Zoë Jane Avery
Living
Urbanism: designing living roofs to maximise benefits for the built
environment, humans and nature
Abstract
This research aims to outline the relevance
and benefits of living roofs on urban developments, and explores the factors
and constraints that restrain increasing living roofs in New Zealand. Although
living roofs are becoming increasingly common in cities throughout the world
for their ability to improve climate change adaptation, energy conservation,
food production and our ability to develop more sustainable and environmentally
friendly living environments, their presence and application as part of
landscape and urban design interventions in New Zealand is still comparatively
rare or simply relying on particular interests of specific groups, people or
landscape architects, architects and urban designers. This is becoming more
relevant in the light of increasing needs to pursue green infrastructure
solutions, and pressing issues related to rapid population growth, advanced
stages of urbanisation often described as instances of urban sprawl, and
alteration of natural environments defined by increments of hard surfaces,
pollution and lack of contact with nature. In this vein, it will help to
explore how we can incorporate green infrastructure design solutions into urban
developments to maximize benefits for the built environment, nature and people.
Currently, living roofs are rarely included
in developments in New Zealand and if they are, most are being designed in
isolation, resulting in living roofs which are disconnected, inaccessible,
monocultures, not robust, poorly designed, ineffective or inappropriate for the
location. The aim of this research is to select key living roofs in New Zealand
and critically analyse their design characteristics, to then - through
interviews with the architects, landscape architects and designers - disclose
the factors that explain why living roofs are not being included on
developments in New Zealand. Findings highlight the design problems with existing
living roofs and obstacles for incorporating them into new developments
including lack of knowledge and education; increased cost of development; and
perceved risk. This research suggests that without encouragement and education
it is unlikely that living roofs will be commonplace throughout New Zealand.
The intention of this project is to aim for
an improved urban landscape with maximised multi-functional benefits through
the use of a living roof design manual for Whangarei on the proposed Art Centre
in Whangarei Town Basin, Northland as the project location. Using the proposed
Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery as a central landmark
building, the living roof manual will inform a design response to help reveal
the potential living roofs present to improve our urban landscapes and our
lives. Fundamentally, the aim of this research is to develop a guide that will
assist with the design of living roofs within our cities to help create spaces
where we can have respite from the busyness of city dweller life and connect in
with nature and beauty.
Yuan Zhang
Urban
ecology and the design of a green infrastructure network based on catchments
for Auckland, New Zealand ----- The Oakley creek catchment case study
Abstract
The
pressures of global population growth, migration and increasing urban densities
present significant issues which can negatively impact on the health of cities.
These pressures are more evident in midsize global cities (Allen et al., 2016)
where there are often significant conflicts between the development of human
infrastructure and the maintenance of natural ecosystems. The conflict leads
many times to major environmental degradation.
Urban studies tend to describe development
patterns negatively, and often point to environmental problems that stem from
development, such as landscape fragmentation (Forman, 2014), degrading water
quality (Marjorie van Roon et al., 2004), flooding and increasing water-borne
pollution (Pickett et al., 2013; Pickett & Cadenasso, 2007), reduction of
green space and biodiversity (Wu, 2014). However, many of these authors reflect
on the values and opportunities that arise from urban development to link
ecology and urban development through green space networks as described by
Borrett (2014), Derbyshire and Wright (2014), Li et al. (2015) and Niemelä
(1999).
This project explores a new, valuable and
sustainable urban development paradigm through creating a new Green
Infrastructure Network (GIN) model based on hydrological catchment in urban
Auckland. This GIN connects current LID and WSD stormwater management
practices, as is already in use at present, with a new sustainable spatial mode
for intensified urban area.
The Oakley Creek catchment is used as a
case study to show the details and functions of the GIN. Through classifying
Oakley Creek catchment into four scales: 1 block scale; 2 neighbourhood scale;
3 community scale and 4 urban stream scale to form a ‘nested catchment’. Then
manage the catchment by designed GIN nodes and corridors to deal with multiple
urban environmental and hydrological issues.
Additionally, design a local area network
(LAN) model and shared infrastructures in the GIN to create social and economic
benefits to the local community. The new GIN and LAN models show the interrelated
character of ecological, social and economic conditions in a local community
design.
Kael Li
Research
question: How to make inaccessible coastal space more available to the public?
Rationale: Coast plays a crucial role to
most people who live in coastal cities. However, there are often many
limitations for the public to get access to beach and coastline, including
rough condition of geography, natural limitation, private possession, and the
key issue in my research, which is the construction of motorway. Similar as
many countries, New Zealand has this issue in many places. Some of the coastal
areas are even under natural risks.
Theory: Focus on providing available
coastal space with more connection and protecting function, whiling balancing
the ecological perspective and coastal development.
Methods: From case studies, there are
already many different methods for several types of sites. For example, beach
nourishment is a complex but ideal method to create more coastal area; by
creating bridge, boardwalk there will be more connection between community and
coastline.
Personally, I will focus on Shoal Bay, in
Auckland, which locates near city center and has a good potential to become an
ideal urban waterfront coastal park. After analyzing different perspectives
including transport, natural situation, historic and ecological aspects, I will
try to provide my own design concept, which is mainly an artificial coastal
park in the existing but limited coastal area. The new park concentrates on
four perspectives: availability, protection, connection and ecological.
