November Workshop

Everyone is welcome to the last masters workshop of 2015 with two days of research presentations and five exams.

				Thursday, 5th of November 2015
	Students		Subject		Full time/ Part Time	Principal Supervisor/  Associate Supervisor	Status	Room	Convenor	Critics
MIHI
EXAM 9.00-10.00	Yan Gao		Volcanic Urbanism How can urban parks be designed so they can act as evacuation places in case of volcano eruption in Auckland?		FT	Nikolay Popov/ Matthew Bradbury	EXAM	1042	Penny Cliften
EXAM 10.00 - 11.00	Xinxin Wang		Green Networks		FT	Matthew Bradbury/ Hamish Foote	EXAM	1041	Hamish Foote
EXAM 11.00 - 12.00	Xu Gao		Coastal Development		FT	Matthew Bradbury/ Hamish Foote	EXAM	1042	Ian Henderson
				LUNCH 12.00-1.00
1.00 - 1.45	Shanmugam Kangatharan		Water transport urbanism in Auckland		FT	Nikolay Popov/ Hamish Foote	3rd Workshop	BLD 2		Amanda Yates Matt Riley Bruno Marques
1.45 - 2.30	Shasha Li		Sustainable cyclepaths		FT	Daniel Irving/ Matthew Bradbury	1st  workshop	BLD 2
2.30 -3.15	Kevin Zhu		Brownfield Development		FT	Nikolay Popov/ Matthew Bradbury	1st Workshop	BLD 2
				Afternoon tea 3.15-3.30
3.30 – 4.15	Qianlin Luo		Building green defenses to mitigate the negative effects of coastal erosion’		FT	Nikolay Popov/ Pete Griffiths	3nd Workshop	BLD 2
4.15 – 5.00	Qian Wang		Children’s environments		FT	Hamish Foote/ Sue Wake	2nd Workshop	BLD 2

				Friday, 6thth of November 2015
	Students		Subject		Full time/ Part Time	Principal Supervisor/  Associate Supervisor	Status	Room	Convenor	Critics
EXAM 9.00-10.00	Rithy Heng		Remediation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia		FT	Hamish Foote/Dushko Bogunovich	EXAM	1041	John Pusateri
EXAM 10.00-11.00	Junjie Xu		A Brownfield Park. How can landscape ecology assist in achieving sustainable outcomes for the brownfield site		FT	Penny Cliffin/ Peter Griffiths/	EXAM	1042	Kerry Francis
				Break11 – 11 15
11.15 -12.00	Shayne Noronha		Rising Tides and the Future of New Zealand’s Coastal Communities		FT	Daniel Irving/ Matthew Bradbury	3rd Workshop	BLD 2		Bruno Marques Juan Molina
12.00- 12 45	Riyasp Bhandari		The Urban Edge: Using the sustainability framework to develop social spaces on urban waterfronts.		FT	Daniel Irving/ Pete Griffiths	3rd Workshop Practice	BLD 2
				LUNCH 12. 45 -1. 45
1 45 -2.30	Zara Jawadi		Urban Retrofitting		FT	Daniel Irving/ Pete Griffiths	2nd Workshop	BLD 2		Sue Evans Richard Harris Juan Molina Bruno Marques
2.30 - 3.15	Shoujun Chen		Periurban Auckland. How can we create a model for the radical transformation of an industrial food system into a locally-based, sustainable model in peri-urban areas, Auckland?		FT	Nikolay Popov/ Matthew Bradbury	3rd Workshop	BLD 2
				Afternoon tea 3.15-3 30
3.30 - 4.15	Sravani Khambhampati		Sustainable Landscapes		FT	Matthew Bradbury	Candidature	BLD 2
4.15- 5.00	Kormal Bhatt		Commemorative landscapes Cemeteries as ‘Healing’ Landscapes		FT	Penny Cliffin/ Hamish Foote	3rd  workshop	BLD 2
				END OF YEAR DINNER

ABSTRACTS

Thursday

Gemma Gao

How can urban parks be designed so they can act as evacuation places in case of volcano eruption in Auckland?
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 likely event and very high risks. 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.

