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Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter renewal project

Given the long timespans of urban regeneration projects – spanning decades from initial plans to completion – I happened upon New Zealand’s largest renewal project at just the right time. Wynyard Quarter is well along its transformational journey from an industrial port into a very liveable and sustainable community.

In April 2018 it was already clear that Auckland’s planners have used fantastic public realm design and amenities to turn the port into a welcoming, walkable and fun neighbourhood. Having visited or worked on some of the world’s leading portside developments in Sweden, Hammarby, BO01 and Masthusen, I can see that this project will likely become a case study in sustainable design and development.

Kia Ora, Welcome to Wynyard Quarter sign

 

Walking from Auckland’s CBD you’re drawn west, past the ferry terminal and under the New Zealand’s Team America’s Cup Yacht at the Maritime Museum. You enter Wynyard Quarter by passing rows of luxury yachts and crossing a pedestrian drawbridge. As you approach, there are meanwhile uses, pocket parks and information boards drawing attention to the redevelopment. There will be 500 homes and 48,000 sq meters of commercial space in the central area of the quarter, much of which is starting to take shape now.

Visiting with my young family, we walked straight past the lovely waterside bars and restaurants to Silo Park. There is something here for all ages. A water feature, basketball net, and ‘under the sea’ themed playground were being enjoyed by children, teenagers and adults. Posters advertised outdoor concerts and an open-air cinema project against one of the silos. My favourite part was walking up the gantry, a bridge-like structure with multiple levels and partly covered in plants. It offered fantastic views of the emerging neighbourhood and the harbour bridge beyond.

The view from the gantry looking down on Hamer Street and the playground.

 

There are many planning frameworks setting out the ambitions and development requirements for Wynyard Quarter on the Panaku Development Auckland website. The project’s Sustainable Development Framework aims to move beyond zero net energy, water and waste impacts to a built environment that positively contributes energy and water and is ‘restorative’. Among other requirements, homes have a minimum target of 7 Homestar rating1 while commercial buildings will need to reach 5 Green Star rating2.

The city wants Wynyard Quarter to be a place where residents are proud of their contribution to a ‘more sustainable future’. This project has the most sophisticated monitoring system that I’ve ever seen for a masterplanning project to showcase its progress against sustainability goals, called Wynyard Quarter Smart.

Users of this online interactive tool can view information on a map of the neighbourhood or through navigating different theme areas, such as ‘Transport, Movement & Connectivity’. It’s fantastic to see that the project managers are reporting their progress throughout the renewal project.

Screenshot of Wynyard Quarter Smart online interactive monitoring tool

This regeneration project is leading practice in many areas, incorporating smart systems and adopting ambitious goals for sustainability and health. Just reporting what I saw on my brief visit, here are some of the outstanding design and planning features that will support the developments’ goals for generations to come:

  • Infrastructure first: The housing development is just beginning but even early residents will be able to adopt healthy and sustainable behaviours such as walking or cycling because the street infrastructure is already in place to support this. There are also plenty of things to do in the area so that people will have reasons to interact and develop a sense of community.
  • Public realm design for all ages: People of all ages and abilities will find the parks and amenities around Silo Park to be fun and accessible. The gantry structure has a lift and stairs so wheelchair users or parents with buggies can see the outstanding views from the top deck.
  • Safe streets: The crossing points are clearly marked and level. The pavements are wide and allow plenty of space for pedestrians and cyclists.
  • Sustainable drainage: The sustainable drainage systems contribute to the landscape aesthetic and filters water.
  • Identity – marine and industrial heritage: This place has a very strong sense of identity that comes across through the design of the public realm – buoys floating in grass, the gantry, the ‘under the sea’ playground, the remnants of train tracks, and of course the silos.

Wynyard Quarter is a great place to visit, live or work. If you’re planning a similar project in your city, it would be well worth exploring their approach to sustainability and the incorporation of health and social wellbeing principles. It has already won an ‘Excellence on the Waterfront’ award in the Comprehensive Plans category in the USA.

The silos, sustainable drainage and buoys floating in the grass

 

  1. New Zealand Green Building Council’s standard for sustainable healthy homes, https://www.nzgbc.org.nz/homestar
  2. Green Building Council Australia’s standard for sustainable buildings, https://new.gbca.org.au/green-star/
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Cool living in a hot climate

Air conditioning units often serve individual flats and are typically noisy, costly and heat up the external environment.
Air conditioning units often serve individual flats and are typically noisy, costly and heat up the external environment.

Melbourne isn’t the hottest of Australian cities, with summer temperatures around 26°C (79°F). Yet there can be wide swings between hot and cool weather in a single day and periodic heat waves have peaked at 47°C (117°F). Most homes and buildings operate air conditioning units and even on my visit here in March this added cooling is welcome. But mechanical systems are energy intensive, noisy, costly and they add heat to the external environment, contributing to the urban heat island effect.

