WYNYARD QUARTER
WORDS Frith Walker
Place Manager, Waterfront Auckland
IMAGES Waterfront Auckland
Waterfront Auckland (WA) holds the vision, and leads the integrated urban regeneration of Auckland’s CBD waterfront over the course of the next thirty years, as the key placemaker and place manager. The team operates on a design-led approach supported by the (award-winning) Urban Design Framework, a sustainability strategy, strategic market-driven release of land, special leases, covenants, and incentives, to create high-quality public amenity and balanced mix of green and hard space, open and built space, public and commercial space. However underpinning this a determination to value people, and enhance their experience of this area by providing a space filled with activities, attractions and places that welcome visitors and sustain locals.
This determination is represented in the inclusion of Place as an integral part of its planning. A place based approach (for which the organisation is gaining a strong reputation) aims to assist all stakeholders in achieving shared project outcomes - integrating actions, priorities and budgets and facilitating the efficient and holistic development of the area. Such an approach was established from the start of the Jellicoe development planning, with strong focus placed not only on good design, but also on research into who used the area, who could use the area, and on what would keep local industry strong, as well as enable Auckland to readily enjoy this primary aspect of its identity.
From this early work an annual programme was created; designed to establish the character of the new spaces as well as create reasons for regular visitation. This programme of children’s workshops, food trucks, Christmas illuminations, markets and evening outdoor cinema has etched the new waterfront into the hearts of Aucklanders. All of these take place on spaces that were designed with the human scale firmly in mind. Auckland’s waterfront now has a community of people who regularly visit and love the area before the first residential dwelling has even been built. It is generally felt that there is a renewed pride amongst Aucklanders for their city now that they have seen what human-focused design and placemaking can offer them.
Placemaking is not currently widely recognised in NZ but is gaining substantial ground overseas; with its ability to not only foster ownership of a place by the individual, but also encourage community building and public interaction. In NZ it is clearly evidenced in well-nurtured areas such as K Rd. It is a mixture of art and science based in sociology and human behaviour, and when you think about it, something that has been around as long as people have been trying to live in community groups, or neighbourhoods, if you prefer.
Its focus is on ‘doing and implementing’ rather than ‘talking and planning’. Placemaking, in its essence, doesn’t require extensive time – rather careful thought by the right kind of minds, good support, trust in the process and flexible structures. It is based in the culture of how people work together – an ongoing, ever evolving process of trialing and listening.
An additive approach that is founded on taking the time to watch and listen to those for whom we are making spaces. To quote Mr Ethan Kent who was recently on our shores “You see a lot through observing”.
An additive approach that is founded on taking the time to watch and listen to those for whom we are making spaces. To quote Mr Ethan Kent who was recently on our shores “You see a lot through observing”.
Many elements made up the first stages of the development, which saw significant parts of the CBD waterfront open to the Auckland public for the first time. Queens Wharf, home to both the Cloud and the newly refurbished Shed 10, offers a renewed connection not only to our industrial past, but also to the vista of our incredible harbour. The Wynyard Crossing opening bridge connects the formerly isolated Wynyard Quarter back to the CBD.
A new playground attracts families. Refurbished concrete silos anchor the space and echo the area’s industrial past whilst serving as a unique exhibition space. And long-standing locals such as wooden boats, tankers and the fisheries industry continue to both represent the Waterfront’s established maritime character as well as interest and delight newcomers.
A new playground attracts families. Refurbished concrete silos anchor the space and echo the area’s industrial past whilst serving as a unique exhibition space. And long-standing locals such as wooden boats, tankers and the fisheries industry continue to both represent the Waterfront’s established maritime character as well as interest and delight newcomers.
The revitalisation has, to date, been lauded by locals, visitors, and Waterfront Auckland’s international peers, with one of New Zealand’s most well known musicians heard to say “it’s like I have been asleep for 10 years and when I woke up Auckland had turned into the city I had always hoped it would be.”
However the question of how to measure the success of placemaking is currently a major topic of conversation around the globe. As Project of Public Spaces (PPS) would say, it is an additive process and not its own discipline – one based in how we work more than what we are doing – so acquiring data is difficult. Further to this PPS is leading (through the Place Leadership Council) a conversation around the creation of metrics and shared language.
This project will hopefully serve to strengthen this global work, and enable all comers to understand and engage with this topic. If it becomes its own expert process, engulfed in specialist language, then we are in danger of it becoming another specialist silo – which somewhat goes against the core principles at work here. It is not a new thing, and not simply another ideology. Placemaking is about reclaiming social systems and knowledge in order to enable local people to connect with, and connect via, their public spaces.
Waterfront Auckland has a unique mandate not only to build but also to manage the spaces for which it is responsible. This affords (and requires) the organisation to consider the impacts and the outcomes of its developments from every viewpoint – ensuring that our concern remains the success of the area in the very long term, and for the betterment of the City as a whole. Central to this success is a determination to value people, and a resulting ability to enhance experience of this area by providing a space filled with activities, attractions and places that encourage movement and interaction.
This speaks of the deeper intention behind our design and programming – there is a strong ambition within Waterfront Auckland to engage our audiences - inform, welcome and, above all, create investment in this new area. Investment, of course, from a commercial perspective, but also on a personal level – a belief in the capacity of this area to be a catalyst for the growth and potential of the city, through the people that make it.
To the WA Place team, placemaking is founded on a belief in the desire of the majority to live in supportive, connected environments. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing to believe in.
