Quite alot happens at the edges of our roads. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s something pretty wonderful about St Kevin’s Arcade on K’ Rd in Auckland.  I think the coffee even tastes better because of the intricacy of the architectural space.  Read the rest of this entry »

I really wanted to embed this video by Diana Wesser but it is disabled for embedding so you’ll just have to follow the link to youtube. Called Dancing Around Architect 1: inside the frame, it is part of a series with 2: office and 3: graffiti, but I think one is best.

Wesser is a media-performance-artist-choreographer working out of Leipzig. She has recently completed Movements of Lindenau / Ausschnitte a study of urban spaces through dance.

Following the councils decision to ignore everyones advice except from those that agreed with them they have lost no time in commencing the change process in Manners Mall. New pedestrian calming measures have been introduced into the centre of the mall which also perform more than adequately as holding pens for paving contractors looking to gather up pavers from beneath the pedestrians feet and redistribute them to a place more deserving.

These new street installations also serve to squeeze the pedestrian flow into a space into which it seems less than comfortable, no longer able to promenade we are forced to engage with the edge of the arcade and to confront just how drab and uninspiring it really is. This was not part of the protests and resistance but maybe just maybe it should have been. Now the choice has to be regarding navigation of this edge where you have the opportunity to dally with the red eyed pale faced smokers outside the electronic video wonderland, marvel at the interpretation of middle eastern decoration at the kebab house or visually embrace with the diners at the McD’s amongst other delights. I just cant wait for the diesel smoke disgorging monsters to be added into the mix. The paradise that the council envisioned will surely then be complete.

Tonight, coming at you Live and Direct from New York City, the greatest city in the World…  Yes, there are other great cities apart from Wellington, and it’s interesting to compare how the original Gotham city stacks up to our own mini-Manhatten. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a while since property developers and their supporters last came out publicly against contemporary urban planning practices, but yes, it is time to roll your eyes and mutter: “here we go again”. Rodney Dickens, posting on the popular interest.co.nz blog, takes aim at “government-imposed town planning regulations, often dubbed the ‘smart growth’ approach”. While there is nothing new here, including the supporting cast of Pavletich, McShane, et al, who are the key drivers of this line of reasoning, with a National-led government in power, we do actually have something more to fear.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no irony that at the moment when John Key is supposedly at a Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen: City of Cyclists, that the government is poised to increase road building - a 4-lane road from Levin to Wellington - via Transmission Gully or otherwise.  While Key is fluffing around on the other side of the planet (moving from supporting specified targets for reduction to a more general “political” statement), back home the government is trying hard to waste the planet we’ve got.  Aren’t we meant to be trying to reduce our impact on the environment? Read the rest of this entry »