UrbanismNZ, themed under the title of ‘Shaping Our Urban Legacy’, will cram in the voices of 80 speakers and panelists across its two days, with a strong emphasis on close-to-home urban design issues in Auckland.

The aftermath of flooding in Auckland will be discussed and dissected on the opening day by a panel chaired by Simon Wilson.

The questions he’ll be asking range from how Tāmaki Makaurau can do more to meet the challenges of the climate crisis, through to querying the value that urban designers can bring to that process in the future. The panel includes: Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick; Cam Perkins, Urban Pirates; North Shore Ward Councillor Richard Hills; Auckland Council’s chief of strategy Megan Tyler; and Graham Tipene, lead designer at Te Wheke Moko Design Studio.

Other Auckland-focused sessions that will feature at the conference include:

Sibyl Bloomfield AUT lecturer will be presenting a paper on Onehunga as a ‘vulnerability hot spot’ due to its exposure to climate-related threats and the lack of adaptive capacity.

Hobsonville point’s success as a rather lonely showcase for density and housing forms will be spoken to by Mark Fraser of Kāinga Ora.

Tim O’Loan of Aurecon will be exploring the urban regeneration opportunities that can be unlocked with public transport, focusing on Auckland Light Rail and bringing insights from light rail systems from across the world.

Daniel Haines, the Head of Māori Outcomes at Eke Panuku Development Auckland, will talk about the partnerships built by Eke Panuku with the 19 iwi and hapū within Tāmaki Makaurau.

Tama Lone, of New Pacific Architecture, will focus on community feedback to redevelopment work by Kāinga Ora in Māngere, where more than 60% of households are Pasifika. New Pacific Architecture and Jasmax have been working with the Māngere community to test what culturally-appropriate housing might look like in denser urban communities. 

Auckland transport planner Jacque Maitland will deliver a paper intriguingly titled ‘Transforming the Takapuna Golf Course into a Transit-Oriented Community’. Maitland describes the golf course as 53 hectares of vastly under-utilised land.

By the end of the conference its advisory committee — consisting of representatives from Waka Kotahi, The Urban Advisory, Kāinga Ora, Jasmax, Wellington City Council, Boffa Miskell, Templeton Group and 4Sight Consulting — will be mulling over responses made during UrbanismNZ 2023 to the six key thematic questions that they’ve set as an ‘agenda’ for the event.

UrbanismNZ aims to answer the following:

1. How do we conceive of, design and realise successful built environments in Aotearoa that embody mātauranga Māori and enhance Te Taiao, the natural world? 
2. How do we live the value of kaitiakitanga of the natural world in our role of shaping resilient, successful urban places?
3. How do we co-deliver change with our communities together with the necessary infrastructure and services to help communities thrive in a more equitable Aotearoa?
4. What is urbanism in a transformational world dominated by post-Covid pandemic conditions, technological innovations re-modelling business, and an environment under extreme pressure?
5. What is viable development in the dynamic of our new urban challenges, and how is this impacting the commercial imperatives driving investment?
6. How do we develop integrated systems thinking and industry-wide collaboration to deliver resilient and liveable built environments in Aotearoa?

For more information and to register your attendance head to www.urbanism.co.nz