Sunday 13 November 2016

Invitations...


The Panel

Wade Robertson, Landscape Architect, Design Practice Manager, Beca.
Wade manages Beca’s Design Practice – a team of 60 Architects, Landscape Architects and Urban Designers located across offices in Christchurch, Tauranga and Auckland. After graduating from Lincoln University with an MLA he has gone on to work for MWH/ Stantec, Isthmus and Beca and has built a strong track record in the landscape planning, assessment and expert advisory realms. Wade’s current role reflects the value designers can bring as ‘connectors’ and provides an opportunity for him to apply his skills and interests in people development, change management, strategic thinking and relationship building in a creative commercial environment.

David Gregory, Landscape Architect, Isthmus.
David is a Registered Landscape Architect (NZILA + AILA) with experience in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Architectural projects across Australia and New Zealand.
His expertise includes lead design and project management roles for a wide range of projects including urban design frameworks for regional and urban communities, streetscape and multi-residential design, civic and community precincts, schools, sports and recreation planning, water sensitive urban design and street furniture design.
David’s diverse design background has given him a strong appreciation of the relationship between people, landscape, built form and the urban realm, with a focus on collaborative design and community engagement processes as a driver for improved social and cultural identity and wellbeing within the design of public space.

Renata Jadresin Milic, Architect, Unitec.
Renata Jadresin Milic is an architect and architectural historian. She holds undergraduate architectural degree, MSc thesis (2007) and PhD thesis (2013) from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade in Serbia, and fellowship from the Institute of Classical Architecture in New York (2002). Renata started to teach at Unitec in December 2015, after eighteen years of teaching experience at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. She took part in many international conferences and is the author of research papers and chapters in the monographs in the field of history and theory of architecture and its use in contemporary architecture. Renata holds award for the best PhD thesis in 2013 from the Institute for Architecture and Urban Planning of Serbia.

Magdalena Garbarczyk, Architect, Unitec.
After receiving her Master of Architecture from Deft University of Technology in the Netherlands in 2008 (Cum Laude) Magda has worked as an architect and design team leader in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand at various firms including PO2 arquitectos in Madrid, (Designed by) Erick van Egeraat in Rotterdam and Fearon Hay Architects in Auckland. Since 2012 she has been involved in architectural education at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland primarily teaching Design Studio - testing various typologies and new research & design methodologies in studio. Under CZYK studio (founded in early 2014) Magda is also involved in collaborations with other practices and individuals offering creative input to architectural and artistic projects of various scales.

Michael Barrett , Communications Manager NZIA.
Michael Barrett is a design and architecture journalist; and former editor of Interior. He was a judge at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore in 2013; and judge and convenor of the Interior Awards in 2012 and 2013.

Bridget Gilbert, Landscape Architect, BGLA.
Bridget has practised as a Landscape Architect for over twenty years in both New Zealand and England and is a Registered member of the NZILA. She has been involved in a wide range of projects throughout New Zealand including:
Landscape assessment in relation to Regional and District Plan policy;
Preparation of structure plans for rural and coastal developments;
Conceptual design and landscape assessment of infrastructure, rural, coastal and urban development; and,
Detailed design and implementation supervision of infrastructure, rural, coastal and urban projects.
Many of the projects that Bridget has been involved with have required an integrated design approach requiring close collaboration with other disciplines including engineering, architectural, ecological, heritage and planning expertise.
Bridget is an experienced expert witness and has presented evidence before Council, Environment Court and Board of Inquiry hearings.

Marita Hunt, Landscape Architect, Isthmus.
Marita is excited about the potential of dense urban environments, and the opportunities for designers to make cities healthy, liveable and stimulating places. She joined isthmus in early 2015 as an Intermediate Landscape Architect and is highly talented and motivated with an eye for identity, diversity and community. Marita completed her Masters at Victoria University in 2012 and her thesis investigated overlapping national and local identities in a complex urban site in Wellington. She has previously worked in practice and as a teaching fellow at Victoria University.

