
shifts, trade, productivity, transportation, social cohesion and ecology in the
urban realm. This project will comparatively critique, analyze and assess urban
waterfronts, through a set of criteria drawn from literature relating to
sustainable cities. The scope of Auckland’s waterfront can be re-imagined
through design ingenuity to support a sustainability framework that aims to
further enrich natural systems in relation to enhancing human well-being (Wu,
2014).
XinXin Wang
Preserving a green network for a regional
city
Abstract
As one of the most livable cities in the
world, Auckland has a unique urban-nature relationship and high quality
lifestyles. However, the increasing population and ongoing urban expansion is
threatening these advantages. To dress these challenges, there is a need to
discuss Auckland future development as a regional conurbation from Whangarei to
Hamilton and Tauranga.
Regional city has become a global trend
emerging in early 20th century. Green space networks play an important role in
shaping regional urban form. This research project aims to preserve a green
network to maintain the sustainable urban development and retain the unique
lifestyle for New Zealand’s largest regional city.
Holding dual environmental and social
perspectives, this research reviewed city region theories which related to
green space and lifestyle, and then identified techniques that suit Auckland
regional green network and lifestyle pattern. Research area covers the entire
Auckland, part of Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, particularly focus on
areas along state highway number one.
The research methods include site visits,
surveys, data collection, data analysis and mapping. Data were collected from
three aspects, which are environmental data, infrastructural data and social
data. GIS is used as a main tool for statistic and map analysis.
Research findings are a series of a
regional green space networks along SH1 from Whangarei to Hamilton. A test site
will be used to model the proposed plan. The results will show how green spaces
network can manage urban growth and sustain high quality lifestyle.
Xu Gao
Coastal Cities
Abstract
How can we develop coastal line as a part
of urban area for future and can we develop coastal line with tourism as well?
The idea is about coastal cities development through tourism ways, and also
protect local resident’s lifestyle. As
one can see, Auckland is the world famous city, and the city’s 70% area consist
by coastal waters. Obviously, from the geographical features shows that
Auckland belongs to a coastal city, and have many of coastal resources,
nevertheless most of Auckland’s coastline is still in undeveloped state, some
beach even appeared natural erosion or man-made pollution. However, the most
coastal cities in the world always development this region as a regional
priority, perhaps because of economic factors, as well as, because of
environmental factors. As a coastal city, Auckland in this area have great
potential for development, whether it is from the perspective of urban
development or ecological protection or basic services for the residents. Then,
form the other side, with the Auckland rapid development of urbanization, land
has become the main reason for limiting the future development of Auckland, but
for New Zealand as an island country, coastline is the most abundant resource,
which may also be able to Auckland’s future development towards providing a
valuable reference. Moreover, for coastal development, both in the construction
of infrastructure and transportation should be relatively easier than
construction in inland area.
In addition, as the largest city in New
Zealand, Auckland has been the role of tourism as a transit point, so if we can
keep these potential economic resources as a driving force of urban
development, coastal development may be able to play a great help.
This project will base on those questions
and find the way to deal with it, through the concept of eco-tourism and
eco-design, which is environmentally and friendly idea for landscape
architecture technology practice. However, to scan this topic should be
including aesthetics, recreation, leisure, early investigation of sociological
and ecological features, involvement of coastal shareholder, local population in
the planning process, exactly of site selection and environmentally design.
Shan Kangatharan
Latent infrastructure urbanism in
Maraetai-Auckland
1. How transport infrastructure can
effect/determine the future growth of Auckland?
2. How can Maraetai become an integrated
part of the Auckland super city through enhancement/improvement of transport
infrastructure?
Abstract
Transport infrastructure networks play a
vital role not only in Auckland’s future growth but also in any region’s
development in the world. Auckland is the most populated and fastest growing
city by urban development in New Zealand. Moreover, the major controversies of
Auckland are poor transport networking and traffic congestion. Due to this,
Auckland currently placed 10th by The Economist Intelligence Unit as the most
liveable city in the world. Auckland only scored 92.7 points for infrastructure
while it was scoring 100 points for education, 95.7 points for healthcare, 97
points for culture and environment (Ryan, 2014).
