New planning company VisionUrban, led by award-winning well-known planner Nick Aiken, has become a supporter of the Planning Institute of New Zealand I Te Kokiringa Taumata. Supporters forge links between employers and the Institute.
Nick has been based in Napier since 2005. He undertakes assignments right throughout the country in urban areas. A dual qualified and experienced Planner and Urban Designer his work has included some of the most challenging and interesting the country has to offer. This week, he talks to us about the fortuitous alliance between urban design and planning which informs his outlook.
Urban design and its importance to planning is something Nick says he “bangs on about”. The approach of the urban designer and the planner are complementary, and can produce startlingly great work, he says.
“Urban design is vital to the planning profession and process,” he says. “It looks at function, amenity and elements of wellbeing. At a macro level, it says ‘cities should look like this; here, for example there should be high density, there – low density.’ And the location and mix are based on transport and other infrastructure because these are vital to support built form and density.”
Urban design looks at what you can, and should, do in planning for future outcomes.
“It’s positive,” he says.
“I set up VisionUrban to connect urban or town planning, and urban design, and to be able to advise on better design for urban space. That might include how to design a future suburb, or a subdivision. It might include how to make a place better or improve a street, or to better integrate or connect residential development with or through open space.”
These are perspectives that are greatly needed right now in New Zealand, he argues, because shaping the country’s future, each city’s future, is truly on the agenda. And Planners have a key role to play.
“I’ve being doing, for instance, design reviews of high density four or five storey apartment blocks for a client,” he says. “We’ve been reviewing issues such as: how to better fit four or five storey developments into a low-density suburb? Can this be made to work? What is the quality of life going to be like for people in and around those developments? Even basic issues are important to address. Do they have adequate access to outdoor space or to transport, how can we protect privacy, will the materials be robust enough given higher levels of use? At an even simpler level, where can they store a bike, or hang their washing, and what if there are thirty or forty rubbish bins outside someone’s apartment on rubbish day? How is that going to work?”
VisionUrban takes a practical and positive view of these kinds of issues.
“Our philosophy is to build a planning consultancy that takes a pro-active approach to planning and the built environment, for a better urban future,” he says. “It’s about shaping places for outcomes, now and later.”
“In particular developments, we try to see how those can be better shaped to achieve an improved future. There’s a lot of value added when you combine planning and urban design together.” “At times it can be a challenge, often planning relies on quantifiable standards, whereas urban design is more qualitative. But it can be done”.
VisionUrban is also known for its CPTED work (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design). It’s quite possible to build environmental and locational ‘safety’ into design, and it’s done widely overseas.
“We know we can make places safer by designing them better,” says Nick. “This isn’t rocket science, so let’s do it; let’s make places safer and more welcoming.”
A key plank of Nick’s background was the ‘OE’ time he spent running a small consultancy contracting to Councils in the UK, back in the early 2000s. This involved major social housing estate re-development, large high density mixed-use projects on London’s South Bank, and multi-modal infrastructure such as Vauxhall Cross. This helped develop his understanding of how to create quality in an urban setting, and the importance of early engagement and early design involvement in the planning process.
“For instance, when you intensify development, you have to build in higher quality materials, particularly at ground level,” he says. “Pushing back on this type of thing under the RMA has been uncommon and a challenge for New Zealand Planners but it is something that’s widely done in the UK. The reason that more robust building materials are needed at ground level (such as cladding, hard and soft landscaping, and even things like doorways) is that they get more wear and tear than in a low-density environment. In the UK they have the regulatory tools to do this and this is very much something Planners get involved in; here, as yet, it has been hard for Planners to get involved in this space, but it’s important that we do.”
“What we do understand, and the UK does too, is that we must cluster density around transport nodes and services,” he adds. “But as yet, here, it has been more difficult to determinedly steer development into those clusters, planning for this and ensuring they happen. So we still get more pressure for intensive developments towards the urban periphery. While the challenges of these types of development can sometimes be addressed, our Planners need to be enabled to ensure good outcomes.”
He’s also an advocate for preserving the significance of ‘place’, the identity and character of where you are.
“Boring and bland and uniform is not what people want. They want a sense of identity where they are. We know that ‘place’ and identity are key to planning for and the development of better urban environments. It’s our job as Planners to help deliver that,” he says. “It can be challenge, but it’s an exciting one.”
