the abstracts

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.