Xinxin Wang

Large cities often become regional cities. This has become a global trend emerging in early 20th century. As the urbanised area grows, the connection with nature tends to weaken – therefore green space networks can play an important role in shaping regional urban form. New Zealand’s largest urban region, Auckland, is facing the challenges of increasing population and ongoing urban growth.  This research project aims to preserve Aucklands green network to retain Auckland’s unique lifestyle and ensure that the future growth is environmentally sustainable.
By identifying the distinguishing characteristics of Aucklands lifestyle and urban patterns, this research project takes the view that Auckland regional development should focus on the strong interrelationship between city and nature. Based on knowledge of other cities’ experiences, this rsearch work not only includes design theories and techniques, but also incorporates the implementation policies necessary to achieve the goal of preserving Auckland’s green network.
Research methods include defining appropriate environmental criteria and social criteria. Regional Auckland, the Warkworth-Silverdale (W/S) greenbelt and the Puhoi village were used as case studies to test this approach. Firstly, a set of environmental criteria was established in order to analyse green space features and identify potential green belts in regional Auckland. By combining all the important environmental conditions, six possible green belts were identified as buffers between urban developments. Secondly , the W/S greenbelt was used to show how the environmental criteria could be used at the local scale. After identifying the green network around the W/S greenbelt, social criteria (which were derived from an independent Remuera study) were used to shape Puhoi’s future urban structure inside the W/S greenbelt. Finally, a master plan was carried out to show how both sets of criteria, environmental and social, could be integrated to maintain a high quality lifestyle with great access to nature.
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.

Xu Gao

How can we sustainably develop the coastline as an urban area for the future. How  can we develop the coastline with environmental tourism ? This project is about developing the coastal zone for tourism in environmentally sustainable ways, and also about protecting the lifestyles of local residents. Auckland is a world-famous city, 70% of the city’s  area consists of coastal waters. Geographical features show that Auckland is a coastal city, with many coastal resources; nevertheless most of Auckland’s coastline is still in an undeveloped state, and some beaches show natural erosion or man-made pollution. Most coastal cities around the world develop their coastline as a regional priority, because of economic and  environmental factors. As a coastal city, Auckland has great potential for development in this area, whether from the perspective of urban development or ecological protection or basic services for residents. On the other hand, with the rapid development of urbanization in Auckland, land has become the main reason for limiting the future development of Auckland. For New Zealand as an island country, its coastline is the most abundant resource, which may also add to Auckland’s future development and provide a valuable reference.

Shanmugam Kangatharan

Transport infrastructure networks play a vital role in urban growth. Due to this reason, from the 1840’s, the transport network and roads have decided the urban growth of Auckland (Auckland Council, 2012).
Auckland is the biggest and fastest growing city in New Zealand. The major controversies of Auckland, however, are poor transport networks and traffic congestion. This is why Auckland is currently placed as 10th most liveable city in the world by The Economist Intelligence Unit. 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).
Auckland is also surrounded by water and according to Toy (1977) water is a great asset for urban development. Auckland Transport (2013) indicates that it is necessary to rethink the future of Auckland’s ferry services. In particular, the fare structure and ownership of ferry services. It is undeniable that current water transport facilities of Auckland are insufficient. At the same time other public transport networks including bus and train also have poor linkages in peri-urban areas.
Transport infrastructure can also be studied as a network consisting of nodes and edges. Different types of transport can be represented as different networks with specific properties.
Thus, the aim of this project to enhance the development of the Auckland transport network through further development of water transport with Browns Bay as case study. It means, add more nodes by designing ferry terminals to connect existing transport nodes by new edges. Moreover, finding suitable ferry terminal location for selected site, through appropriate analysis is also part of this project.
The project will take into consideration of stakeholders’ current and proposed plans and policies as well as contemporary ideas, concepts and theories that are concerned with the relationships between urban growth and transport infrastructure, and that study of infrastructure is based on network viewpoints.

Shasha Li (Nemo)

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.



Kevin Zhu

How can we design a GIS based tool to objectively evaluate Auckland brownfield redevelopment sites?
Housing plays a major role in a growing city, as it needs to find ways to accommodate its growing population. During a period of 30 years, the population of Auckland increased from 0.87 million to 1.44 million; dwellings increased from 289,000 to 500,000.  This expanded urban settlement that’s uses almost 20000 hectares of productive land is called Greenfield development.
Research Objectives:
• Assess brownfield sites in Auckland and set a ranking for its potential for redevelopment.
• Rate a potential site and identify its redevelopment opportunities and obstacles.

