Backyard

Oakley Creek (Te Auaunga) is one of Auckland’s longest urban streams

It's not often I haven't heard of a place in my own backyard, and the Oakley Creek Waterfall is certainly one of them being only 12 minutes drive from home. I went to investigate and was not disappointed.

It is the only natural waterfall in Central Auckland, and hidden away. It's small and peaceful, but being fairly secluded, it is recommended you go there with a walking buddy. Bring a picnic, it seems to be the way to do it.

There are multiple ways to go onto the walkway and it's all worth a bit of exploring - the signs aren't too helpful. And the typical Auckland question: where do you park?! Google Maps show the track and it depends on where you start from. There are plenty of side streets off Great North Road, some which feed directly into the walkway behind people's houses. You almost feel like you're in their backyard sometimes, for lack of a fence.

A map of it's features, visit the Friends of Oakley Creek website for the full version.

Oakley Creek is like the water spine of the isthmus, going from north Hillsborough near the Manukau Harbour, through Mt Roskill, Waterview (where all the motorway works are occurring) and out to the Waitemata Harbour. Locals may have experienced parts of it, such as the stream running past Mt Roskill Grammar, or the riparian areas in Unitec. Over the years a nice walking track and viewing platform has been constructed to allow better appreciation of this natural habitat, running roughly parallel to Great North Road from the motorway onramp.

Swimming is possible by reports of people jumping in, but I couldn't find any official advice to this. Common sense tells me the stream runs through the length of urban Auckland, so it would accumulate things along the way. Perhaps not swimming there a few days after the rain is advisable which is what we would do at the beaches fringing the city.

The Friends of Oakley Creek (est. 2004) have taken upon themselves to "protect, enhance and restore the ecological health" of the Oakley Creek Environs. They have a map of the walkway, as well as educational events that promote its environment needs. A nice half-day adventure if you're up for it!

Britomart

During my last year of architecture school, I used to always walk down to Britomart. It became a place of familiarity as I explored its 'new' form. In spite of the hipster/fashionista/high end vibe of the present, Britomart used to be a backend piece of the CBD. For some, it was the general vicinity of the Oriental Markets, an impression that floats in my childhood memories. For more recent visitors, back a few years Britomart was the site of a lot of carparking.

Today I won't talk so much about the range of eateries and shops around the Britomart Precinct as they have been reviewed and talked about ad infinitum. I focus on the unassuming, but bulk-consuming Westpac Building.

The building lies on the east side of Takutai Square, now a popular seating and events spot. An atrium cuts through the building from the main axis of Britomart, from the train station, through 'pop up' shops to the square.

Last year, I witnessed a transformation of this usually mediocre space into a full blown catwalk, descending from the stair case from the office blocks on either side. It was a range of shows put together for Britomart Fashion Sessions, recruiting most of the labels displayed in the precinct, such as Trelise Cooper, Juliette Hogan, Taylor and Ted Baker.

What I most enjoyed about this was that it was a publicity event that was a collaborative act: the sharing of the space and the prep areas (which no doubt belong to the large corporates that the building houses), the makeup by MAC, the group shows, the City Farmer's Market and bursting-to-full goodie bags. It is really a credit to the organisers for making the whole precinct buzz with their collective presence.

Streetwear show - Timberland, Onitsuka Tiger, Coucou, Neuw Storeroom, Federation

Taylor, Made and Ted Baker

Alignment

Loved this photo of Vulcan Lane. Reminded me that it's one of Auckland's pedestrian 'laneways'. Think Melbourne style. Will have to get it in the thesis somehow. Vulcan Lane was one of my favourite spots, now overtaken by other places in the city. The subtext which is "Yay! We actually have choices now!"

Thanks @antsgardiner for the inspiration.

Melbourne

A visual summary of my Melbourne trip.

Amazing street art all over the place but this is one of my favourite. Saw a few of the same artist around too - anyone know who did this? (in Stevenson Lane near Chinatown)

Federation Square

Just a mall but had so much architectural effect to the whole thing.

