Yearbook 2017 20171116

TRACT MASTER BY PROJECT 2017 LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH WORK

INTRODUCTION

This is the third publication of Tract, the yearbook for the Master by Project programme at Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand. The MbP Programme was begun ten years ago to offer design practitioners, architects and landscape architects the chance to carry out research by design. In 2017 the research work was evenly balanced around three topics: Transit, Community and Recreation.

Shasha Li and Qun (Michael) Sun explored some ways that transit patterns might be brought to Auckland CBD and the city of Shepparton. Shasha investigated an independent cycleway network as a greener and safer alternative for Auckland commuters. Michael explored development opportunities that might be provided by proposed High Speed Rail. Using the TransitOriented Development (TOD) concept, Michael designed a public open space network and a food production chain for future Shepparton citizens.

Vandita Ahlawat and Catherine Nguyen carried out research on ways in which Auckland might be intensified to support future urban growth.

From an energy consumption perspective, Vandita looked at ways to maximise solar energy through the configuration of different community urban forms. Catherine investigated vertical mixuse development in conjunction with sound public transport in the heart of Auckland CBD. Qian Wang conducted a research project with 28 students from a west Auckland Primary school. Through a school ground greening project, Qian committed to educate and enhance children’s relationships with nature. Loukya Muthyala investigated ways in which to produce a hybrid landscape comprised of a resort, a regional park and a cultural precinct for an island located in Auckland.

Thanks to all the students who have joined our programme to carry out research with us. Thanks to our colleagues in academia and the profession at our quarterly workshops (http://mlaunitec.blogspot.co.nz) for their continued support of our programme and students. Thanks to the supervisory team, Nikolay Popov, Hamish Foote, Daniel Irving, Sue Wake, Nick Robinson, Kerry Francis and Peter Griffiths. Lastly, a big thank you to HOP Peter McPherson and Dean Renee Davis for their unfailing support of the MbP throughout 2017.

Editors: Publisher: Art director: ISSN:

Matthew Bradbury, Xinxin Wang Unitec Institute of Technology Kim Meek 2538-0575

Matthew Bradbury

Associate Professor & MBP Pogramme Leader Landscape Architecture and Architecture

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PROJECT LOCATION

CONTENTS

TRANSIT CYCLEWAY.................................................................................... 4 Shasha (Nemo) Li, supervisors Daniel Irving & Matthew Bradbury RAILWAY........................................................................................ 8 Qun (Michael) Sun, supervisor Nikolay Popov

COMMUNITY ENERGY...................................................................................... 12 Vandita Ahlawat, supervisors Matthew Bradbury & Nick Robinson VERTICAL.................................................................................... 16 Catherine Nguyen, supervisors Cesar Wagner & Matthew Bradbury

RECREATION PLAYGROUND............................................................................. 20 Qian Wang, supervisors Sue Wake & Matthew Bradbury RESORT....................................................................................... 24 Loukya Muthyala, supervisors Hamish Foote & Mike Austin

Map of Auckland

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TRANSIT

CYCLEWAY Sustainable cycle paths for Auckland Shasha (Nemo) Li

A correlation between increasing use of fossil fuels and decreasing quality of urban environments is now generally conceded. The biggest culprits of urban pollution are combustion-driven vehicles. As a result, interest is growing in viable “green” alternatives to city mobility. A top consideration is the common bicycle, which has regaining popularity in compact cities as a simple, inexpensive, low-impact and localised solution to moving within cities. A broad scale adoption of bicycling as a primary mode of travel still faces critical issues of infrastructure, convenience, and ease.

In the case of Auckland, however, a strong outdoor culture rarely includes cycling in the many definable “kiwi” outdoor activities. Reasons given for this include the problems of geography (Laing, 2014; NZ Transport Agency, 2011), climate (NZ Transport Agency, 2011), and infrastructure (Matt, 2014).

Nevertheless, Auckland Council has acknowledged the successes of other cities, such as Copenhagen, New York, and London (NZ Transport Agency, 2011),

and promised investment of $300m over the next 10 years (Auckland Transport, 2015). Despite the resolve to extend the cycle network, the Auckland Council proposal has not yet resolved conflicts between the distinct user groups of large road-vehicles (cars, etc.), small road-vehicles (bikes, etc.), and pedestrians. As a result, the current programmes deal inadequately with safety, aesthetics, and expense.

This project suggests a separation of existing networks, and explores the opportunities of designing independent cycle network that would provide excellent synergy with existing infrastructure while clearly separating use – for the safety and benefit of cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians.