Andrea Murray
A
Commemorative Landscape in the Christchurch Residential Red Zone
Abstract
A landscape honoring displaced people
The Red Zone, known as the RRZ, feels like
an empty and transitioning place. The
earthquakes in Canterbury have finally exposed, what geologist have always
known, Christchurch city was cited on flood prone swamp land.
The RRZ covers 400 hectares, where the
roads are beyond repair, the power poles are on a lean and decommissioned, yet
the grass is mown. What can the city do
with this serpentine shaped quilt of 6000 individual gardens? How can this landscape be used in a way that
is honest and meaningful to the people who once called it home? 10,000 people lost their sense of place when
they abandoned their homes and accepted the Crown Offer. Before this massive earthquake displacement,
the Maori tribe, Nga Tahu left the land where they once gathered food, when the
river catchment became polluted with settler’s waste water.
Many memorials use walls, or monuments,
very prescriptive designs to communicate what needs to be conveyed to
visitors. A commemorative landscape in
the Avonside Loop can be a non-prescriptive way to tell the story about the
Christchurch Earthquakes and those families who lost their homes.
Jie Zhang
The
Bioregional Park : Commemorating the visit of Captain Cook
Abstract
Up until relatively recently, the majority
of people were not very concerned about the relationship between human actions
and human impact on the environment. This phenomenon has consequently resulted
in over-consumption 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 thesis will present a
concept of bioregional ideal. Using this concept, it will help to change
people's ideas about the human relationship to the environment and natural
resources from the current condition. This research will use a bioregional park
design for Mercury Bay in the Coromandel to show how an environment can be
improved, protect the natural resources, connect people to nature and make a
habitat for ecosystems of plants and animals. At the same time, this project
other aim is that to celebrate and commemorate the 250th anniversary of captain
James Cook's first voyage (1769) to New Zealand. Mention commemorating capt.
Cook.
Irawan Chandra Arief
Onehunga
waterfront Project
Abstract
This project is about how people can have
access to the waterfront. In the presence of two existing projects, Taumanu
reserve and Onehunga port leave space between those two projects. providing an
opportunity to create a space that may be integrated with each other. And the
space for the community enjoys the potential of the waterfront
Another uniqueness of this site, Onehunga.
Is a wealth of history and potential development for the city of Auckland in
the future. A long time ago, Onehunga is a canoe ship crossing from Manukau
inlet to Tamaki and even Coromandel. Meanwhile, the east-west link connection
plan and Onehunga waterfront development will be an option for future
development.
Researchers from literature studies, history,
and articles from various newspapers on related topics serve as a reference for
further research. Investigation of various designs is done, which then analyzed
what the potential and obstacles.
From various designs then came a better
design potential, based on some workshops that have been passed, supervise, and
input from related parties. A fish market can be an option for Onehunga and
surrounding communities in the future.
Teng Sun
Sponge
City
Abstract
Under the expansion urbanization and
climate change, many cities are suffering flood disaster nowadays. The
conception of sponge city has shown up in recent years, it aims to build the
whole city on a sponge to keep absorbing rainwater to slow or even stop the
flood. To resolving flooding problems, this research focus on how to retain
flood through sponge city as a landscape architecture design to reduce urban
damage. Base on the temperate marine climate and irregular terrain in Auckland,
I’m going to design a sponge city project in New Lynn area which is analyzed by
GeoMaps data. Through the data collected, it is easy to find the places where
have current flood issues or potential problems, then use landscape technique
to design park, wetland, ponds to absorb flood in different water branch. There
are number of cases around the world, which aims use flood and terrain to
redesign and create different functions and landscape. This research includes
the data integration solutions in Auckland, and show the evaluated effects.
Meng Zhang
Low-impact,
climate-resilience urban design: renew inner city’s harbour
Abstract
The challenges of managing stormwater
run-off, which partly caused by climate change, have always been receiving
highly attentions from all around world. However, due to stormwater been
discharged into the harbours, which undoubtedly not only causes seawater
contamination, also increased risk of people’s illness and intensify marine
species’ loss. In this stage, it is most important to purify the rain flow
before it run into sea.
My personal research will explore how to
develop a design project which mainly focus on effectively keeping catchment water
being clearer in order to prevent harbour environment. At first, I attempt to
entirely analyse what design approaches, based on the framework of low impact
urban design, also climate-resilience theory, may act on both mitigating catchment
contamination and controlling over-flooding. Then, to consult with the previous
project, I intend to choose a several coastal cities which also suffer from
similar stormwater issues, and find what design approaches they used and
whether they can effectively work. Finally, my expectation of this research is
to address the Cox Creek catchment’s pollution to maintain and return Cox’s Bay
being animated and recreational.
Mengyi Wang
The
sustainable garden
Abstract
Accompany with the innovation of the modern
garden style, both the consumers and the designers tend to give focus on the
aesthetics rather than the sustainability. As a environmentally conscious
country, people who have private gardens in New Zealand actually do not take
care of sustainability. As a result, the cases have caused the waste of
resources. This research creates utopian sustainable gardens which are changed
the layout, plants and water system to make the gardens more resilient. The
garden will be chosen from local Auckland’s sites and they are typical private
gardens. The scale of the gardens are from the big to the small, separately
analysed and designed.