Quin Luo

Coastal erosion is a natural and ongoing process but it is commonly regarded as a problem when threatening human habitation or development (Auckland Council, 2015). According to Auckland Regional Council (2006), “Almost the entire length of the Auckland coastline is susceptible to coastal erosion, although the extent and level of risk vary”( p.1). When acceleration of coastal erosion happens, it will result in the loss of land and cause shorelines retreating closer to other buildings, posing a risk to shoreline buildings, infrastructures (roads, water, sewage and gas pipes) and coastal citizens’ life securities in Auckland (Auckland Council, 2015). After giving a general introduction about the drawbacks of engineering methods which are common used in Auckland, in this research, I will attempt to find a solution through landscape architecture to protect the coastal citizens’ properties, public infrastructures and natural reserves. I will focus on the beach erosion in Auckland. My research question is “How can erosion prone areas be designed so they provide opportunities for the urban sustainable development that works with coastal erosion?” The study will be developed under the basis of Ecological Urbanism and considered as a practice in order to answer my research question. Excellent techniques and case studies which are relevant will be studied in order to achieve the final goal in my research.

Qian Wang

School ground greening has their potential benefits for enhancing children’s close-knit relationship with nature, which this project will test with an educational approach involving landscape architects commitment regarding their education and enhance the health of local social and natural environments. Rationales for school gardens currently focusing on the issues that nowadays children and young people’ all round circumstance, for example, a lack of physical activity, obesity, inflexible educational systems, and a lack of interactive relationship with nature. By collaborating with certain school (including students), whether these schools provide this chance to their students, among other benefits, develop long term greenery plans.
Yet there are many school gardens are limited both in their scope and children’s participation, especially in their planning and design. Thus, combining these partnerships between schools and their community can lead to a diverse school gardens that contribute to sustainability education and promote biodiversity. And it might be possible to reshape their learning experiences to improve the professional performance of children; furthermore there will be an encouragement of the well-being of all participants event for the places.

Friday

Rithy Heng

This research project investigates strategies for the remediation of a brownfield site in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The overarching strategy is collaboration, phased over time, between the Government, developers and the community to deliver environmental, ecological and social benefits. A variety of landscape mitigation techniques have been explored and proposed to help achieve these outcomes. A key aspect is the premise that greenery and water can act as catalysts to boost environmental remediation, social inclusiveness and real estate value.

The site, which is located in a Southwestern suburb of Phnom Penh is comprised of three distinct zones: a disused landfill, polluted lake, and a partly occupied plot between them. The phased aspect of the project includes a range of programmes which ebb and flow between the zones for an anticipated period of 15 to 20 years.
On-site observation, techniques learnt from relevant precedents/theory, and social considerations were used as groundwork to identify, develop and refine strategies. Strategies that it is hoped represent a flagship for beginning to address problems in Phnom Penh - there is the potential to raise public awareness regarding the ramifications of current development patterns whilst showcasing a viable and responsible alternative.

Junjie Xu

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 redevelop and transform 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 spaces for local residents. Meanwhile, people’s requirements and Auckland council’s plans will be considered in this project. A sort of analyses have been processing on the test site. This will be effective to find out the most suitable approach to explore all of the possibilities of development. All of the processes will be helpful to develop the most rational project, even to help to achieve the goal of the world’s liveable city.

Shayne Noronha

Rising Tides and the Future of New Zealand’s Coastal Communities
Climate change will tremendously influence the design of landscapes and urban areas before the close of the 21st Century. Studies suggest a rise in global temperatures between 0.9°C to 5.4°C, and a rising sea level upward of 1m. Yet a more substantive threat remains in the unknown intensity and frequency of future storm events. While designers are now aware of these projections, and certainly familiar with the significant value of coastal development in New Zealand, present-day mitigation techniques still exclude broader social, environmental and economic values of coastal communities in preference for engineering efficiency. (Jabareen, 2012). Landscape design strategies can add value to engineering approaches in urban and coastal ecosystems by including 'coastal resilience' as part of the mitigation outcome strategy. Landscape architects can lead collaborative work at coastal edges and provide opportunities for resilient urban development.

Riyasp Bhandari

Using the sustainability framework to develop social spaces on urban waterfronts.
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, analyse 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).

