Transport and Urban Design in Auckland Transport & Urban Design
George Weeks
At BGS I’d always enjoyed human geography (thank you Mr Huckle). Growing up in Bristol, one experienced an ever-changing urban landscape ranging from the sublime (Queen Square restoration) to the abysmal (almost anything at Cribbs Causeway). Following a social sciences degree at Durham, I obtained an MSc in planning and real estate in at Glasgow and an MA in sustainable urbanism via The Prince’s Foundation for the Built
Cities are where most people in the world live. Urban design is the
Auckland cityscape
process of making the human habitat a pleasant place to be. In 2019, Auckland came joint third in the Mercer Quality of Living survey. One third of New Zealand’s five million people like Auckland enough to call it home. For a few years now, this figure has included me. I’d previously spent five enjoyable years as an urban designer at Transport for London (TfL), working on highprofile projects like High Speed 2 and Battersea Power Station regeneration, with a (voluntary) side-hustle in cycling-and-urbanism study tours.
Academy of Urbanism study tour to Malmö
Bristolienses - Issue 60
MA in Sustainable Urbanism
Environment. This led me to my urban design job at TfL. By 2016 I was looking to take my experience overseas. In early 2017, I packed up my possessions, gave away my houseplants (biosecurity laws in New Zealand are very strict) and took a taxi to Heathrow Airport. £600 of excess baggage charges later, I was on my way to Auckland. My new job was in the City Centre Design Unit at Auckland Council, where I would conduct a full refresh of its City Centre Masterplan. First published in 2012, this was a detailed, attractive vision for city,
bursting with drawings, ideas and energy. This had been instrumental in shaping major investments in transport infrastructure and real estate. My job was to bring the 2012 Masterplan up to date and get it approved and published, while retaining the excitement of the original vision. To cut a long story short, we finished this in 2020 and if you want to have a browse, visit www.aucklandccmp.co.nz More generally, I had to become familiar with Auckland’ geography. The city sits on a narrow isthmus formed by over 50 volcanoes. With east and west-facing harbours. It is ideal for shipping and trade. Auckland was briefly (1840 – 1865) the capital of New Zealand and its early street plan (partly built) was based on Bath, with crescents, circuses and avenues. Electric trams appeared in 1902 (seven years after Bristol), with a spiderweb of tramlines connecting walkable suburbs with a bustling city centre. Inspired by futuristic visions underway in 1950’s Los Angeles, Auckland’s tram system was completely dismantled by 1956 to be replaced by a brutal urban ring motorway. This displaced 15,000
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