RMIT building by Lyons Architects

The grand hall inside the National Gallery of Victoria - stunning piece of stained glass with Victorian motifs.

Cranes were a common sight, guess Melbourne is developing around its architectural heritage.

National Library of Victoria with two exhibition spaces on the circular spaces wrapping around this central area.

RMIT Design Hub, explored the inside of it quite thoroughly.

One of the many laneways that epitomises Melbourne.

The 'Pixel Building'

An old laneway converted into the lobby of a hotel. Notice the attempt at acknowledging the heritage architecture on the right by an imperfect mirroring.

COCA - contemporary art, unfortunately closed when I went there!

An art installation in the main lobby of NGV, the bowls circulated the water pool and every time they bumped a clear ring of ceramic can be heard.

There are also more photos on my Google+ album.

Cycleway

A flurry of upgrades are planned for Dominion Road and it really does need it. The simple 4 lane median strip road stretches almost from coast to coast (or at least the CBD) through the centre of the Auckland isthmus. It lags behind in providing transport infrastructure for future needs.

Currently the green bus lanes are supposed to be for cyclists too although countless encounters between buses and bicycles easily prove it is a terrible way to integrate cycling. Furthermore, the bus lanes are only exclusively for buses (and cycles as an afterthought) during the rush hour and, at other times, allow parked cars to disrupt even this provision. It's not pleasant at all.

The strategy for providing a cycleway has taken the form of a 'parallel' cycleway - taking cycles away from the straight but busy Dominion Road and into the parallel back streets. It's a bit twisty and turny, but I've cycled all the way down a few times and its nice on a fine day. At the very least, cyclists aren't constantly breathing the fumes of buses and in danger of being hit by vehicles.

However, this strategy can also be seen as marginalising a healthy and sustainable method of transport. Perhaps if they create a really pleasant cycle infrastructure along the marked routes, people will be encouraged to give it a go instead of the car.

Feedback is now being sought! One of the public days has just passed today, but there will be another 3:30pm - 7:00pm at Dominion Road Primary School on Thursday (25th July). Go and talk to the planners and give suggestions as to how this all could develop into a great cycleway. Visit the Auckland Transport page for more information, or to submit feedback online.

Diversity

Providing for a range of people and their activities is a fundamental part of designing for diversity on an architectural scale. This also happens on an urban scale (around the city) - space is known to inspire diverse users as much as a diverse population for an area creates different spaces.

Using a layered drawing approach, I work between scales, exploring the concept of 'diversity space'. At 1:20 (drawings above), the detail of how one looks at produce in the market spaces, or drinks their coffee in front of their laptop becomes apparent. At 1:100 (pictured below), I can see how people will inhabit the spaces en masse and test whether or not there are a variety of spaces for people to choose to use. This is similar to a blank restaurant space putting out different sizes of tables (or using one small table as a module which can be pieced together).

Scale

An interesting article on Co.LABS highlights the significance of scale with platforms like Twitter. When you send one package of data off to another person, that seems like a pretty simple thing with the internet. But Twitter is a vastly upscaled version of that - 150 million active users (the most active ones probably fire off a tweet at every moment's whim). That's a lot of packages to send through.

When things fail, you end up with the 'fail whale' page and although the meme is cute, the situation of not being able to use the service definitely isn't.

Twitter is constantly upgrading its infrastructure to deal with this mass of tweets. You can imagine how many bits of data need to be sent if a big star with millions of followers drops a tweet, followed by a flurry of retweets, etc. There will always be a bottleneck and a bit of clever shifting allows the data base to cope.

In the same way, when cities become bigger (we talk of metropolises and megalopolis, with more to come, I'm sure), the infrastructure needs to change with it. How to transport, water and feed millions more people in a concentrated area is a big question with our current rate of growth. For instance, the plans for a future Auckland has sparked debate on many fronts - even a whole different scheme for our transport system created by transport enthusiasts on the Auckland Transport Blog. Careful thought has to go into infrastructure alongside any future growth.