Ben Clark
Ben joined Boffa Miskell’s Auckland urban design team in early 2012 as a landscape architect and urban designer. Ben graduated from University of Auckland with a Master of Urban Design. Ben has acquired a broad range of analysis and design skills while studying, giving him an understanding of how networks and processes work from the larger macro scale down to the micro scale.
Ben has been involved in a number of landscape architecture and urban design projects since joining Boffa Miskell including masterplanning of residential and industrial areas in Auckland and Hamilton. Ben has also worked on a number of multimodal transport projects visioning how transport corridors will evolve in response to the changing demands of the city.
Ben has experience in a variety of landscape design projects including planting design for streetscapes, reserves and stormwater infrastructure.
Ben’s interests in urban design lie in regional growth strategies and masterplanning particularly addressing how Auckland’s urban form will respond to a significantly growing population in the near future.

Matt Riley, Senior Urban Designer, Barker And Associates.
Providing a full range of urban design services to clients, including site and structure planning, master planning, input to resource consent applications, Urban Design Panel and hearings presentations, urban design strategy, urban design assessments and peer reviews.

Abstracts

Nguyen Thien Ngan
Vertical Village in the heart of Auckland CBD
This thesis project is an architectural response to the Auckland Central Business District (CBD)’s revitalization. Due to high migration net flows and blooming of business activities in Auckland CBD, the commercial and residential building projects rapidly appear to be essential in order not only to capture the development of business and economy but also to adapt to the population’s growth. At present, the Auckland transportation is undergoing a great redevelopment to have new City Rail Link (CRL) stations to support the future growth in Auckland. One of the key hubs is the Aotea station which is promising the busiest station for students, employees and residents who are working and living in CBD.

Auckland CBD is a prominent education and business area but where also lacks high density architecture. The apartment and office buildings are standing alone which is the main cause of the urban sprawl. The “shoebox” is mostly used to describe these apartments due to the lack of space and affordability for those who want to live and work proximately and centrally. It is maybe a time to think about the appropriate way of living and working to engage the community rather than focusing on the single use design or creating the individual space.

 The research is based on the urban development strategies to create a small community in a mixed-use building which offers people many opportunities to live sustainably, to work productively and to play enjoyably while still is able to grow with the urban development.

  The question for this project is:  What are the desirable characteristic of an architectural design that provides a more resilient and sustainable way of living and working in Auckland CBD towards the future growth?  This project will focus on the design of the building which is shaped by the impact of the movement circulation and flows from the station’s passenger. It will also determine the important functional strategies that are suitable and interactive with the Aotea station as well as the location’s features. The brief chosen is to design a mixed-use community that blends the residential, commercial use and other amenities. The purpose of the project is not only to encourage communication between neighbors and local people, strengthen the benefits of future business but also to connect Auckland residents with employment and opportunities."


Janki Sharma
Transitional space is the intermediate area acting as an in-between space. Traditionally spaces were defined as indoor or outdoor spaces. The presence of transitional space was not experienced. So this research will be focusing on these transitional spaces and the journey of spaces from one place to another.
This research will be an implementation of design by intertwining the publications and case studies that are related to the topic. It will also attempt to identify what defines a transitional space that enhances the pedestrian experience in urban environment. Also, inserting architectural intervention with multi-functional public usage that intensify the sense of transitional space and connects it with urban fabric.