Zara Jawadi

Project title: Urban Retrofitting

ABSTRACT
The global population is projected to rise to 9.6 billion by 2050, with upward of 70% expected to move into urban areas (Atiya, 2013). Economic geography further suggests that the pressure to expand and availability of cheap land at the urban fringe leads to urban sprawl (Taylor, 1996). Like many major urban centres, Auckland faces problems related to urban sprawl, such as acute traffic congestion leading to unsustainable land use. (Jamieson, 2007) Shifting attention from new land development to retrofitting existing marginal spaces within the urban limits holds tremendous potential to rethink Auckland’s urban development. With focus on the development of remnant spaces in Auckland city this project establishes a series of strategies to create a networked infrastructure to support ecosystem health, thriving social communities, and economic opportunities. Particular attention is given to transport corridors that intersect with major residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the city. The public transport system is explored as a tool for directing the future growth of Auckland.

Shoujun Chen

How can we create a model for the radical transformation of an industrial food system into a locally-based, sustainable model in peri-urban areas, Auckland?
Peri-urban agriculture is the production units close to town, which operate intensive semi- or fully commercial farms to grow vegetable and other commercial crop. Today the industrial food system in Auckland has to meet the pressure from climate change and urban sprawl. Auckland Council report has found that nearly 10 percent (8.3%) of the best quality land has been converted from food-producing land to urban developments in recent times. Soil erosion, subdivision, water depletion and pollution have brought a growing public awareness of the social, environmental economic impacts of industrial agriculture. On the other hand, peri-urban agriculture has its unique competitiveness due to its closeness to food and labor market. Farm markets have emerged as an alternative option for distribution and retailing, which leads to the increasing demand for small scale farming land in peri-urban areas.

The design based on permaculture theory, green belt and agrarian urbanism, through transforming agricultural land and residential area in peri-urban areas to a farming-centered residential areas. The purpose of this research is to find out the way to build a sustainable agricultural system in peri-urban areas.


Sravani Khambhampati

The Sustainable Landscape/City in Auckland NZ and Hyderbad India

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
 How can the urban cities help in developing the neighboring peri-urban area?
 How can we reduce the growing carbon footprint of new urban development (India) through preservation of existing groundwater, flora and fauna?
 How can we save the existing landscape in urban development and make use out of it for aesthetic pleasure?
 How do we inculcate landscape architecture into upcoming construction?
 How can a developer be persuaded to install low maintenance landscape?
 How can the provision of green space in Andhra Pradesh be based on ecological principles?
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
The new state is developing occurring like Malaysian Town and Singapore Town which are just copies of eastern development pneumatic urbanism and have nothing endogenous representing our environment, heritage and culture. Ultimately because of this they will be unsustainable.
My reason for choosing this particular field for research stems from having witnessed massive changes in the natural environment around my home. Being aware of the adverse results of damaging the natural landscape of a place with reckless abandon, I wish to make a contribution towards helping prevent said damage without causing a dent in the development of my country.
HOW TO SOLVE IT?
Which landscape architects/ architects have developed ideas and techniques the methodology to ensure an environmentally sustainable model for new urban development?
The path I propose to take for arriving at solutions to the above problem is to learn as much as I can about both contemporary methods of landscape architecture, and urban development. Based on research via extensive case-studies of contemporary landscape architecture (both sustainable and otherwise), I intend to contribute towards developing methods of sustainable landscape. The end result of my project would be to arrive at more sustainable alternatives to the traditional methods of landscape architecture, while not compromising on real estate value. Further, I wish to explore methods of landscape architecture which could be more affordable, while not compromising on aesthetics or sustainability

Komal Bhatt

How can a Cemetery function as a place of ‘Healing’ for the many cultural groups in Auckland?
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.

CRITICS

Amanda Yates
Amanda Yates’ is a senior lecturer at AUT and director of AUT’s Emergent Ecologies, a creative practice lab for indigenous and urban ecologies. Amanda creative practice utilises performative installations and speculative visualisations to signal ecological change and explore sustainable potentials. Amanda has a background in performance, exhibition and installation design and architecture. She is a senior lecturer at AUT and director of AUT’s Emergent Ecologies, a creative practice lab for indigenous and urban ecologies.

