By shaping Auckland, we shape ourselves

“First we shape the cities — then they shape us.”.

These words by renowned Danish architect and urban designer Jan Gehl are a simple but powerful reminder of our ability – and perhaps even duty – to shape any city, including our own home of Auckland, for the better.

Unfortunately, as we all experience and know each day, a lot of Tāmaki Makaurau is shaped in a way that forces people to default to cars for getting around, clogging up our roads with congestion and exhaust, and making travel more stressful; whether you’re driving, walking, biking or catching a bus.

So what’s the best way to shape our own city for maximum ease and enjoyment of everyone who lives or visits?

In 2023 Jan Gehl visited George Street in Sydney, shortly after its highly popular makeover, seeing his team's recommendations to pedestrianise and green the street come to fruition. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald he drew attention this real live example of successful city-shaping saying:

A good city is like a good party – people stay longer than really necessary because they are enjoying themselves,” Gehl said. “If you see a city with many children and many old people using the city’s public spaces it’s a sign that it’s a good quality place for people.

Sydney's George Street was recently turned into a pedestrian-friendly transit mall. Image via broadsheet.com.au

Looking at the places which are humming in Auckland, we can see this wisdom on full display. The City Centre waterfront is perhaps the best example, and people flock to Te Komititanga square every day, drawn there not only by the central train station, ferries, express buses, and bike paths, but also attracted by the new shops, seating and trees to sit under, and places to gather, pause, and enjoy the show.

We do this because it is somewhere we feel safe and comfortable to relax and have fun. Yet only a decade ago Te Komititanga was a road, filled with buses. Now, it is a place to go to, rather than go through. It's emblematic of a general buzz - more people shopping and visiting businesses, boosting the economy while securing jobs and creating opportunities to connect.

Te Komititanga

To take another example in the City Centre, Freyberg Place used to be a road filled with cars. Now, it is a public square, integrated with the Ellen Melville Centre to become a wide-open community hub for meeting and relaxing, with indoor and outdoor space for events and markets. This is all beautifully in line with the fantastic plans and strategies outlined in Auckland Council's City Centre Masterplan.

Vibrant, mixed-use Freyburg Square. Source: Scott Caldwell

The lesson is that by shaping our cities for people, rather than vehicles passing through, we create places that are better for everyone.

So where’s next? Top of the list for transformation – it’s already under way – is the Karanga-a-Hape Precinct Integration project, which aims to revolutionise the streets around the new CRL station entrances into people-friendly places before opening. Up until a few months ago, Auckland Transport had a great design, and it was essentially good to go, supported by a lot of extensive consultation to work out the kinks with the community.

Unfortunately, progress is not always linear, nor consistently forward. The essence of “Project K”, as it is known, had the rug pulled out from under itself.

As I’ve covered before, senior management in Auckland Transport had used some vocal opposition to scupper the publicly supported plans. The problem is the loudest voices we hear, that often boom through the quiet back rooms in our organisations, don’t usually represent the broader dreams and desires of communities. There was strong support for a public plaza on Mercury Lane, wider footpaths on Cross Street, enhanced local access and getting rid of rat-running traffic, as shown in multiple consultations and workshops, and in the outcry since AT's last-minute changes were suddenly revealed.

All of this was at risk.

The good news is the uproar against this switcheroo seems to have persuaded AT to move back towards their original plans, and many thanks to all of you who spoke up. Although we are yet to see where things finally land, I’m optimistic about where things are going. One thing's for sure is it will be in a far better place than if everyone just sighed and accepted the change.

The key thing is, saving Project K from last-minute undermining only happened because people spoke up for what we had been promised. There’s a really important lesson there - when we are vocal with our dreams (and hold public organisations to their promises) we have the power to shape our city for the better.

It’s important to note this power to shape our city isn’t limited to the hustle and bustle of the City Centre, nor around these transformational projects like CRL. Auckland is famously a city of connected villages, and each offers a burgeoning opportunity to transform our local streets from rat-running paradises rumbling with vehicles driving past, to quiet cul-de-sacs alive with the sound of birdsong, rustling leaves, kids playing, and the chatter of neighbours.

Cities all over the world are doing this, a win-win of reducing emissions and creating neighbourhoods focused on the needs of people. In fact, Auckland already has streets like this in suburbs like Freemans Bay and they are often some of the most coveted places to live.

There's nothing stopping us from doing the same everywhere, rerouting through-traffic onto main routes, freeing up local streets so neighbourhoods can thrive. Changes like these are extremely cheap, and quick to implement. Not only that, they also enable local journeys to be taken by a pleasant walk or bike ride, lessening the clog of congestion on our main roads from short car trips.

One of London's 85 LTNs (from 2022). Image from TfL, via Streetsblog.

This is a positive vision for our city - one focused on people. We’ll all thrive if we shape our city’s streets so everyone can choose how they travel, and so there’s room to gather and connect. Shaping our places well – around our train stations, on our local streets, in our town centres – will make every corner of Auckland feel like a welcoming, celebratory daily get-together that entices us to stay.

But to shape Tāmaki Makaurau to match its name – adored by many, the envy of Aotearoa, a home that makes us feel proud – we have to speak up for it.

For the neighbourhood around the Mercury Lane entrance to the Karanga-a-hape CRL station the plans are there and, thanks to the original renders of the design, we can already picture the festive vibes we'll be feeling when CRL starts running. Trust me, when AT sticks the landing, there'll be a whole lot of pride to go around!

Then we can crack on with extending the party to the rest of Auckland. Perhaps sooner than we might think.