Loukya Muthyala
RESORT PARK WITH A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH
As a new immigrant to New Zealand, I have become interested in the lack of cultural landscape tourism opportunities in Auckland.
Not everyone arriving in Auckland has the resources to travel nationally to see the natural wonders of the New Zealand culture and natural landscape. I am interested in creating a locally based tourism experience in Auckland that reflects the core cultural attributes of New Zealand.
As the tourist and resident populations are constantly increasing in Auckland. Asians and other communities are expected to arrive Auckland in the next 20 years. The city is expanding and suburbs tend to become urban areas. Puketutu Island, which is located at Mangere is well suited to investigate my research model. Fortuitously there is a plan in place involving the collaboration of number of stakeholders to create a regional park which includes a cultural precinct and there is also an existing event venue. My proposition is that these three entities, the park, the cultural precinct and an expanded tourist venue have the potential to collaborate to mutual advantage. The Island is also located in close proximity to the airport and major arterial road networks. The island has unique natural species of plants as well as panoramic views of Ambury Park, Stonefields Reserve and Manukau Harbour. Although the island is in short distance from the Heart of the city, it feels far from the urban environment. So, I believe Puketutu Island is the appropriate place to develop my research model.
I will also investigate the Kiwi ideal of holiday resort and research models of cultural landscape tourism, relating these to the Auckland situation to come up with better outcomes for all stakeholders.

Lahari Iynala
Students are increasingly anxious to achieve specific results in K12 education, especially with the weight of University entrance and applications for professional post secondary schools that gear students toward choosing lifelong practices of professions. While many studies have focused on most suitable educational curricula to best prepare students for careers and future learning, there is still little attention given to the environments that actively shape learning and understanding. This research explores how spatial environments of K12 educational facilities may become more directly engaged in the curricula and pedagogy of K12 learners, and do d ii a way that support engagement with both discovery and invention within subjects. The goal of this project is to understand how the landscapes and built environment can be designed as an active learning environment that ultimately supports and promotes deeper understanding and love of learning, and relaxed and yet motivated learning capacity in students.

Kael
Reclamation Park
My research question is how to make coastal areas more accessible to public, especially that are severed by motorway. Actually, there are already many limitation for public to close the coastline, including rough condition of geography, natural limitation, have to cross private possessions and construction of motorway. My research will focus on the last topic. Many countries meet similar issues and some of them are solved but different methods fortunately. My research aims to find out some possible solutions for this issue and I chose Shoal Bay as my research site. In the site, the current coastal area is very limited and also severed by the Motorway. In my design, I want to use land reclamation technique and some other methods to make the coastal area more available and reconnect it to the community.

Jie Zhang
The Bioregional Park: an approach to protect the environment and make sustainable public space and commemorate the visit of Captain Cook
In today's society, people are not very concerned about the relationship between human actions and human impact on the environment. This phenomenon has led to a society which attitude consequently results in overconsumption of natural resources and environmental degradation. As more and more people live in cities restoration, preservation and enhancement of biodiversity in urban areas has become important. This paper will present a concept of bioregional ideal. Using this concept, it does will help to change people's ideas about human relationship to the environment and natural resources from the current condition.
This research will use a bioregional park design project to show how to improve the environment, protect the natural resources, connect people to nature and make a habitat for ecosystems of plants and animals.

Qian Wang
Developing the greenery: A proposal for Masters study through
investigating School Ground Greening in Auckland
Rationales for the recent (ten plus years) resurgence in interest in school gardens focus
on perceptions adults have about modern childhood and schooling, e.g. lacking in
physical activity, facing an obesity epidemic, battling inflexible educational systems,
raising concerns about children’s diminishing contact with nature and natural systems.
Research on school ground greening projects (which is a overarching term including
school gardens) has established benefits due to increasing children’s connections with
nature on a number of levels, such as developing earth guardianship responsibilities,
learning where food comes from, science and ecology learning, encouraging physical
exercise and imaginative play.
This project will investigate the claim that many school gardens are limited both in
their scope and children’s participation, especially in their planning and design.
Instead they are frequently designed and constructed in an ad hoc manner by
teachers and volunteers, missing the opportunity both to engage children in a process
of learning about design (co-design) and to create ecologically richer school grounds
that are creatively designed to encourage indoor-outdoor connections, sensibly
planned for maintenance and sensitively planned to increase biodiversity and
provide ecosystem services within communities.
Base-line data about numbers and range of school ground greening projects in the
Auckland area will be sought, as well as the involvement of landscape architects.
From this a methodology for encouraging greater collaboration between landscape
architects and school students in school ground greening projects will be developed,
with the aim of improving school grounds and student learning, as well as increasing
the educational contribution, stewardship responsibility and discipline awareness of
landscape architects.

