Press Release
Judge urges Christchurch residents to create a sustainable city
Urban Village judge and British television presenter Kevin McCloud is urging Christchurch to seize the opportunity to
create a sustainable city that will be a true vision for the future.
The star of the television series Grand Designs says in an open letter to the city: “My hope is that you, the people who
live in and love Christchurch, are able to find the voice to explore and drive through the best possible ideas. And, in
so doing, perhaps it'll be possible to convey to the world a story and a setting for one of the most exciting urban
design projects of the 21st century.”
McCloud knows first hand the benefits of creating sustainable housing. He established a sustainable housing development
company called Hab (Happiness Architecture Beauty) and, in partnership with housing group GreenSquare, developed The
Triangle, a high-quality sustainable 42-home development under the name Haboakus.
The Triangle transformed a former caravan park, offering environmentally sustainable and affordable housing.
McCloud urges Christchurch residents to push for a sustainable city focused on One Planet Living (OPL) where principles
as diverse as health, happiness, culture, and community are all taken into consideration.
One Planet Living is an acceptable, proven and westernised set of guiding principles towards sustainability - even the
London Olympics adopted it into their sustainability strategy, McCloud says.
“I recently read Tāone Tupu Ora, a New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities publication edited by Keriata Stuart and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett. This
book brings together themes of indigenous knowledge, Māori urban design principles, micro-urbanism, the development of
Māori land, papakāinga and puts together a case for why and how mātauranga Māori (traditional knowledge) can be part of
better urban development.
“I was struck at the similarity in approach of the Māori urban design principles for papakāinga development and some of
the principles of One Planet Living.
“The table of Māori principles has the potential to amplify and enrich that process of consultation and I believe it
could form a matrix for Canterbury’s public consultation processes that might lead projects towards OPL objectives or
something even richer: a sustainability roadmap unique to Christchurch.”
McCloud hopes more than one group will have the final say in the re-design of central Christchurch and refers to the
wording in the plan: “Except in relation to urban design matters in the Core, the Christchurch City Council will continue as central
Christchurch's principal planning authority..”
“I appreciate that the Central Recovery Plan incorporates a huge amount of existing consultation but here in the UK we
are moving towards an inclusive design process that is not just about consultation but involves residents and key
non-professional and cultural stakeholders in every step of the design process. While this is a difficult concept, true
social sustainability happens through sharing.”
McCloud is also keen to see more use of trams in the Central Recovery Plan.
“Christchurch is a flat city in which bicycle use could be revolutionary. Car clubs, car sharing, bike clubs and
electric bike clubs might become the norm. The river might not simply become a bike and pedestrian route but also a busy
piece of waterway infrastructure bringing food into the city and removing its waste out to the surrounding productive
landscape,” he says.
The city of Freiburg in Germany, is a good example of what can be done, it has produced its own Charter for Sustainable
Urbanism which sets out twelve principles for ‘sustainable urbanism’, drawing together ideas of diversity, tolerance,
walkability, good public transport, high quality design and more.
Beacon Pathway Inc. (Beacon) chief executive Nick Collins fully agrees with McCloud that Christchurch has a unique
opportunity to position itself at the forefront of excellent urban development.
“Christchurch can show the world how to design and build for a vibrant city, with good quality medium density housing
mixed in with other uses, and with houses and neighbourhoods which are resource efficient, make the most of renewable
energy, reuse water, are healthy and comfortable for residents, and are adaptable into the future.
“This is a great time to think outside the square to a solution that meets Christchurch’s needs now and into the
future.”
Beacon worked with the Christchurch City Council, and stakeholder groups to develop the idea for the New Urban Village
project. The idea for a housing showcase was seeded by a study tour of new and sustainable developments in the UK,
including Kevin McCloud’s The Triangle development. Beacon is assisting MBIE (the Ministry of Business Innovation and
Employment) with Breathe, the design competition which forms the starting point for the New Urban Village. (www.newurbanvillage.co.nz )
Beacon Pathway is an Incorporated Society committed to transforming New Zealand homes and neighbourhoods through
research and demonstration projects that show how to make homes more resource efficient, healthier to live in,
adaptable, resilient and affordable.
ENDS
A full copy of Kevin McCloud’s open letter to Christchurch residents is attached.
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Open letter to Christchurch
Rebuilding Christchurch brings an opportunity most cities never get: to breathe new life into the Central City, to
recreate Christchurch as a world leading exemplar of sustainable, modern living. Since I was brought on board as a judge
in the upcoming Breathe design competition, I’ve been carefully following plans for the city’s redevelopment and the
resulting conversations it has sparked.
In this open letter to Christchurch, I’d like to offer my perspective on the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan. In
particular, I’d like to address Rod Oram’s concern (Press opinion 5 August 2012) that “Nothing in the plan distinguishes
Christchurch from the pack.”
So what’s missing? When you look around other world leading cities, there are a few things not fully explored in the
Central Recovery Plan, the most important of which is a serious dose of people power. The Plan is ambitious but, given
human nature and the natural course of events, the resulting rebuilt city will inevitably have several degrees of
compromise built into it. The path to achieving the very best possible is to involve the people who will populate the
place and make it their own and to help them evince an even more powerful ambition..
