Introduction
The New Zealand Urban Design Protocol provides a platform to make New Zealand towns and cities more successful through quality urban design.
It is a voluntary commitment by central and local government, property developers and investors, design professionals, educational institutes and other groups to create quality urban design and to undertake specific urban design initiatives. These case studies support the Urban Design Protocol.
The projects documented in these 16 case studies demonstrate the urban design qualities outlined in the Urban Design Protocol. The diversity of project types is intentional, covering a range of activities, scales and locations across New Zealand to ensure wide appeal and to illustrate as many lessons as possible.
There are many other examples around the country of quality urban design and more case studies will be added over time, including projects that signatories to the Protocol develop as part of their action plans.
The projects demonstrate the practical application of urban design principles, the benefits that come from good practice, and they identify areas where further improvements could be made. Each case study includes basic summary facts and project statistics, a description of the design process, the urban design issues, an evaluation of the project's success and limitations, lessons learnt and the value gained, and selected comments by clients, users and community groups. The evaluation of each case study is based around the seven Cs in the Urban Design Protocol: context, character, choice, connections, creativity, custodianship, and collaboration.
The case studies were initiated as a joint project by the Ministry for the Environment, Auckland Regional Council and Waitakere City Council, as part of a cross-government commitment to improve the quality of urban design in our urban areas. The case studies have been written by authors who were in most cases involved in the project development process. Therefore, the views they express are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Ministry or other sponsoring organisations.