Shayne Noronha
Rising Tides and the Future of New Zealand’s Coastal Communities
Climate change will have tremendous implications for the design of landscapes and urban areas before the close of the 21st Century. Current projections suggest that increasing temperatures will cause significant sea-level rise, and this will certainly change the lifestyle and shape of highly valued coastal development across the globe. However, present day mitigation techniques are still dominated by a process of engineering efficiency that tends to ignore social, environmental and economic values critical for the vitality and sustainability of cities. (Jabareen, 2012). New strategies can build on functional 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.

Riyasp Bhandari
THE URBAN EDGE
AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT WATERFRONT

The human manipulation of landscapes and the 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 enrich further natural systems to enhancing human well-being (Wu, 2014).

Zara Jawadi
Urban Retrofitting
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.

Andrea Murray
The Christchurch Residential Red Zone -A Memorial Landscape Honouring Displaced People
The Red Zone, known as the RRZ, feels like a very sad place.  Even a brief drive through the vacant land disturbs the viewer.  It has a dark cloud of loss hanging over it.  The viewer shakes their head; how can that vast space (1000 acres) be used in a way that is honest and meaningful to the people?  10,000 people lost their sense of place on the land (Turangawaewae- Place to Stand) after the earthquakes, in addition to 185 families losing a loved one. It was the ‘Land’ and its extraordinary power that caused the deaths and the displacement of so many.  Maybe it can be the ‘Land’ that helps the people of Christchurch heal and gain a sense of closure?   The Red Zone as a Memorial Landscape is not about making everyone forget about earthquakes and the pain of loss, in fact the opposite.  A Memorial Landscape should honour the disaster and all the displaced people who lost more than their homes, a Memorial Landscape to honour a sense of  place on the land,  Turangawaewae.
This loss of place on the land is a huge global problem, (as are earthquakes and tsunamis), the enormity of such problems can make us feel out of balance.  A Memorial Landscape in Christchurch should honour both disasters and displacement and aim to restore a response of balance to the visitor. Creating a Memorial Landscape should not try to make us forget, rather it should make us remember displaced people and that we are grateful to have a place on the land (Turangawaewae).

Sravani Khambhampati
Desokota City in Auckland NZ
 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?
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.
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

Vandita Ahlawat
Beyond Net Zero Neighborhoods:
How can the inherent pressures of urban sprawl be used as an opportunity to design communities as net-positive resources for our natural environments?
This research explores the impact of the expanding city through a lens of long-term urban resilience. Despite the apparent negativity associated with urban sprawl, case-studies show that net-zero neighborhoods are economically feasible, and can provide some ecological significance to community design. The critical problem of community development actually rests in the assumption that development is necessarily damaging to natural systems. From this, the designer’s role must then be to mitigate the level of expected damage. Yet, the pressures of development may offer opportunities to enhance our natural environments. Whereas projects that seek a net-zero energy communities are increasingly able to meet greenhouse gas and carbon targets, what is needed is an urbanism that understands community design as net-positive value to ecological and social environments. The goal of this project is to design a model community that achieves this goal by exploring the relationships between net-zero neighborhoods and resilience theory.



November Workshop





Monday 22 August 2016

Kind Words


“The work of the Masters of Landscape Architecture students was very strong and both broad in scope and deep in exploration. This is a sign of a comprehensive programme that seeks to extend the ambition of the students with projects beyond the usual strictures of such programmes. The scale particularly is to be acknowledged and it positions the study of landscape architecture in a larger geographic context alongside – and in some ways, well ahead of – traditional urban design programmes. This work, and this direction, is in its own way quietly ground-breaking, and is to be lauded.”