It is expected that such a cycle network would encourage cycle use as a primary form of transportation, making Auckland a greener, safer, more enjoyable and less expensive place to live.

Masterplan

Mobile: 02102482596 Email: lis851990@gmail.com Permanent link to Research Bank record:

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Design Summary and Perspectives

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TRANSIT

RAILWAY City of Shepparton TOD Qun (Michael) Sun

T.O.D Design Master Plan Food Bowl Futures will explore how public transport infrastructure projects rescale territories and mediate our relationship to the environment. The project will unpack the complexity of one large infrastructure proposal – the East Coast High Speed Rail (HSR) project – to identify the relationships it will disrupt across an entire urban landscape. Instead of fixing our gaze upon HSR directly, the project will explore the interstitial spaces of the region – the public open space system and the development opportunities that brought by the new type of transportation system.

TOD Design Master Plan

Mobile: 0275678959 Email: sunqun8885@gmail.com Permanent link to Research Bank record:

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Seasonal Park and HSR Ecological Zone Recreation and riparian zone for HSR station

1 : 1500 @ A1

Flooding Area

Drainge Direction

Proposed Wet Land

Buildings Relationships

Actitivies & Programs

Pedestrian Circulation

Seasonal Park and HSR Ecological Zone

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COMMUNITY

ENERGY Beyond Net Zero Neighborhoods Vandita Ahlawat

This research explores the impact of city expansion through a lens of long-term sustainable urban design.

Global urbanization contributes to a growing demand for energy, with this growth looking like it could outstrip finite natural resources by 2050 (Holloway, 2012). There has been considerable shift towards renewables, yet the global output of renewable energy is still meagre compared with the production of energy using fossil fuels (Holloway, 2012).

There are opportunities, however, to help bridge the transition to the coming age of renewables, by using urban design to decrease the city-wide demand of energy. Case studies show that netzero neighbourhoods are economically feasible and can even provide support to regional ecological communities. As cities grow, the critical problem of community development actually rests in the assumption that development is necessarily damaging to natural systems, with design only aiming to mitigate the level of expected damage.

Yet, design may offer opportunities to not only enhance urban environments, but also reduce our overall demand on energy resources. Whereas netzero energy communities are increasingly successful in meeting greenhouse gas and carbon targets, what is needed is an urbanism that understands community design as a net-positive value to ecological, social, economic and energy environments.

The goal of this project is to design a model community that achieves this goal by exploring the relationships between Landscape Urbanism and Urban Ecology.

Master Plan

Mobile: 0221604458 Email: ahlawat.vandita@gmail.com Permanent link to Research Bank record:

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Energy Sections

Circulation

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Sections

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COMMUNITY

VERTICAL Vertical Village In the Heart of Auckland CBD Catherine Nguyen

Auckland’s population continues to increase every year, shown as the fastest growth in New Zealand.

People from everywhere in the world come to Auckland to travel, work and study, making Auckland their new home. However, the current public transport will not be able to cater this growth as people nowadays prefer to live close to the central city that offers more opportunities for employment and education. Therefore, the City Rail Link is delivering a new train station to maintain the accessibility between Auckland CBD and other parts of the city. Aotea, described as the busiest station within 10 minutes walk to anywhere in the central city, will allow more than 13,000 people to access the CBD per hour.

Thus, the new station will not only lead more people to access to the core of the city, but it also stimulates many further developments around the railway station to provide more housing and employment within the area. As a city that must grow to adapt the rapid growth of population and infrastructure development, it is an opportunity for architects to rethink the design of

the future dwelling, office space and a wellfunctioning community. This is in response to the demand for living, working and studying in close proximity to the Auckland CBD, since the urban sprawl is no longer a solution due to the Auckland housing crisis and traffic congestion. This project proposes a vertical mixeduse development that incorporates with the new railway station, which will achieve a higher density architecture, and offers a sustainable lifestyle and community within the building and surrounding areas.

The programmes in this mixed-use development reflect the predominant patterns of the surrounding uses in four significant areas – Victoria Quarter, Learning Quarter, Engine Room Quarter and Aotea Quarter. Vertical mixeduse development in condition of public transport will create a unique transition at the junction of horizontal and vertical movement.

This research project will promote the viability of the public transport, enhance the surrounding infrastructure, and provide a unique experience to live and work in the heart of Auckland CBD.