Architects in Melbourne working on the Nightingale Housing model have come up with some fantastic designs for natural cooling and ventilation, alongside a whole range of other sustainability features. The Nightingale 1 building, designed by Breathe Architecture, is in the Brunswick neighbourhood of Melbourne a few minutes from Anstey rail station. My host, planner Rod Duncan, arranged for us to meet one of the architects and current residents, Dan McKenna, who kindly showed us around. On the ground floor the building has a shared entrance for Nightingale Housing offices and residents to the 20 flats. Across the street is The Commons apartment building (same architects) and a gallery for another architecture firm. There’s also a pop-up park, coffee bar, cafe, natural wine & craft beer shop across the ground floors of these two buildings. Although the rest of the area is largely light industry warehouses, the shops and ubiquitous street art are adding to the growing sense of community.

We started our tour on the roof where residents can relax on the roof top garden, cook in the communal BBQ and enjoy meals around a massive table, shaded by solar PV panels. I loved the laundry facilities on the roof with drying lines so wet clothes don’t clutter up the living spaces. The rooftop vegetable patch is still being planted out and provides residents with a place to garden in the otherwise hard-surfaced surroundings. All of the building’s electricity is generated through the solar PV and they have rainwater harvesting for irrigation and common-area toilets. The irrigation extends down on to the north facing balconies where grape vines are planted to provide shading during the summer months. The leaves will fall off during the winter and allow the sun to filter through and warm the apartments. The full effect is clearly seen on The Commons building across the street. Rod noted that this is one of the few examples of a successful green wall in Melbourne (most die from lack of proper design/management). The centre of the building has a light core allowing cross-ventilation in the flats for cooling. Rainforest plants at the bottom of this space add to the cooling effect. There may be some challenges with noise as the rooms adjacent to this space are bedrooms. Noise from the communal roof space travels down in the evening. Inside the flats the architects have designed the kitchens and lounge spaces with built-in units out of plywood with a matte black veneer. The walls, ceiling and countertops are concrete. The floors are recycled Australian timber nailed (to allow for removal) onto 120mm batten on a rubber pad to absorb noise. The idea is that bangs and scratches on the internal surfaces will only add to the aesthetic and improve the space over time. The Nightingale Housing model is all about sustainability and a community-led approach, keeping costs affordable in construction to reduce sale prices. They are expanding to other buildings and even a Nightingale Village. This is a model that could work well in the UK and other countries to build sustainable and healthy homes in tough markets.

Updated on 10 April 2018 to correct information on Melbourne’s climate (kindly provided by Rod Duncan). 

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Healthy place-making doesn’t have to cost extra

There is a common view amongst developers that designing and building for health and wellbeing objectives is more expensive than standard projects and that it doesn’t offer return on investment. I have recently written an article which summarises evidence from a range of organisations, including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Urban Land Institute, to counter these claims.

The built environment can provide access to physical activity at a range of scales, from transport and mobility infrastructure to provision of parks and even through building design. This is one of the most important features to consider given the cost of not getting this right. Public Health England reported that physical inactivity directly contributes to 1 in 6 deaths in the UK and costs £7.4 billion a year to business and wider society.(1) Through active design measures, a new masterplanned community of 5,700 homes in Texas has boosted physical activity of residents by 40-50 minutes a week.(2) BRE’s recent Design Protocol for Health + Mobility (in partnership with Arup, UCL and AREA Research) provides further information on integrating physical activity into masterplanning and transport infrastructure.(3)

The design of healthy homes and buildings has received significant attention from the development sector. Evidence from a Saint-Gobain commissioned survey demonstrated that 30% of the households surveyed would be willing to pay more for homes which do not compromise health.(4) By considering health impacts at the early stages of design, designers and developers can use integrated design solutions which do not cost extra and allow all homes to be safe and supportive of health and wellbeing. Healthy design should not just become a feature of high-value developments but should be delivered on all schemes. Developers using the Home Quality Mark and BREEAM will find that health and wellbeing is fully integrated into these standards and supports integrated design measures.(5)

The full article is published in the Town and Country Planning Association’s special edition journal entitled ‘#healthyplanning – Securing Outcomes from United Action’, available to download here.

This post was originally posted on BRE Buzz and is cross-posted here.

References

  1. Petrokofsky C, Davis A. Working Together to Promote Active Travel: A briefing for local authorities. Public Health England; 2016.
  2. Kramer A, Lassar TJ, Federman M, Hammerschmidt S. Building for Wellness: The Business Case. Washington DC: Urban Land Institute; 2014.
  3. Health + Mobility: A Design Protocol for Mobilising Healthy Living. Arup, BRE, UCL, AREA Research; 2016.
  4. UK Green Building Council. Health and Wellbeing in Homes. UKGBC; 2016. Available from:
  5. Taylor T, Pineo H. Health and wellbeing in BREEAM. BRE Global Ltd.; 2015.
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Health and wellbeing at King’s Cross

The King’s Cross Central regeneration project is one of the largest in London and Europe at 67 acres.(1) This exciting development is opening up a part of the city which may be well known to locals but, until recently, was largely hidden to the millions of people who pass through King’s Cross and St Pancras stations weekly. With new homes, jobs, restaurants and public spaces, this development offers multiple ways of improving health and wellbeing in the local community. Continue reading “Health and wellbeing at King’s Cross”