Tommy Honey, Dean of College, Whitcliffe College of Arts & Design

August Critics

Mike Thomas, Principal Jasmax.
Mike has over 16 years’ experience as a Landscape Architect, working predominantly in New Zealand, Hong Kong and China. He has extensive experience as a project design leader with a focus on design and delivery of public realm projects for local and central government agencies and commercial precincts. Mike set up and leads the Landscape Architecture team, one of the largest in New Zealand, in addition, he was a co-founder of the Jasmax Christchurch office, managing the regional studio for four years. Mike has led and participated in the successful design and delivery of streetscapes, civic plazas, parks, campuses and transportation infrastructure. He is as adept at the high level masterplanning of precincts and transportation infrastructure as he is with the detailed design of furnishings, plantings and surface finishes. His ability to craft individual designs for each project reflects his skills at listening and collaboration and the value he attributes to ‘sense of place’. Mike is able to engage in productive partnerships with clients, consultants and in-house designers to deliver ‘whole of site’ solutions that are comprehensive and complimentary to their urban and natural environments. He has championed an integrated design culture in Jasmax, where architecture, urban design, interiors and landscape coincide to deliver meaningful living and working environments.

Katherine Poi
Kaihautū Mātauranga Māori / Equity Transformation Consultant Unitec Institute of Technology. Expertise in designing and facilitating professional development in equity transformation; and partnership under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Kaihautū Mātauranga Māori
Working across Unitec to realise the implementation of the institute's Māori Success Strategy. Developing capability and supporting staff to embed mātauranga Māori in the activities of the institution, and specifically into learning and teaching.

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.

Dr Dushko Bogunovich
Dushko Bogunovich is associate professor of urban design in the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland. He studied architecture and urban planning at the universities of Sarajevo, Belgrade, Cyprus, Pennsylvania and California at Berkeley.
Dushko is a member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP); New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA); and the Urban Design Forum (UDF) of NZ. He was twice a Fulbright scholar; has won numerous urban design competition awards; has acted as consultant and advisor to local and central government in NZ; and had in the past contributed to UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO and Habitat projects. Dushko had also been a visiting fellow at the universities of Oxford, Bologna, Genoa and Wismar, and most recently was visiting professor of urban design at the Milan Polytechnic.

Glenda Fryer Member of the Albert- Eden Local Board
Glenda Fryer has served the people of Mt Albert for 15 years, as Local Board Deputy Chair and Auckland City Councillor. Glenda is a member of the Mt Albert Aquatic Centre Trust, with experience on Balmoral School Board of Trustees and Auckland Business Development Council.

Julian Rennie
After working in London for 4 years from 1986 to 1990, Julian returned to New Zealand to set up in private practice with his partner Rose Dowsett.
Julian was invited to join the Landscape staff at Unitec on a permanent basis in 1999, and since then his role within the Department has evolved from model making classes through to perspective drawing classes, and into Landscape Construction studio sessions. This later role has this year expanded in a wider overseeing role of Landscape construction issues across a range of studio years for the greater benefit of more students.
2009 saw Julian graduate from within Unitec's Department of Education with a Graduate Diploma in Higher Education, which has established his activities within learning pedagogies.
Julian remains a practicing partner within rennie dowsett architects, with which he continues to win prizes and awards, most recently in 2009, he was chosen as a finalist, (1 of 10 out of 139 entries), and prize winner in Housing New Zealand's The Starter Home Design
Julian also was awarded a Highly Commended Prize in Housing New Zealand's 100 Years
Research:
2010 saw Julian commence his Research activities and he travelled to four conferences around the world presenting various papers based on his observations and educational field trials held here within Unitec, two such papers relate to providing better feedback and summative assessment events for student learners.
Another paper, showcased a representation strategy, (developed with the Landscape Model making sessions, and since taken up by students), of how digital cameras could be slipped inside 3D models and the resulting images can are very compelling and life like, and thus providing a quick, yet cost effective presentation technique.
Julian continues to research interfaces between Art, Colour, Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Megan Rule
Megan Rule graduated with honours from the Auckland School of Architecture in 1992 and worked on award winning projects, including Axis Building, D72 (Commercial Refits) and St Helier Residence with Auckland practice Patterson Co Partners until 1998. Prior to completing her degree she traveled extensively while based in the UK working for large commercial practice RHWL. In 1995 Megan participated in an international summer school based out of Macerata (Marche region) and Rome, Italy. From 1998 an extended break from the industry evolved into establishing an independent practice, South Pacific Architecture in 2000, with an expanding interest in the investigation of spatial and material context to produce environmentally sensitive enduring architecture.
Guest Lecturer Auckland University School of Architecture 2003, 2004, 2005.
Member of the NZIA NZ Awards Jury 2005, 2006