Master Plan

Mobile: Email: catherine.thien.nguyen@gmail.com Permanent link to Research Bank record: http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/handle/10652/3897

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Section

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Floor Plan and Perspectives

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The entrance of bush area 12%

RECREATION

Chart of students' ideas from the

PLAYGROUND School Ground Greening: Developing a model for comprehensive design with multiple benefits

Bubble concept plan and Concept plan

Qian Wang

It is proposed that school ground greening has the potential to enhance children’s relationships with nature. This project takes an educational approach through involving landscape architects’ commitment to education and enhancing the health of local social and natural environments. Rationales for the resurgence in interest (over the last decade or so) in school gardens focus on perceptions adults have about modern childhood and schooling; for example, that children lack physical activity, are facing an obesity epidemic, and battling inflexible educational systems – raising concerns about children’s diminishing contact with nature and natural systems.

Research on school ground greening projects (which is an overarching term including school gardens) has established that there are many benefits, due to increasing children’s connections with nature on a number of levels, such as developing earth guardianship responsibilities, learning where food comes from, learning about science and ecology, encouraging physical exercise and imaginative play.

Bubble C

Student ideas for design workshops

1. Tree house or similar with DFWLYLWLHV VOLGH RU À\LQJ IR[

2. Bush walk activities 3. Pizza oven 4. Water feature

5. Watching sport 6. Sculpture /art 7. Biodiversity: Increase plants /insects /birds /edible 8. Quiet spaces (Learning area)

This project will investigate the claim that many school gardens have limitations in terms of their scope and children’s participation, especially in their planning and design. Instead they are frequently designed and constructed in an ad hoc manner by teachers and volunteers, missing the opportunity to both engage children in a process of learning about design (co-design) and to create ecologically richer school grounds that are ecologicallyfocused, creative, encouraging of indoor-outdoor connections, considerate of maintenance, and provide ecosystem services within communities.

Research was conducted with 28 students from a west Auckland School who worked with this author to develop a greening plan for part of their school grounds. This process and results are presented here and indicate that students gained environmental and design knowledge, especially due to their sense of ownership, which the project espoused.

Poyal Road Primary School Master Plan

Mobile: 02102650898 Email: design.xizhi@gmail.com Permanent link to Research Bank record:

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Data analysis from both workshops to inform design Indoor 9%

Master Plan Revised plan for bush area (with new planting)

Nature 25%

Water activities 5% Fundraising 6% Sitting and Eating place 9% Art & Sculpture 12% Outdoor Games/Sport 14%

Structures 20%

Six main theme categories from the SGG project showing the percentage of ideas relating to each category.

Revised plan for Rain garden, Performance and Eating space (with new planting)

Sitting /Eating space 9%

Pizza oven 25%

Outdoor games 6%

Tree house 9%

Water feature 20%

The entrance of bush area 12%

Adventure in the bush 14%

Chart of students' ideas from the model session.

Data analysis from both workshops to inform design

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Revised Plan

Student ideas for design workshops

Bubble Concept Design

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RECREATION

RESORT Resort Park with a collaborative approach Loukya Muthyala

Cultural landscapes are important because they provide opportunities to experience the natural environment and culture of indigenous people.

As a new immigrant to New Zealand, I observed a lack of cultural landscape tourism opportunities in Auckland. It is also true that many visitors arriving in Auckland do not have the resources to travel nationally to see the natural wonders of the New Zealand culture and the natural landscape.

To address these issues I investigated a locally based tourism experience in Auckland that reflects the core cultural attributes of New Zealand.

Tourist and resident populations are significantly increasing in Auckland. The city is expanding and the suburbs are becoming more urban in nature.

Puketutu Island, which is located near Mangere in close proximity to Auckland Airport, is well suited as a site to address the cultural landscape experience.

Fortuitously, there is a plan in place involving the collaboration of a number of Puketutu stakeholders

to create a regional park and a cultural precinct. The landscape architectural investigation outlined in this thesis utilises this arrangement in order to produce a hybrid landscape comprised of a resort, a regional park and a cultural precinct. The key intervention of this project is to expand the hospitality component of the existing event centre (Kelliher Estate) at Puketutu Island in order to develop a resort that helps to facilitate the new landscape. The key benefits of the resultant scheme are: the development of cultural tourism with the profit opportunities and education this entails; job opportunities for MÄ ori and PÄ kehÄ and the creation of a new typology- the Cultural Regional Park.

Puketutu Island Master Plan

Mobile: Email: loukyamuthyala@gmail.com Permanent link to Research Bank record:

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Site Analysis

Perspective 1

Cross Section

Perspective 2

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