Better City hui calls for quality intensification.

This query underpinned the current ‘Higher Metropolis’ hui, hosted by the Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA), which introduced collectively six professionals from each NZIA and Auckland Council (AC) organisations.

Initiated by Charissa Snijders, led by Jenny Chen and moderated by Tom Locke, the panel explored intensification from macro metropolis planning to site-specific structure.

Otene Reweti, kaumātua of HomeGround, welcomed everybody with a karakia referencing the significance of sharing our ‘baskets of information’, after which John Duguid, Auckland Council’s Common Supervisor of Planning and Useful resource Consents, kicked off the dialog, talking to the area’s present state of regulatory limbo following the 2023 transition from Labour to Nationwide. Labour issued a nationwide directive by way of the Nationwide Coverage Assertion on City Growth (NPS-UD) and amendments to the Useful resource Administration Act (RMA), which mandated councils in high-growth areas to allow extra residential improvement.

Auckland Council responded with Proposed Plan Change 78 (PC78), a strategic modification to the Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP). PC78 proposed a node-based intensification mannequin, focusing on improvement round metropolitan centres, public transport corridors and employment alternatives to assist compact, related, walkable communities that scale back automotive dependency and maximise present infrastructure. In the meantime, the Medium Density Residential Requirements (MDRS), a element of PC78, took a blanket strategy, enabling the development of as much as three dwellings of three storeys on most residential websites with out useful resource consent (RC).

Nonetheless, Duguid famous that the present Nationwide authorities is working to make MDRS elective, prioritising non-public property rights and proposing to constrain PC78 to central Auckland solely. Finally, this undermines the council’s potential to steer improvement, resulting in over-intensification in poorly-serviced suburbs and lacking alternatives for sensible development in key areas.

The stress between strategic, equitable intensification in the correct locations and reactive improvement within the flawed locations was a recurring theme that emerged all through the dialogue. Underneath the present RMA, councils are legally required to grant RC to improvement proposals that meet permitted requirements, no matter infrastructure capability and neighbourhood context. City Design Supervisor, Lisa Dunshea, defined that this has led to disproportionate concentrations of medium density housing (MDH) in South and West Auckland, areas already beneath strain.

At an architectural scale, inconsistency in design high quality is a rising concern. Arron Kong, Lead Architect at Auckland Council, noticed that whereas some MDHs are nicely finished, many lack basic design issues, corresponding to web site orientation, privateness, robust inner layouts and acceptable materiality. Discrepancies between what’s consented and constructed usually happen resulting from price range constraints and an absence of architectural involvement post-RC. These developments are likely to cluster in lower-income, weak and under-resourced areas, which Locke put all the way down to successive governments looking for fast and simple options to housing affordability with out contemplating all of the associated parts of wholesome cities.

The implications lengthen past liveability to the financial. On land zoned for elevated peak and density beneath PC78, builders have generally solely delivered MDH, subsequently undercutting housing yield and diminishing web site worth. With out a clearer plan, inefficient land use will proceed to perpetuate sprawl, pressurise greenfields and undermine local weather objectives.This led the dialog to local weather resilience, as architect Charissa Snijders shared that the constructed surroundings contributes to a staggering 42% of worldwide carbon emissions yearly.

She urged each the NZIA and AC to desert perceptions that density, affordability and sustainability are mutually unique, stating these have to be addressed in tandem, not in stress.Snjiders referred to as for systemic change, emphasising the necessity for extra adaptive governance and focused funding at a planning degree to prioritise climate-conscious, resilient intensification. On the architectural scale, this implies main with sustainable design, partaking net-zero targets and frameworks corresponding to NZGBC Inexperienced Star, and implementing moral materiality. The venue for the night’s occasion, HomeGround, a mass timber constructing by Stevens Lawson Architects, embodies this ethos, proving that density and sustainability will be synonymous.

By means of assist, Locke referenced the Sydney Design Excellence Programme, which presents incentives corresponding to additional flooring space or peak to builders whose tasks reveal excellent design and sustainability. The same strategy may very well be explored in Auckland to reward innovation, ambition and sustainability past compliance with regulatory minimums.

Wanting forward, collaboration is essential. Erin Quin, Auckland City Design Panel Lead, acknowledged how NZIA and AC function in an area of shared duty for shaping how folks expertise Tāmaki Makaurau. Quin advocated for early engagement with the Auckland City Design Panel, which includes interdisciplinary design enter to make sure equitable, resilient and habitable outcomes. She additionally inspired extra voices from the architectureprofession to make submissions. Quin concluded, “Design isn’t impartial; it displays values, priorities and assumptions.”

As Tāmaki Makaurau navigates the calls for of intensification, local weather pressures and complexities of evolving regulatory frameworks, compounded by the housing and local weather crises, a greater metropolis hinges on cross-sector collaboration, bipartisan coverage assist and clearer design objectives.

Higher Metropolis was formed by way of early kaupapa-setting conversations between Jenny Chen, Charissa Snijders, Lisa Dunshea, Tom Locke, Mark Abbot and John Duguid. As Jenny Chen concluded, “Our objective is to strengthen relationships between our career and council to drive higher design outcomes; collaborative management can information a extra intentional city future.”

The second Higher Metropolis hui, is happening in November 2025.