Marita Hunt Isthmus
Marita is excited about the potential of dense urban environments, and the opportunities for designers to make cities healthy, liveable and stimulating places. She joined isthmus in early 2015 as an Intermediate Landscape Architect and is highly talented and motivated with an eye for identity, diversity and community. Marita completed her Masters at Victoria University in 2012 and her thesis investigated overlapping national and local identities in a complex urban site in Wellington. She has previously worked in practice and as a teaching fellow at Victoria University.

August Abstracts

Vandita Ahlawat
Beyond Net Zero Neighborhoods:

How can the inherent pressures of urban sprawl be used as an opportunity to design communities as net-positive resources for our natural environments?


This research explores the impact of the expanding city through a lens of long-term urban resilience. Despite the apparent negativity associated with urban sprawl, case-studies show that net-zero neighborhoods are economically feasible, and can provide some ecological significance to community design. The critical problem of community development actually rests in the assumption that development is necessarily damaging to natural systems. From this, the designer’s role must then be to mitigate the level of expected damage. Yet, the pressures of development may offer opportunities to enhance our natural environments. Whereas projects that seek a net-zero energy communities are increasingly able to meet greenhouse gas and carbon targets, what is needed is an urbanism that understands community design as net-positive value to ecological and social environments. The goal of this project is to design a model community that achieves this goal by exploring the relationships between net-zero neighborhoods and resilience theory.


Lahari Iynala
Students are increasingly anxious to achieve specific results in K12 education, especially with the weight of University entrance and applications for professional post secondary schools that gear students toward choosing lifelong practices of professions. While many studies have focused on most suitable educational curricula to best prepare students for careers and future learning, there is still little attention given to the environments that actively shape learning and understanding. This research explores how spatial environments of K12 educational facilities may become more directly engaged in the curricula and pedagogy of K12 learners, and do d ii a way that support engagement with both discovery and invention within subjects. The goal of this project is to understand how the landscapes and built environment can be designed as an active learning environment that ultimately supports and promotes deeper understanding and love of learning, and relaxed and yet motivated learning capacity in students.



Kael
Reclamation Park
My research question is how to make coastline in Auckland more accessible to public? The aim of project is to deal with this issue in different types of coastal areas and make coastline and foreshore more accessible to the public. there will be an introduction at first which introduce some limitations to get access to the coastline, some problems and debates in New Zealand. Then there will be methods includes case study, classify different types of coastal area in Auckland, choose a site as example and my own design to deal with the issue.