In addition, the Auckland region has more
water than land. Toy (1976) suggested that “water city Auckland”, as it is
surrounded by water, and he believes that water is great asset for urban
development. Further, Auckland Regional Transport Plan (2013) indicates that
this is necessary to rethink the future of Auckland’s ferry services, whereas
this statement is considerable as Auckland transport linkages are poor in
coastal and rural (peri-urban) areas as well as the transport network in urban
and suburban areas. Thus, the aim of this project to enhance the development of
Auckland transport network through the development of water transport, with
Maraetai as a case study. The project will take into consideration of
stakeholders’ current and proposed plans, The Unitary Plan and Auckland
Transport Regional Plan with the aims of Auckland becoming the world’s least
congested city and number one liveable city.
Shoujun Chen
How Can Peri-urban Agriculture contribute
to Low Carbon Auckland?
Abstract
Peri-urban agriculture is the production
units close to town, which has a huge potential on maintain and improve
productivity and stability of the urban-rural system. Today Auckland has to
meet the pressure from climate change and urban sprawl, which leads to the
shortage of food and energy. Due to this situation, Low Carbon Auckland, as an
important part of sustainable strategy, has been supported by Auckland Council.
Unlike the previous project, people just set a rural-urban boundary(RUB) to
limit urban sprawl so as to build a compact city. This plan focus on guiding
city to have a positive and sustainable expansion. The design based on permaculture and one hour theory as well as
GIS data, through transforming spare land in exist and potential residential
area to agricultural land use in peri-urban areas, to build Low Carbon
Auckland. The purpose of this research is to find out the way to use
agricultural measures in peri-urban to make Aucklanders enjoy low carbon life,
whilst pointing out the future dangerous to avoid.
Zara Jawadi
Shasha Li (Nemo)
Research Proposal: Physical Activity
Accessible Traffic Network in Auckland
In the 21st century, chronic diseases are
the most significant cause of mortality around world, accounting for 60-percent
of all deaths (World Health Organization, 2015). Being overweight or obese has
been a major factor in a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes,
cardiovascular diseases and cancer. According to the 2012-2013 New Zealand
Health Survey (Ministry of Health, 2013), approximately 31% of adults, and 11%
of children are obese, and a further 22% of children are considered overweight.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Joel, Denise &
Ian, 2014) reported that landscape architecture design that aimed to improved
bike and pedestrian networks and focus on mixed-use development could increase
leisure-time activity and weight loss simply by increasing accessibility to
physical activities, walking trails, playgrounds and parks. A successful
application of this is the design of Burnaby’s off-street bicycle network,
which permitted bicyclists to utilitse both sides of the street, and therefore
easily access a wide range of parklands and central city spaces. While the
conditions in Auckland are different than in Burnaby, there are lessons to be
drawn from Bunaby’s success. The present study focuses on improving Auckland’s
bicycle and pedestrain networks, through an analyse of Auckland’s urban
landscape features and urban traffic network, to find opportunities to better
connect Auckland’s open spaces.
Shayne Noronha
Reimagining The Edge: Reclaiming the
coastal lifestyle from rising currents
Abstract:
Climate change will have tremendous
implications for the design of cities before the close of the first 21st
Century. Theory suggests that increasing temperatures will cause sea-level
rise, and this will certainly change the lifestyle and shape of coastal
development. However, current mitigation techniques are still dominated by a
process of engineering efficiency that tends to ignore social, environmental
and economic values critical for the vitality of cities (Jabareen 2012). New strategies
can build on engineering solutions to add value through design for urban
ecology and quality of life, and suggest an approach to coastal resilience that
achieves mitigation outcomes appropriate to coastal surges, while retaining
investment and engagement in the everyday life of our cities. Landscape
architects are well situated to lead collaborative research at coastal edges
and provide opportunities for resilient urban development.
