Emma Stewart, a fourth-year student at Auckland University's School of Architecture and Planning, has re-imagined Queens Wharf once sea level rise has wiped out the old concrete wharf. She has created a new urban landscape and marae atea space between the city and the harbour. A place to welcome, hold festivals, tell stories. Photo: Emma Stewart
Auckland City, oh what a pity
On returning to Auckland in 2000, architect Julie Stout was dismayed to see what an unloved, shabby place our central city had become.
Twenty years on, it would be nice to say a lot has improved – but has it?
Auckland City is again in trouble. With more road cones and construction trucks than people on the streets, it's hard to see the way forward.
Will a phoenix rise from the ashes? Do we have to reinvent our city (again)? And has Covid changed the way we should build the world around us?
It is not too late to realise Auckland's magnificent potential.
Using experiences gleaned from masters students' design projects at the School of Architecture and Planning, Julie will describe a future Auckland that connects to the wairua/spirit-of-place often lost in the urban environment and encompasses the many cultures that make up the unique fabric of Tāmaki Makaurau.
More listening:
Casting a critical eye over development in Auckland's city centre
Julie Stout – NZIA Gold Medallist 2021
Visions of Auckland's waterfront
Julie Stout
Photo: University of Auckland
Julie Stout is an Auckland architect, urbanist and activist and a Professional Teaching Fellow in the master's programme at the School of Architecture and Planning.
Earlier this year, she was awarded the Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal for lifetime achievement. She is the first woman to be so honoured.
With her late partner David Mitchell, Julie has designed some of New Zealand's more notable architecture, but it is the wider canvas of the city that takes up a lot of her time. For the last 20 years, she has led campaigns to make Auckland a better city, including legal action protecting the Waitematā from a possible Ports of Auckland expansion and pushing for better buildings and public spaces.
This session was broadcast in association with the University of Auckland’s Raising the Bar night, held in August 2022
Photo: University of Auckland