We don't want our city becoming an urban fail whale.

Eco-mobility

What ifs: a future with eco-mobility.

Auckland, New Zealand, may be a small-scale city compared to others around the world but it has its share of mobility issues. It certainly isn't ‘eco-mobile’. Give us the slightest drizzle of rain and suddenly traffic jams up. Our public transport system? A prime target for casual hate sentiment. On a bad day it even has its own hashtag on Twitter.

Our lingering problem is that Auckland grew out generally unplanned. A few centres formed then the rest was haphazard 'fill the gaps' development. An extensive coast-to-coast tram network was removed in the modernist 1950s in favour of cars, cars and more cars. That unfortunate mentality remains today – it is our symbol of freedom, a part of the Kiwi dream.

But now in the 21^st century, we have the knowledge and, hopefully, the drive to create more sustainable transport options for the future of our cities. In an attempt to experience the local day-to-day of Melbourne, Australia, I chose to travel everyday by train in from the suburbs. The transport card reminded me of similar systems I used around London and China – the hallmark of an integrated transport network. Of course, there are the things to be expected: an occasional late train, thinking "why did I ever resort to public transport?" But all in all, the robust infrastructure allows you to go anywhere around Melbourne without a car.

There is always a rivalry between New Zealand and our neighbour Australia. Auckland, like many cities around the world, is going through some growth pains. Transport infrastructure, such as the City Rail Link, aimed at a future Auckland is being introduced, sparking great debate. Although we may beat many Australian cities on the ubiquitous liveability scales, this won’t continue if Auckland grows at its current rate without further thought and action.

"We know there is still a lot of work to be done. Our transport infrastructure puts us behind other cities on the international indices, and handicaps our people and our economy."
- Mayor Len Brown, Mayor of Auckland 

It’s just so hard for people operating in a car-centric city like Auckland to even imagine what it would be like to be in an eco-mobile city. We don’t know what it is like to live in a cycling city such as Amsterdam or drive around in an eco-mobile vehicle.  We don't know how it feels to be in a city without a desperate need for cars and smelly diesel buses! Connecting with other cities with different technologies and new ideas on eco-mobility gives us more insight to improve our city's transport.

The Eco-mobility World Festival 2013 happening later in the year calls upon the ‘global village’ to explore these ideas. The Korean city of Suwon takes on a very practical challenge to prove the merits of eco-mobility. Using technologies and approaches from across the world, the Haenggung-dong neighbourhood is going without cars for an entire month during the festival. Is this an incredible feat? Or will be it effortless? We shall see! This is where some people will get to experience eco-mobility in the flesh. For the rest of us who aren’t at the festival, this knowledge will be shared over oceans to start changing our thinking around daily transport; a different philosophy in getting from A to B. 

Personally, I can’t wait to see what comes out of it!

Sign

In a block of medium rise buildings in the CBD on Anzac Avenue, I found yet another little food court snugly inside a long narrow shop space and jammed full of various cuisines and different shops. The signage marks this out on the street - they attempt to draw you in.

In Melbourne, the Chinatown was where street signage was the most prominent. A cherry picker was there putting up a new sign. It's as if the heritage building that they were applying it to would change function with it. Such a programme is interchangable as different uses and people are injected into architecture. Same for the Imperial Building (which is talked about in this post about urban connectivity) - the ROXY sign on Fort Lane signals the bar on the rooftop (which apparently might be closed now?), the name Roxy coming from the theatre that used to be in that old building. Architecture is constantly repurposed - churches turn into bathhouses, theatres into rock climbing walls (which is what happened to the Capitol Theatre).

Signage plays a big part in pronouncing new function but also creating a connection with the street. And as we know from the Asian street, it adds to a vibrant bustling atmosphere.