I recently read Tāone Tupu Ora, a New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities publication edited by Keriata Stuart and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett. This
book brings together themes of indigenous knowledge, Māori urban design principles, micro-urbanism, the development of
Māori land, papakāinga and puts together a case for why and how mātauranga Māori (traditional knowledge) can be part of
better urban development. I was struck at the similarity in approach of the Māori urban design principles for papakāinga
development and some of the principles of One Planet Living (as developed by World Wildlife Fund and BioRegional), for
example, Health and Happiness, Culture and Community, and Land Use and Wildlife. One Planet Living is an acceptable,
proven and westernised set of guiding principles towards sustainability - even the London Olympics adopted it into their
sustainability strategy.
However, One Planet Living does not set out a route to achieve its objectives. So colleagues of mine have worked with
the British government to establish guidelines for inclusive design consultation that have eventually made their way
into a very progressive and new National Planning Policy Framework. The table of Māori principles has the potential to
amplify and enrich that process of consultation and I believe it could form a matrix for Canterbury’s public
consultation processes that might lead projects towards One Planet Living objectives or something even richer: a
sustainability roadmap unique to Christchurch.
I'm particularly concerned to see the following phrase in the Central Recovery Plan:
“Except in relation to urban design matters in the Core, the Christchurch City Council will continue as central
Christchurch's principal planning authority..”
This suggests an over-arching hidden hand controlling design and development in the Core. So it also suggests
emasculation of any local say or community involvement at a time when community consultation and empowerment in the
implementation of the Plan could produce a truly rounded and properly sustainable outcome. I appreciate that the Central
Recovery Plan incorporates a huge amount of existing consultation but, here in the UK, we are moving towards an
inclusive design process that is not just about consultation but involves residents and key non-professional and
cultural stakeholders in every step of the design process. While this is a difficult concept, true social sustainability
happens through sharing.
Food gets a mention in the Central Recovery Plan, but there is little mention of how the city might accommodate food
growing within its confines, or how local food networks might operate or be plugged into the city's transport strategy.
In my company Hab's developments, we’re focussing on fruity streets, edible hedgerows, orchard car parks and even green,
food-producing perimeter fencing! Is there capacity in the Plan for this and for shared food growing in community
greenhouses, polytunnels and kitchen gardens? An urban farm – or at least larger food growing areas in public parks –
will be an essential part of any resilient city of the future and will help re-establish connection with place, natural
resources and locally distinctive and viable food products and crops.
It's good to see the suggestion of independent energy production and I believe the Christchurch Agency for Energy has an
important role to play in demonstrating how energy production could be different. However, in a sustainability plan,
you'd expect to see a proposal for the way energy production plugs into the surrounding landscape and resources, be they
biomass, wind, wave, solar or tidal. Energy crop production has a particularly complementary role to local and regional
food production, so the Plan should address how that dynamic could be balanced.
Transport is also touched on but not ambitiously explored. There is no mention of trams and little on reducing car use.
Christchurch is a flat city in which bicycle use could be revolutionary. Car clubs, car sharing, bike clubs and electric
bike clubs might become the norm. The river might not simply become a bike and pedestrian route but also a busy piece of
waterway infrastructure bringing food into the city and removing its waste out to the surrounding productive landscape.
How much of the city centre might be pedestrianised and how much of its public realm organised as 'shared space' between
all users? As an example of what can be done, the city of Freiburg in Germany has produced its own Charter for
Sustainable Urbanism which sets out twelve principles for ‘sustainable urbanism’, drawing together ideas of diversity,
tolerance, walkability, good public transport, high quality design and more.
One of the least attractive words that keeps popping up in the CRP is zoning. Clearly there needs to be organisation and
clustering of activities to some degree, and the idea of the city centre is essential. However, it is possible to
produce the same clustering results by organising the architecture and the public realm hierarchically, with different
building heights and massing for different areas. This, of course, results in some bleeding: residents move into
buildings designed primarily for offices and vice-versa; people build houses in between the low-rise offices; artisans
and shop owners live above their work-place. Of course all this is absolutely desirable - it's what makes Shoreditch in
London or central Paris or the CBD of Melbourne energetic and vibrant places. It's all down to the accidental, the
seeding of places with lots of mixed uses and the creation of the connective tissue of sustainability. The problem with
zoning is that it so often works as a straightjacket. And it’s another reason why local say and community involvement
are so important.
Finally, what of other One Planet Living objectives such as zero carbon and zero waste? Could Christchurch become a zero
carbon and zero waste city by 2050? Freiburg has set a target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 40% by 2030, and
being climate neutral by 2050. Malmo (Sweden) is aiming to be powered by 100% renewable energy by the year 2030 and
boast the first carbon neutral neighbourhood in Europe. BedZED (UK) is a large-scale carbon neutral or zero fossil
energy development, aiming to meet all its energy demands from renewable energy generated on site. Could Christchurch
become another such exemplar of 21st century sustainability? That would certainly attract the world's attention to
Christchurch and turn the Central Recovery Plan into a true vision for the future.
My hope is that you, the people who live in and love Christchurch, are able to find the voice to explore and drive
through the best possible ideas. And, in so doing, perhaps it'll be possible to convey to the world a story and a
setting for one of the most exciting urban design projects of the 21st century.
ENDS