Sravani Khambhampati
Desokota City in Auckland NZ
 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?
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.
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


NGUYEN THIEN NGAN
Vertical Village in the heart of CBD
Auckland CBD area has been focused to be leading New Zealand’s business and economic development. The initiation of building projects ,which mostly occupied for commercial and residential purposes, is growing progressively in Auckland CBD area .Due to high migration net flows and blooming of business activities in Auckland CBD, these building projects appears to be essential in order to capture the society demand and also adapt the population growth.Traffic congestion therefore becomes a high burden on the residents who must commute to and from work in Auckland CBD, especially on Queen Street. It has affected the employee commuting issue and also their productivity. A large number of organizations also support their employees by providing flexible workplace to adapt the trend of business process.With many people now working longer hours, it has become increasingly important for their work to fit in around other commitments, family and a social life. The flexible time has to be offered by all employers if a worker can provide a good case for it, but with the increase in enabling technologies, mobile devices, the traditional office is becoming superfluous as increasingly remote worker and home working becomes ever more realisable. Therefore, the project is about to bring back the principles of Model Village in a smaller scale and also use the ideas of  Office-tel concept into the same building design, based in Auckland CBD. The scheme is envisioned as hybrid programs that does not only combine office spaces and compact residential units. The self-contained building design does not only encourages communication between neighbours, strengthening the sense of community but it also provides fully amenities and public areas within the building.

Andrea Murray

The Christchurch Residential Red Zone -A Memorial Landscape Honouring Displaced People

The Red Zone, known as the RRZ, feels like a very sad place.  Even a brief drive through the vacant land disturbs the viewer.  It has a dark cloud of loss hanging over it.  The viewer shakes their head; how can that vast space (1000 acres) be used in a way that is honest and meaningful to the people?  10,000 people lost their sense of place on the land (Turangawaewae- Place to Stand) after the earthquakes, in addition to 185 families losing a loved one. It was the ‘Land’ and its extraordinary power that caused the deaths and the displacement of so many.  Maybe it can be the ‘Land’ that helps the people of Christchurch heal and gain a sense of closure?   The Red Zone as a Memorial Landscape is not about making everyone forget about earthquakes and the pain of loss, in fact the opposite.  A Memorial Landscape should honour the disaster and all the displaced people who lost more than their homes, a Memorial Landscape to honour a sense of  place on the land,  Turangawaewae.

This loss of place on the land is a huge global problem, (as are earthquakes and tsunamis), the enormity of such problems can make us feel out of balance.  A Memorial Landscape in Christchurch should honour both disasters and displacement and aim to restore a response of balance to the visitor. Creating a Memorial Landscape should not try to make us forget, rather it should make us remember displaced people and that we are grateful to have a place on the land (Turangawaewae).

August Timetable






Wednesday 6 April 2016

ABSTRACTS




Shanmugam Kangatharan

Title
Creating effective public transport network while also developing attractive coastal communities via designing new water-borne transport node in Auckland.

Question
How can Auckland significantly increase the water-borne share of public transport, while also developing attractive coastal communities at the nodes of water transport network?

Abstract
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 and designing an attractive urban area in selected site are 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.

Living along the coast: building green defences to mitigate
 negative effects of coastal erosion in Auckland

Qianlin Luo  ID: 1437303

Abstract
Coastal erosion is a natural and ongoing process, it is a critical part of the natural character of the dynamic coastal environment. However, with rapid urban development, coastal settlements are often allowed to sprawl along the coast in order to get better sea views. In many cases so far, buildings have been constructed close to coastal edges where they were originally natural buffer zones, such as low-lying dunes. When there is not enough room left to accommodate the change, coastal erosion becomes a problem which is regarded as a big risk for the coastal settlements and adjacent infrastructures.

Auckland has around 3702 km of coastline (“Auckland,” 2016). “Almost the entire length of the Auckland coastline is susceptible to coastal erosion, although the extent and level of risk vary” (Auckland Regional Council, 2006, p.1). A range of different and engineering-relevant techniques have been developed and utilized by civil and structural engineers to prevent coastal erosion in Auckland, such as building seawalls, groynes and re-sanding. These measures indeed work to some extent in some places, however, the side-effects of those are becoming more and more evident as time goes by. After giving a general introduction about the drawbacks of engineering methods which are commonly used in Auckland, in this project, I will investigate how the landscape strategies can be used to mitigate the coastal erosion in sensitive areas. The outcome of this project is to achieve the goal of allowing the coastline to develop in a resilient and sustainable way and meanwhile mitigating the coastal erosion.

