St Paul Street is being renewed by the people who use it most – students of AUT.
It’s the first of two semi-permanent street upgrades enabled by Auckland Council which give postgraduate and third year design students the chance to influence the renewal of a street in their own neighbourhood.
The redesign of St Paul Street in the city centre’s Learning Quarter, by AUT spatial design students from the Master of Design programme, opens in late September 2024.
Also, a group of third year planning students from the University of Auckland are working on concepts for the renewal of Alfred Street.
St Paul Street
Last year Auckland Council’s Tāmaki Makaurau Design Ope (TMDO) joined creative forces with the Material Imaginaries Research Collective at AUT. The task was for students to collaboratively develop a concept design for a new St Paul Street installation, replacing the existing equipment.
An initial trial helped show how students and staff used the street and what activities needed to be provided for. In September council contractors will implement their innovative, semi-permanent solution, keeping the scope and budget to a ‘no dig’, low disruption execution.
Waitematā Local Board Chair Genevieve Sage is pleased to see Auckland’s next generation of urban designers helping shape their university environments.
“It means we’re creating uni neighbourhoods that better-reflect the everyday needs of students and staff, and we’re also giving future spatial designers and planners real world experience as they begin their careers,” she says.
The students’ concept design for St Paul Street was anchored by two main elements: a ‘wandering line’ and a series of bench seats. The wandering line was designed to echo the line of the Rangipuke ridge meeting the upper stream of Te Waihorotiu, re-enacting the slow pooling motion of waterways that were once present in the area. Concrete benches rise and fall in wave-like forms.
"Working on a live, quick-response project in collaboration with Auckland Council was a great way to ground our research students' practice-based inquiries," says Dr Carl Douglas, Head of Department at AUT University.
“Taking part in the St Paul Street project has been an invaluable experience for me. The project provided opportunities to collaborate with various real-life professionals, and as one of the main users of St Paul Street, I enjoyed contributing to the street’s vision to become a more pedestrian-friendly place,” says participating AUT student Emma Choi.
Alfred Street
One of 12 working concepts for Alfred Street.
In a second design school partnership, Auckland Council’s design team (TMDO) collaborated with the Architecture & Planning School at the University of Auckland to build a concept for the next phase of the Alfred Street project, replacing the temporary plastic planters.
Their brief was to create a medium-term, people-focused, healthy and biodiverse streetscape while delivering a lighter, quicker, cheaper execution.
In April, twelve student groups presented their concept designs to a panel of teaching staff and Auckland Council guest critics. The TMDO will review the student presentations and consolidate them into one streetscape design to be taken forward through detailed design and implementation.
“Our students have described this project as enlightening and enjoyable. It is fantastic for the students to get to work on a real-world solution and work with not only creativity but also constraints. I hope that we can continue this collaboration further," says Zoe Avery, University of Auckland Associate Director of Design.