David Irwin
David Irwin is a founding director of Isthmus and is one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent practitioners of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. David has over two decades of experience in urban design and landscape architecture. He has been the design leader of major urban and waterfront projects and has unrivalled experience in project managing large-scale design contracts.
Integral to the strength of David’s leadership is his ability to combine technical skills that range from understanding construction and the practicality of buildings within a design framework, to having a deep understanding of public realm spaces and how they can
be altered. He is committed to working with established processes and minimising risk at all times, and has an exceptional ability to analyse issues and formulate a considered and powerful design response to site. His project management style is inclusive and he builds strong ‘partnerships’ with clients, encouraging participation in the team.
David believes in delivering design led projects with “place based” design solutions. He has won numerous national and international design awards, including five times winning the NZILA George Malcolm Award for outstanding contribution to landscape architecture.

Bruno Marques
Director of Postgraduate Programmes, Lecturer in Landscape  Architecture, Victoria University.  Bruno is a landscape architect with an international background, having his studies carried out at Lisbon Technical University (Portugal) and Berlin Technical University (Germany).
His focus areas are in landscape design theory and quality, fluctuating with creative processes in design and aesthetics of landscape. Currently carrying on with his PhD, Bruno’s research interests rely on an integrative approach in design where objective and subjective methodologies co-exist under a multidisciplinary atmosphere, which affects both education and professional practice.
As well at academic level, Bruno has been focused on strategic partnership development, internationalisation of the study programme, and captivating research funds at Tallinn Technical University. Since July 2014, Bruno is a faculty staff member of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Parallel to that, Bruno has been practicing landscape architecture in Germany and Estonia, having a reasonable portfolio of built projects.
Bruno is also an executive council member of the Estonian Landscape Architects’ Union (ELAU), representing Estonia at the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and at the European Region (IFLA Europe). Currently he has been elected as the chair for the IFLA standing committee on commutations and external relations (IFLA CER) making in part of the IFLA ExCo.

Matt Riley
Senior Urban Designer Barker and Associates. Matt completed a Master of Planning Practice degree (Auckland) in 2000, after working in law and spending time overseas. He worked as a planning consultant at Barry Rae Transurban for five years while studying for a Master of Architecture (Urban Design). After graduating in 2005, Matt moved to Auckland City Council as an urban designer. Matt’s work at council involved urban design input to development proposals and secondments to the Unitary Plan team and Housing Project Office. Matt joined Barker & Associates as a Senior Urban Designer in 2014.

Juan Molina
Juan Molina is a senior architect and urban designer at CPRW Fisher. Juan is a graduate of the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona and a Spanish Registered Architect,  member of the Collegi Oficial d’Arquitectes de Catalunya.  Juan was taught by luminaries, Enric Miralles and Ignasi de Solà-Morales and worked with Viaplana and Pinon on the early days of the ‘Plazas duras’ in Barcelona. He has over 20 years of experience as a practicing architect in New Zealand and Spain, projects include the master planning of Britomart with Cheshire Architects and designing a NZIA award wining projects with CPRW Fisher. His latest urban intervention was the instigation of the Candy Chang ‘Before I die...’ wall in St Patricks Square.

Sue Evans
Senior Urban Designer at Housing New Zealand Corporation.
Urban Design Consultant at sue evans.urban, Professional Teaching Fellow at The University of Auckland,

Richard Harris
Richard has been a Principal at Jasmax since 1989. His specialist expertise lies in large-scale projects, particularly found within the Public Sector. Richard became Jasmax’s first managing director in 1995 and has been Chairman since 2000. He specialises in leading architectural teams in the design and delivery of projects that have a bias towards significant public use. He has also worked in numerous successful joint venture projects.
He has been especially active in the education sector, which is characterised by many and varied stakeholders for each project. His relaxed communication style has helped him relate well to these diverse clients – evidenced by his relationship with AUT University, which has been ongoing for over 20 years.
Recently, Richard led the architectural team on the Auckland University of Technology’s award-winning $100m Sir Paul Reeves Building. Richard has led a number of Auckland’s most prominent architectural heritage projects; being the principal in charge of the refurbishments to the Auckland Town Hall and the Civic Theatre. He led the Auckland Hospital, Sylvia Park and the AUT Business School projects.
Richard is the Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and is a board member for the Committee for Auckland. He is a former chairman of the Architects’ Education and Registration Board, and in 2009 he chaired the Government’s Urban Task Force.