My research focus is beach erosion of the Auckland Region. Orewa Beach, which has suffered from coastal erosion for a long time, is the research site of my project. The study is developed under the basis of Ecological Urbanism that suggests designs should work with nature not work against it.

I started by reviewing the excellent case studies and environment-friendly techniques which are both relevant to my project throughout the world in order to achieve the final goal in my research. After studying these works and analyzing the specific states of the site, adaptive strategies including protect, accommodate and retreat will be separately applied to this project on the basis of compartmentalization concept. Some newly-created natural buffer zones along the coastal edge will effectively reduce the coastal hazard such as coastal erosion and create a resilient coastline for the future.

To test this proposition, I use sustainability comprised of ecological, social, economic and culture aspects as the criterion for judging whether these design work can achieve the final goal of this project. Through this research, I identify that landscape strategies can be used as a sustainable way for reducing the risk of coastal hazard. The design shows much more respect for the land where people live and people’s feeling towards coasts.

Kael
My research question is how to make coastline in Auckland more accessible to public? The aim of project is to deal with this issue in different types of coastal areas and make coastline and foreshore more accessible to the public. there will be an introduction at first which introduce some limitations to get access to the coastline, some problems and debates in New Zealand. Then there will be methods includes case study, classify different types of coastal area in Auckland, choose a site as example and my own design to deal with the issue.


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

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.

NGUYEN THIEN NGAN
Vertical Village in the heart of CBD
Auckland CBD area has been focused to be leading New Zealand’s business and economic development. The initiation of building projects ,which mostly occupied for commercial and residential purposes, is growing progressively in Auckland CBD area .Due to high migration net flows and blooming of business activities in Auckland CBD, these building projects appears to be essential in order to capture the society demand and also adapt the population growth.Traffic congestion therefore becomes a high burden on the residents who must commute to and from work in Auckland CBD, especially on Queen Street. It has affected the employee commuting issue and also their productivity. A large number of organizations also support their employees by providing flexible workplace to adapt the trend of business process.With many people now working longer hours, it has become increasingly important for their work to fit in around other commitments, family and a social life. The flexible time has to be offered by all employers if a worker can provide a good case for it, but with the increase in enabling technologies, mobile devices, the traditional office is becoming superfluous as increasingly remote worker and home working becomes ever more realisable. Therefore, the project is about to bring back the principles of Model Village in a smaller scale and also use the ideas of  Office-tel concept into the same building design, based in Auckland CBD. The scheme is envisioned as hybrid programs that does not only combine office spaces and compact residential units. The self-contained building design does not only encourages communication between neighbours, strengthening the sense of community but it also provides fully amenities and public areas within the building.

Andrea Murray
Red Zone Land Use
When urban residential land is deemed uninhabitable after a natural or political disaster, a master plan will be more robust using a nonlinear multi layered design  methodology .


Monday 29 February 2016

Welcome

Radha Crosses a River to Interview a Hindu Sage. Chokha (Indian, active 1799–ca. 1826). 1820. India (Rajasthan, Mewar). Ink, opaque watercolor, silver, and gold on paper. 8 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. (21 x 33.7 cm)


Welcome to the MbP 2016. We had a great year in 2015 with a record number of successful exams and notable student achievements with a number of refereed publication and conference papers. 

2016 promises to be even more successful with a great new cohort of students and second year students bringing together their research work in a triumphal conclusion. 


Workshop Dates for the year 
Workshop One 7-8h of April
Workshop Two 23rd -24th of June
Workshop Three 25-26th of August
Workshop Four 10-11 November