Designing with
the community.

It connects old and new because it is made up of old and new streets, old and new parks, old and new civic spaces and communal buildings, and a piece of the schools’ edge owned by the Ministry of Education that are subject to a land transfer negotiation. The Design Guide and and Reference Plan were created as a ‘shared vision’ to be held by the mana whenua kaitiaki group. The Greenway Community Reference Group, the Kaipātiki Local Board, the Council family and the local schools. This was an important step, it identified the qualities of all the joined up elements and the network of spaces and functions across the greenway. This enables joined up design and delivery, even though it will be developed in stages by multiple delivery partners.

With the pressure to build more affordable homes to accommodate a growing population, comes the inevitable shrinking of backyards and private space. So, there is more pressure than ever before on our communal spaces to deliver the quality expected to support more people and their daily activities. Development contribution park provision standards in Auckland are now based on quality standards rather than quantity. Quality is measured primarily by size and function ie. spaces that are ‘fit for purpose’. But connected greenways in urban areas have the ability to knit multiple functions together – encouraging greater use, greater social interaction, and therefore greater potential for collective care and ownership. Ultimately a shared yard that is safe and familiar.

The brain map represents the idea of connectedness as a reaction – what happens when you make a connection and something ‘lights up’. A process that may be either subconscious or conscious, but neural pathway has been formed that can be replicated and reinforced. In pulling apart and putting the suburb back together ‘at density’ – we may sever some connections – but we may also form new ones. We are changing the pattern and programme of community in response to new stimulus.

In partnering with kaitiaki working group I was reminded that whanau, community and culture are nested in the whenua. A human-centred approach may in fact mean starting with the environment which sustains all life. These things can’t be separated. Sustaining life or sustainable development is our job. So it’s not really about the four interlocking spheres of sustainability with a tiny overlapping bit in the centre. It’s a much more holistic view of an integrated system. Natural systems are the ultimate innovators – capable of evolving and repairing to sustain life, even in an urban environment. This is the mauri – the health and life of a regenerating community.

The benefits of greenways for sustainable urban development are numerous and multi-layered because natural systems lend themselves to connectivity, as well as resilience. I mean this in terms of stormwater management – which is a big challenge for intensification, ….but also connectivity and resilience for human ecologies. With these multiple benefits of course come multiple challenges – they go hand in hand. It is not ‘Business as Usual’ to reconnect things. Especially when in multiple ownership.

The schools’ edge portion of the greenway is where the majority of stream daylighting will occur. In the 1940’s the meandering stream channel was still visible, by the 60’s it was channelised when the school fields were filled and constructed, and today it is piped underground. The stream can’t be fully daylighted because of the velocity, rapid rise and fall and scouring created by the ‘unnatural state’ of stormwater management in a post development scenario so close to the town centre. But a controlled flow daylighting option has been developed, that allows us to replicate the pre-development base flows of the Awataha Stream.

Part of the co-design process has involved education about daylighting. The community were not keen to have open water bodies initially because of safety and vandalism concerns, but now we have a shared vision that includes a stream. The controlled flow depth permits a highly interactive stream corridor for play and learning. Later this week, and for the remainder of this month we have a series of ‘Design-Lab’ sessions with local schools to explore and co-create an outdoor classroom design for the schools’ edge portion of the Greenway.

In the story of Awataha Greenway coming back to life and flowing to the sea, we find the emergence of a healthy environment – the visible return of wai and tangata – water and people – forming connections and converging within the greenway. These are everyday journeys that help define what quality means here and how it might be measured. In the words of Jane Jacobs – ‘in real life only diverse surroundings have the practical power of inducing a natural, continuing flow of life and use’.

To frame and build a shared vision with mana whenua kaitiaki and community we pulled apart the aho or strands of landscape and community to articulate what success looks like and how we know when we get there. As it turned out, success is broadly defined by health and wellbeing for this community. The strands are woven together to form the greenway. The aho are place-based, and they represent what is most highly valued by the community and mana whenua. To develop the aho we started from the big picture of the landscape and connections.

As a solid base for future design, we can now measure against the aho to test value and impact:

Aho taiao explores the natural environment and the stories of this landscape – ‘the whenua and the wai speak’. The Awataha stream corridor is visible, green, resilient and ecologically healthy.
Aho tangata is the second strand – a connected, healthy and inclusive community supported by a healthy habitat. The substrands from the bottom up relate to:
— Ara Hikoi – safe journeys
— E tipu rea – growing with nature – play & learning
— Hononga – coming together as a community
Aho toi is the cultural layer that comes from weaving the strands of the natural and social environments together in a way that is unique and beneficial to Northcote and its future.

The matrix can expand and contract in depth and detail. The strands are interwoven with Te Aranga māori design principles, but they are also grounded in this place with the people of Northcote. So it is important to note that we didn’t start with a ‘tickbox’ exercise to align the Te Aranga principles with a design outcome. Our project partners helped build a picture of success from the ground up, and thread through the Te Aranga principles for a quality kaupapa.

We are now working with mana whenua to establish mauri ora indicators for each of these aho or strands, so that we can define the detailed measures of health from māori world view. By applying the design process to community collaboration, or rather inviting community into the process – we have been able to reach consensus more easily, and define impact in terms of direct benefit to the community.

It is not a huge leap to use the design process as a tool for working with community. It is a problem solving process, and the wide funnel at the beginning is the key. Our toolkit for Northcote invites hands on, face to face and experimental collaboration. If people are having fun (including adults) then they are more likely to be open and invested in the outcomes. Growing ownership and influence is a critical part of the change that happens with regeneration.

The final tool from the toolkit that I wanted to share, is the ‘cupboard of treasures’. We asked all the Community Reference Group participants to bring an object along to the workshop that represented something to them about the identity and DNA of Northcote and their connections to place. When people arrived we wrapped the object and placed it in a box. One by one people came up to claim the object, explained its meaning and placed it in the cupboard. At the end we had a collection of items representing the DNA of Northcote, each with its own story.

The cupboard itself was extracted from a house in Northcote that was being demolished and brought to the workshop venue. So it was also part of Northcote DNA. Collectively the objects speak of the rich cultural diversity of Northcote, as well as the importance of looking after children and whanau.

To conclude, I would suggest that quality can also be measured by how the community comes together to lead a project into the future. Quality can be measured by connectedness – as both a process and an outcome. And that this quality is fundamental to suburban regeneration. A bottom up meets top down approach. It’s in between space where design skills are needed to align community voice, with development possibilities.