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Quality urban design

Quality urban design and regional growth

Britomart

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Urban design is concerned with the design of places, spaces, networks and buildings, and with the way people use them. The Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) seeks to provide high-quality living environments and highlights the importance of good urban design. It acknowledges the pressure that growth and intensification can place of a range of values, such as character, views, heritage, open space and privacy.

Improving the quality of the urban environment is essential to the successful implementation of the RGS, and to its acceptance by the wider community.

Good urban design is about:

  • the way a place functions within its wider context
  • the quality of the public realm - safety, amenity, vitality
  • the right mix and density of uses
  • connectivity
  • scale and bulk of buildings
  • character and heritage
  • natural environmental qualities
  • environmentally sustainable design and building.

These are key principles behind good urban design across the world.

Poor design is often characterised by buildings that are out-of-scale with blank facades and no activity or interest at street level, vast areas of concrete and parking, spaces and places that are inaccessible to the pedestrian, unsafe or unpleasant spaces, empty, run down and underutilised. Urban redevelopment and renewal has the opportunity to address these issues and achieve positive outcomes for the wider community.

The value of better design

Good design pays for the landowner, developer, resident and wider community.
Explored in the Value of Urban Design it is clear that the benefits are:

  • better public health
  • greater social equity
  • enhanced land values
  • a more vibrant local economy
  • reduced vehicle emissions
  • more sustainable use of non-renewable resources.

This research has shown that good urban design can be both

profitable and it also offers significant benefits for the community. Conversely poor design can have significant adverse effects on the urban environment, society and economy. It can lower quality of life, limit employment opportunities and generate a wide range of costs. Communities value the better quality of life that good urban design can deliver.

Implementation progress and challenges

In the region, there has been a significant emphasis on urban design over the past five years. This has been supported by the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol, launched in March 2005, to which all Auckland councils are signatories.

Councils across Auckland have been looking at ways to promote good urban design and development to improve the quality of the urban environment. Approaches included:

  • introducing urban-design and building-design criteria into district plans
  • preparing urban-design guidance, such as the Good Solutions Guides for Medium Density Housing, Mixed Use Development and Apartments
  • using urban designers to provide pre-application and resource consent advice
  • holding multi-disciplinary pre-application meetings and providing free urban-design advice to developers
  • establishing urban-design panels, such as in Auckland City and Manukau City.

Further steps to improving urban design

  • Structure planning, comprehensive master planning and place-based approaches are needed in urban areas undergoing redevelopment and intensification.
  • Investment in improving the quality of amenity of growth areas will be needed to both encourage demand for intensive living and improve urban quality of life.
  • Approaches such as low-impact design, blue-green networks, stream day-lighting, tree planting, backyard diversity, and ecological linkages within a regional natural network can all improve the quality of the natural urban environment, and also enhance protection and restoration of biodiversity in urban areas.

Growing Smarter, the evaluation of the RGS explores more about the challenges and new approaches to achieve improved urban design across the region.

Design guidance and useful resources

Continue to Natural environment and heritage